(Bumped–I realized I put in the wrong timestamp when I set it to automatically post!). For many evangelicals, the idea of regular and church-legislated engagement with spiritual disciplines such as Lent impinges upon the freedom of the individual believer. In its worst and most ignorant forms, the objection isn’t even formulated—rather, the idea of Lent [...]
Archive for January, 2008
January 31, 2008
2
The Freedom of the Christian and the Question of Lent
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Theology (Christian Life)
January 31, 2008
3
Marriage as a Spiritual Discipline
By Tex in People and Relationships, Reviews, Reviews (Books), Theology (Christian Life)Despite roundly panning Gary Thomas’ book Sacred Marriage last week for it’s fundamentally questionable premise, I have to admit that he has a lot of good things to say in response to the historic trend among Christians to look down their noses on marriage—preferring to view it as something that is necessary because of the [...]
January 29, 2008
0
Apostolic Hermaneutics
By Keith E. D. Buhler in Evangelicalism, Meaning and Hermeneutics“By expecting the Apostles to conform to modern assumptions we run the danger of missing the theological and kerygmatic richness of the Apostles’ use of the OT.” Continuing a line Matt started, here is an interesting article (about 25 pages) by Peter Enns, an evangelical scholar at Westminster Seminary, on the Apostolic manner of interpreting [...]
January 29, 2008
1
A Test for the Academy: Michael Clayton
By Matthew Lee Anderson in Reviews (Films)When the Oscar nominees were announced, I was mildly surprised to see “Michael Clayton” among the nominees for Best Picture. After seeing it, that mild surprise turned into astonishment. The idea that this film could win Best picture over No Country for Old Men or Juno is perplexing to me. Michael Clayton is a well-made [...]
January 24, 2008
4
Review: Sacred Marriage
By Tex in Reviews, Reviews (Books)Gary Thomas’ Sacred Marriage is a well-reasoned and thoughtful response to the centuries-old tradition of viewing spiritual formation as primarily taking place between an individual and God—a tradition that often celebrates being celibate while marginalizing marriage. It is also fundamentally wrong. The basic premise of Sacred Marriage is that “God designed marriage to make us [...]
January 24, 2008
0
Do Not Question Authority
By Keith E. D. Buhler in UncategorizedYou might get fired. Or worse, Expelled.
January 22, 2008
3
Early to Rise: Thoreau and Aurora
By Keith E. D. Buhler in Philosophy, The Old Books Quarters“All poets and heroes, like Memnon, are the children of Aurora, and emit their music at sunrise. To him whose elastic and vigourous thought keeps pace with the sun, the day is a perpetual morning.” Henry David Thoreau I am no shining crown of practical virtue. In this my twenty-fifth year I am still struggling [...]
January 21, 2008
0
Martin Luther King’s Theological Legacy
By Matthew Lee Anderson in TheologyOn a day when we honor a man committed to racial reconciliation, Fred Sanders offers this responsible analysis of Martin Luther’s theological tradition, strengths and weaknesses: But mainly, MLK saw a big issue coming his way and knew to lean into it rather than avoiding it. From a conservative theological perspective, I could always wish [...]
January 21, 2008
2
Romney for President(?!)
By Matthew Lee Anderson in PoliticsThe story of South Carolina’s Republican primary has been written. Mike Huckabee’s campaign is in serious jeopardy, while McCain’s road to the White House looks better than ever. Mitt Romney is still spending a lot of money, but can only seem to win when no one else campaigns or he has a family tree. Joe [...]
January 18, 2008
3
Typological Reading and the Christian Text
By Matthew Lee Anderson in LiteratureHow should we then read? It is a question with which I have occasionally wrestled. My freshman year of college, I was introduced to the world of hermeneutics, which seemed at the time to be the discipline of debunking other people’s interpretations of the Bible. Every time I am confronted with a scholar as careful [...]
January 17, 2008
0
Winds of Life
By Tex in Life in generalFlying is really quite simple—all you really have to know is that when you pull back the houses and trees get smaller, and when you push forward the houses and trees get larger; that and a judicious use of the throttles or power control is all that any budding pilot needs to know. I still [...]
January 17, 2008
1
Irony, Awakening, and Dissolution
By Matthew Lee Anderson in LiteratureEsolen’s Ironies of Faith hangs upon the premise that the Christian understands irony differently than his secular neighbor. Esolen writes: Contemporary literary theorists have attempted to distill the essence of irony, that which underlies both the winking assertions of ignorance made by Socrates, and concatenations of events that seem (but only seem) to suggest design, [...]
January 16, 2008
0
Hierarchy and the Body: Esolen on Adam and Eve
By Matthew Lee Anderson in LiteratureOne of the more useful aspects of Anthony Esolen’s Ironies of Faith (see my review here) is that his exploration of Christian literature highlights the disparity between their worldview and our own. At points, it becomes clear that Esolen has no sympathy for many of the modern intellectual bastions. Consider, for example, his analysis of [...]