The Moral Slide of Western Culture Illustrated (Guinness)

 In chapter one of Time for Truth, Os Guinness tells a story that very clearly describes our culture's moral downhill slide.  It also illustrates the turn from modernity to postmodernity.  Guinness mentions "The Lottery," a fictional story that the New Yorker published in 1948.  When it did come out in print, there was plenty of moral…

Students of Emergent (Emerging Students?)

I know some of you might disagree, but I'm pretty convinced that we can learn quite a bit from the Emergent movement.  Of course, the Emergent movement is quite "liquid," so I guess I tend to appreciate the more orthodox side of it - I learn more from those who are more faithful to Scripture, in other words.  I've mentioned…

Humility – Where Has It Moved? (Chesterton)

 This one is worth reading aloud - a few times. "What we suffer from today is humility in the wrong place.  Modesty has moved from the organ of ambition.  Modesty has settled upon the organ of conviction; where it was never meant to be.  A man was meant to be doubtful about himself, but undoubting about…

Faith, Doubt, & Certainty in Christian Discipleship (Newbigin)

This is an amazing and truly outstanding book.  Lesslie Newbigin's Proper Confidence (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1995) is honestly one of the best brief and to the point books I've read on Christian epistemology (i.e. knowing things - specifically how faith and knowledge relate).  I would love to do a series of blog posts on this…

Vanhoozer on Proof-texting

Kevin Vanhoozer, in his excellent book The Drama of Doctrine, gives the reader some things to consider about proof-texting (compiling a list of texts to prove a point).  To be sure, Vanhoozer certainly affirms that texts teach us doctrinal truth, but he says they do more than that.  For now, note what he says about the dangers of…