Between Two Worlds

The Modern Reformation website has been reformed!

(HT: Scott Clark)

Nine days ago Frank Beckwith entered full communion in the Roman Catholic Church. On Saturday he resigned as president of the Evangelical Theological Society. Tonight he writes at the Right Reason blog: "It is with deep regret that about an hour ago I tendered my resignation as a member of ETS."

Andreas Kostenberger reviews Kevin Vanhoozer's Drama of Doctrine.

Update: Vanhoozer responds.

Greg Koukl and Melinda Penner briefly report on their conversation today with Frank Beckwith.

Carl Trueman posts a basic reading list for those who are interested in the study of the Church Fathers.

A few years ago I read (and agreed with) this paper by Ray Van Neste regarding the need for ETS to have a more robust doctrinal statement. Carl Trueman recently mentioned this piece and provided a link. My favorite quote from it:

In the wardrobe of doctrinal statements the ETS statement is a bikini. The claim is that it covers only the essentials but I must say I think some important parts remain uncovered. We do not simply need a new swatch of material to cover this or that issue. There are simply too many areas where we are indecently exposed. If we add only one patch we will be annually adding more patches as different embarrassing gaps are revealed. No, the time has come to exchange our bikini for a full garment.

Read the whole thing for Dr. Van Neste's proposal.

Last year Tim Keller delivered a series of lectures on preaching at Gordon-Conwell on the topic of Preaching to the Heart. Here are the sessions:

1. Preaching to the Heart without being Legalistic
2. Preaching to the Heart without being Piestic
3. Unintentional Preaching Models
4. Reading, Preparation, Conversation, and Preaching
5. Preaching to “Emerging” Culture
6. Preaching to the Heart without being Individualistic

These can be ordered from the Ockenga Institute. It also includes a CD with the PDF files as well. [At the time of this posting, the GCTS.edu site seems to be down. So check back later.]

(HT: Theocentric Preaching, via Unashamed Workman)

The Washington Post reports:

A powerful Nigerian Anglican archbishop defied top church leaders yesterday by coming to Northern Virginia and installing as one of his bishops a local minister who recently broke with the U.S. church after accusing it of being too liberal.The festive ceremony thrilled those who believe the U.S. church has become too permissive but highlighted divisions that threaten to crack the Anglican Communion.

Read the whole thing.

(HT: James Grant)

Update: Al Mohler weighs in.

In light of Beckwith's Roman return and resignation, I hope evangelicals will take to heart this point by Scott Clark:

Please, let us speak of Roman Catholics. The confessional Reformed Churches do not cede the term "catholic" to Rome. We have always insisted that the great sin of the Council of Trent was that it wasn't truly catholic (universal) at all. Indeed, many of the decisions taken a Trent were sectarian. Chief among those sectarian decisions was their condemnation of the gospel of justification sola gratia, sola fide.

Carl Trueman responds to the news about Francis Beckwith.

Preston Jones reviews Christopher Hitchens's God Is Not Great in Books & Culture.
Excerpt:

It's true that readers would expect a review of a book titled God Is Not Great, published in a place like this, to be unfriendly. But if Hitchens had anything new and persuasive to tell us, I would say so. Alas, as the preceding paragraph suggests, we are dealing with a very intelligent and well-read author who, when it comes to "religion," is simply incapable of reason. Hitchens admires Socrates' claim to be certain only of his own ignorance. The reader wishes that Hitchens would exchange admiration for emulation. The effect of his not doing so is the feeling that one is rather in the presence of an exceedingly angry sophist, and that is sad.

Doug Wilson's ongoing chapter-by-chapter response can be read here.
CT's Ted Olsen also hints that Wilson and Hitchens will have an online exchange, but the post is rather cryptic. I'll post more information if it becomes available.

Francis Beckwith, President of the Evangelical Theological Society, explains why he has returned to the Roman Catholic Church and why he has resigned as president of ETS.

(HT: Joshua Sowin)

Doug Bandow examines Chuck Colson's reasoning that Circuit City's rationale behind laying off 3,400 employees is immoral, "rotten," and a textbook case of "rapacious unrestrained economic power."

Allen Thornburgh, Prison Fellowship’s vice president of direct marketing, also offered his "respectful and rare disagreement" with Colson's commentary on the BreakPoint blog.

(HT: CT Blog)

Update: Thornburgh has a strange follow-up post insisting, contra CT's Ted Olsen, that he "did nothing close to criticizing Chuck, nor even his opinion." Hmmmm.

Nathan Wilson (Son of Doug) has two new children's books coming out from Random House. From the review of the first (entitled Leepike Ridge), it sounds as if Wilson is an exceptional, engaging writer.

"While Leepike Ridge is primarily an adventure story involving murder, treachery, and betrayal, Wilson's rich imagination and his quirky characters are a true delight . . . There are enough twists and turns in the plot to keep both seasoned and reluctant readers turning the pages. Think Mark Twain with a contemporary and utterly captivating twist."

School Library Journal Review

"Wilson's debut is a literate, sometimes humorous page-turner in the classic tradition. Well-read adventure lovers are in for a treat looking for echoes of The Odyssey and Tom Sawyer . . . a strong choice for every type of library."

Kirkus Review

"N.D. Wilson . . . is a name that will soon be widely known. He will write many books, Lord willing, in many genres for our instruction and delight. His first is Leepike Ridge . . . like all books that satisfy a discerning 8-year-old or 10-year-old, this novel will also hold the attention of a reader in his 30s or 70s . . . Not a tall tale exactly, and certainly not an epic (though there are playful allusions to the Odyssey), but something closer to a yarn, crossbred with the boys' adventure stories that once sold like hotcakes and recounted by a narrator who is slyly funny as well as omniscient"

Christianity Today

"Fleeing the possibility of a new stepfather, 11-year-old Tom Hammond washes downriver into a series of caves that contain a few dead bodies; Reg, a man who has been´ trapped inside for three years; mysterious carvings; and no apparent way out. Outside, on their mountaintop, his grieving mother, threatened by treasure hunters, continues to search for him. Tom's adventures have several literary ancestors, including´ Tom and Huck in the cave, and the inventive Swiss family Robinson, but this is solidly set in the present, standing on its own with well-crafted suspense and fascinating survival detail. Underlying the story is the possibility that explorers from ancient civilizations arrived in North America long before Columbus, a theory certain to interest middle-grade readers. They will also relish the physicality of the journey: underwater swims, tight passages, and rock climbing as Tom, Reg, and a found dog search for an exit. A crotchety neighbor and a group of local thugs add to the tension of this appealing and easy-to-booktalk package."

Booklist

For more information, see Doug Wilson's post.

I'm very excited about this forthcoming major work by Thabiti M. Anyabwile: The Decline of African American Theology: From Biblical Faith to Cultural Accommodation. The Foreword is by Mark Noll. It's due out at the end of the year by IVP. Here's the publisher's description:

Who were Jupiter Hammon, Lemuel Haynes and Daniel Alexander Payne? And what do they have in common with Martin Luther King Jr., Howard Thurman and James Cone? All of these were African American Christian theologians, yet their theologies are, in many ways, worlds apart.In this book, Thabiti Anyabwile offers a challenging and provocative assessment of the history of African American Christian theology, from its earliest beginnings to the present. He argues trenchantly that the modern fruit of African American theology has fallen far from the tree of its early predecessors. In doing so, Anyabwile closely examines the theological commitments of prominent African American theologians throughout American history. Chapter by chapter, he traces what he sees as the theological decline of African American theology from one generation to the next, concluding with an unflinching examination of several contemporary figures. Replete with primary texts and illustrations, this book is a gold mine for any reader interested in the history of African American Christianity.

(HT: Eric Redmond)

I'm delighted to see that Pastor Eric Redmond (Hillcrest Baptist Church, Temple Hills, MD) has started a blog. Check it out here.

(HT: Jim Hamilton)

In a post called Education and Division Tim Challies responds to some familiar arguments in defense of the only-homeschooling position.

The following lectures were delivered in September 2006 by Carl Trueman at the Theology for All Conference in the UK:

Theology and Everyday Life: The Reformation and Beyond
Contemporary Challenges to Theology and Church Life
What should a theological church look like?
Q&A

Carl is always worth listening to!

(HT: Dave Bish)

As noted below in a comment, here is further description about these lectures:

With incisive wit and bold application, the Editor of Themelios addresses the greatest challenges and issues facing the church today. Looking at the Reformation, contemporary challenges for theology and the life of the church, and the question of what a theological church should look like in practice, Professor Trueman closes the unnatural gap between theology and everyday life. These talks were originally given at the excellent Theology For All Annual Day Conference in September 2006. (Mark Dever will speak at their 2007 Conference).

Click on the links below to listen to the talks now, or right-click and "Save Target As" to save on your computer for listening later...

Each file is about 20MB and lasts about 60 minutes (Q & A is shorter).

Writing in The New Republic (free registration required), Greg Easterbrook writes about all the euphemisms used to describe the Virginia Tech murderer.

The fact that murder had happened at Virginia Tech was clear within hours, if not minutes, of initial reports. Yet plenty of media figures could not bring themselves to say that the killer was a killer, that the murderer was a murderer. Instead, they used "shooter," a weirdly neutral term that practically sounds like a skilled trade. To call someone a "shooter" is to say he was holding a firearm that discharged, but to imply nothing about any moral choice involved or the fact that it's bad to aim a pistol at a helpless person and pull the trigger. Same goes for the word "gunman," also used frequently by journalists and pundits.

Concluding lines:

Evil exists and must be spoken of as evil, not in euphemism. On a windy Monday morning in Virginia, evil armed itself and performed the most despicable of acts: pleasure in the taking of innocent life. Evil will arm itself again. As George Orwell showed, unless we call a thing what it is, we can neither think about it clearly nor oppose it.

(HT: Mere Comments)

UPI:

[Ray] Comfort, who says he can prove God exists scientifically, said ABC originally offered him four minutes to present his case. After conferring with Cameron and the atheists, the time was raised to 13 minutes.

"I'm ecstatic. I can prove the existence of God in that amount of time," Comfort said.

James Grant has a very helpful post (and chart!) on the fourfold estate of man. Don't let the description put you off. This is very practical and helpful for understanding redemptive history and our role (and future) in it!

AP: "The White House issued a veto threat Thursday against legislation that would expand federal hate crime law to include attacks motivated by the victims' gender or sexual orientation."

Joe Carter seeks to show a hotlinker a lesson.

(Yes, I've been guilty of hotlinking many times--sorry!)

A new story on MSNBC.

(HT: Jason Kovacs)

Denny Burk's blog is the place to go for updates and accurate information on the story of the Bible publisher and believers in Turkey who were killed for their faith. Earlier versions that I linked to contained exaggeration and inaccuracy.