22 August 2010

Web List

A few final items to include in the list are web-based audio resources that have been a big part of my thought life recently:

  • Francis Schaeffer lectures from Jerram Barrs, these are from Covenant Theological Seminary professor Jerram Barrs, who worked with Schaeffers in Switzerland and later helped start and run the English branch of L'Abri. His stories are littered throughout these 45-60 minute lectures, which range from biographic details of the Schaeffers' lives and how God used them and brought them to start L'Abri, to in-depth discussions of their books and the criticisms which have been laid on Francis' philosophy and theology. Dr. Barrs' insights in the later lectures, dealing with the divide between the "upper and lower stories" in the modern mind and the crossing of the "line of despair" by philosophy, have plain application in discussing current topics in Evangelicalism and Western culture at large.
  • 50 Factors Within Nations that Determine Their Wealth or Poverty by Wayne Grudem. I listened to a shorter version of these lectures which I think was available through Gordon-Conwell Seminary's iTunesU page, and found it a very interesting study. Grudem showed how the biblical principles which were part of the worldview in the development of this nation are responsible for its subsequent prosperity.
  • Doctrine: What Christian Should Believe by Mark Driscoll. This series of sermons at Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA formed the basis for the book discussed above. Pastor Driscoll lays out a great deal of information in each of the 13 hour-long videos, and provides a 15-20 minute summary version of each as well. We have used these summaries for our Bible study on Sunday nights for the past several weeks. Tonight we are watching and discussing "Fall: God Judges", and Amelia wants to play ultimate frisbee afterward.
  • White Horse Inn Podcast. This podcast, hosted by Michael Horton, Rod Rosenblatt, Kim Riddlebarger, and Ken Jones, who all teach in seminaries and/or preach in churches in Southern California, is dedicated to helping people know what they believe and why they believe it. The free podcast is supplemented by the (not free) magazine Modern Reformation, which is published six times each year. This year, both the podcast and the magazine are dedicated to issues concerning Scripture, including textual criticism, inerrancy, the formation of the canon, and hermeneutics. If you sign the guest book at their website, they will send you a free copy of the current Modern Reformation and a CD of WHI classic material.
And that's most of it. 

Reading List

So, on we go. I only had 7 in the previous post, not 8. Oh well.


  1.  Introducing Covenant Theology
  2. Advent of Evangelicalism
  3. A History of the American People
  4. Kinda Christianity
  5. Just Do Something
  6. Monstrous Regiment
  7. Galahad at Blandings
  8. Basics of Biblical Greek, by Bill Mounce. I am basically just listing this because I have technically gone through the first 4 lessons, so I'm technically in the middle of it. Realistically, though, I need to get on this piece if I'm going to be ready for school in January. There it is though.
  9. Rick Steves' Europe Through the Back Door 2004. Why the 2004 edition? Because that was the one that was available on Paperback Swap the day I checked. Rick Steves has to be around our home because he reminds us of how lovely it would be to be able to go see Europe in its glory someday. I'm very glad that Amelia and I are agreed on this point.
  10. Rick Steves' Ireland Guidebook 2006. Amelia got this guidebook when she went to Ireland in 2006, and likes to reminisce about the sights. I glanced through most of what is written here, and I agree with her that Ireland would be a wonderful place to be most of the time. If only they were clamoring for forklift drivers...
  11. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara. This is the historical novel on which the movie Gettysburg is based. It shows the events immediately before and throughout the battle from the points of view of the soldiers and commanders involved. The primary protagonists are Generals Longstreet and Lee of the Army of Northern Virginia, and General Buford and Colonel Chamberlain (of Little Round Top fame) of the Army of the Potomac. Shaara spends a good deal of time detailing how he thinks Lee came to decide to fight at Gettysburg, and seems to play up Longstreet's understanding of the situation until he becomes something of a prophet. I read this a long time ago, but I misplaced it after a couple of days of rereading it and it just turned up again.
  12. The Good War by Studs Terkel. Brotha Steve Koch (my brother-in-law) placed this book in my hands while I was in California and gave it high praise. I don't think I ever got started reading it out there, but I have recently got a copy and am setting out upon it. The generation of men and women who fought and worked and won World War Two are given the microphone in this book, and so far I've enjoyed reading the many different perspectives from which they came to their posts in the Pacific Islands, on the European mainland, or in the States.
  13. Five Red Herrings by Dorothy Sayers. I got about halfway through this book after reading the first several of Sayers' Lord Peter books, and I got muddled up and have yet to return. However, it'll get done eventually. Lord Peter is an ever-amusing fellow, and Amelia insists that I get to know him.
  14. Baptism: Three Views edited by David Wright. The "three views" mentioned in the title are: 1) Credobaptism, presented by Bruce Ware, 2) Paedobaptism, presented by Sinclair Ferguson, and 3) Dual-Practice Baptism, presented by Anthony Lane. In the end, Ferguson won the argument, in my view, but I am still not a paedobaptist. Although Ferguson's defense was winsome and I thought Ware's points were somewhat weak, I still did not see enough  in the paedobaptist view to change my doctrine. Thus, Harriet remains unsprinkled. I will keep trying to figure out whether that is the biblical practice, however, as this book has made me think quite a bit.
  15. The New Testament: Its Background, Growth, and Content by Bruce Metzger. Dr. Metzger's study of the New Testament has helped me to understand the means by which critical scholars seek to understand the writing of the New Testament autographs, particularly in the Gospels. I am constantly challenged as I read this to try and think through just what inerrancy and inspiration mean, and to determine how the Gospels ought to be harmonized.
  16. Doctrine: What Christians Should Believe by Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears. This book has been helpful in refreshing my mind with the constant reminder of what our faith is all about. Driscoll and Breshears give several interesting bits of information, drawn from recent archaeological and biblical studies, which help set this theology apart from the older systematic theology we used in Bible school. Their emphasis is on teaching, if not "Mere" Christianity, at least a fairly firm orthodoxy which can be agreed upon by all Evangelicals. Their Christological focus and conviction shine throughout, and their topics are ordered along the lines of progressive revelation, from God in eternity, to Creation, the Fall, the Incarnation, the Cross, the Resurrection, the establishment of the Church, and finally ending in the coming Kingdom. All told there are 13 chapters in this study, and it fills about 450 pages.
So much for books.

what I've been reading...

I have decided today to use this web log to log something on the web. Since most anyone who ever reads this would tend to be a fairly close friend or family member, I figure you wouldn't care to know somewhat of what I'm up to. So here's what I've been reading and listening to for the past several months.


  1. I just a few moments ago finished Introducing Covenant Theology by Michael Horton. I bought this book a few weeks before Amelia and I got married, and it's taken me several goes to get through it. The biggest difficulty I had was with his first 4 chapters, in which Horton lays the exegetical foundation for his theological insights in the remaining five chapters. I found that, fairly often, I could not follow the flow of his argument. Whether this was lack of ability on my part or of clarity on Dr. Horton's, I leave to history to decide. In the meantime, his fifth chapter, on Covenant Theology as a system, and the sixth, on the doctrine of Providence and common grace, in which he details the "two kingdoms" view of Christianity and culture, were very helpful. These chapters and his denial of supercessionism in later sections made wading through the heavier material at the beginning worthwhile- even if I felt at times that Horton could have used a chart or some subheadings in those exegetical discussions.
  2. At the same time that I bought the above monograph, I also ordered The Advent of Evangelicalism edited by Michael Haykin and Kenneth Stewart. I am not done with this anthology yet, but it has been very exciting to pick up and read for little bits at a time. It is a series of essays challenging the "Bebbington Thesis," which places a great emphasis on the ties between Evangelicalism at its inception with the Enlightenment. A lot of the claims by the Pomo crowds are given a veneer of scholarship by clinging to this kind of a linkage, so it is good that a great many scholars could be rounded up to challenge Bebbington's claims. The final entry is a brief response by David Bebbington himself, and maybe someday I will actually get there. I am dog-eared in at the beginning of chapter 12, Jonathan Edwards: Continuator or Pioneer?, by Douglas Sweeney and Brandon Withrow. That means there are only seven chapters to go!
  3. Another book which I have nibbled on since leaving home for Calvary Bible College in January 2009 is Paul Johnson's History of the American People. I stole this from my Dad's shelf while I was home for Christmas, and I have slowly managed to reach the 20th Century, so I must be about two-thirds of the way through. It's been about 10 months since I last read any further in it.
  4. I read two books during a trip to St. Louis a few months back. One of them Amelia read aloud in the car. It was Kinda Christianity by Ted Kluck and Zach Bartels. It was kinda funny, but really short.
  5. The other was Just Do Something by Kevin DeYoung. It was a very quick, balanced take on decision-making, marked by a challenge (especially to young men) to "just do something." DeYoung showed how a great many young people use a mystical quest for God's hidden will as an excuse to sit around and ignore the opportunities God has given them. He says that such folks need to use God's Word and their sanctified reason to find someone to marry, or to choose a career, or to make any big decision. While DeYoung spends a chapter of the short book pointing out that God can and sometimes does interrupt our cerebral will-finding with occasional moments of supernatural leading, we should not use the lack of such leading as an excuse to sit and contemplate our navels. On the whole, the book was helpful.
  6. Terry Prachet's Monstrous Regiment was sitting on our bookshelf downstairs and I picked it up and read it throughout last week. It was a pleasant enough story, though I liked the characters and pace of the only other Discworld novel I have read, Going Postal, better.
  7. I also ran through P.G. Wodehouse's Galahad at Blandings last week. It was pleasant and quick. Wodehouse is a lot of fun, whatever he's doing.
So, that's the first 8. I'd better get these up before Blogger's terrible posting program dumps all of my links again.

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