Reza Aslan’s Zealot
I heard Reza Aslan in an interview on NPR a few weeks ago describing to a fawning* interviewer his book Zealot, a brand new title which purports to describe "The Life and Times of Jesus of Nazareth." I got the definite impression that Aslan (what a sadly ironic name!) was parroting a liberal Protestant/secularist line on Jesus that is anything but newsworthy. So I was a bit surprised to see Christian criticism of Aslan focus on his Islamic faith and his academic credentials. I won't call...
The Ten Tenets of a Covenantal Apologetic
I'm reading through Scott Oliphint's new Covenantal Apologetics. He's one of the few people with the stature to propose that the name "presuppositionalism" be dropped—and he may very well be successful. But his approach is clearly in the same tradition. "Covenantal" is only a way of saying that all humanity owes a debt of obedience to God by virtue of His covenantal relationship with them as their Creator and Lord. So far I'm not seeing any good reason for dispensationalists to object to the...
Review: Canon Revisited: Establishing The Origins And Authority Of The New Testament Books
Canon Revisited: Establishing The Origins And Authority Of The New Testament Books by Michael J. Kruger My rating: 5 of 5 stars For many years I have felt that canon was my Achilles' Heel as a Protestant (wannabe) theologian. I felt the sting of the charge that I am a "fideist"—someone who chooses his authority arbitrarily, with no sound evidence to back it up. And I felt that sting because it's one thing to make the Bible your authority and another to prove to a skeptic, even a "Christian"...
Read moreMost evangelicals today no longer forbid going to the movies, nor do we engage in earnest Francis Schaeffer-style critiques of the films we see—we simply go to the movies and, in the immortal word of Keanu Reeves, say, “Whoa.” We walk out of the movie theater amused, titillated, distracted or thrilled, just like our fellow consumers who do not share our faith. If anything, when I am among evangelical Christians I find that they seem to be more avidly consuming the latest offerings of commercial culture, whether Pirates of the Caribbean or The Simpsons or The Sopranos, than many of my non-Christian neighbors. They are content to be just like their fellow Americans, or perhaps, driven by a lingering sense of shame at their uncool forebears, just slightly more like their fellow Americans than anyone else.
—Andy Crouch, Culture-Making, 89.
Review: Why Johnny Can’t Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal
Why Johnny Can't Sing Hymns: How Pop Culture Rewrote the Hymnal by T. David Gordon My rating: 4 of 5 stars Like most of us, T. David Gordon is a professional media ecologist and a former conservative Presbyterian pastor. Okay, perhaps that combination is not so common… And that's just why Gordon needs to be listened to. His unique background leads him to insights that are equally atypical. Few but media ecologists would think to say, "The tools we employ both reflect our priorities and values...