Dan Strange on an Evangelical Theology of Religions

I am nearing the end of Daniel Strange's book, "For Their Rock is Not as Our Rock": An Evangelical Theology of Religions.  With all the cold weather in Tennessee this past week, I was able to get close to the end.

All I can say is: if you have any interest in world religions and missions, get this book.  I don't teach classes in either discipline per se at Union University.  But if I did, I would certainly use this book.  I am tempted to offer to teach a class in world religions or missions, just so I could use the book.

Here is a thesis statement of sorts which shows up a number of times in the book: "From the presupposition of an epistemologically authoritative biblical revelation, non-Christian religions are sovereignly directed, variegated and dynamic, collective human idolatrous responses to divine revelation behind which stand deceiving demonic forces. Being antithetically against yet parasitically dependent upon the truth of the Chirstian worldview, non-Christian religions are 'subversivfely fulfilled' in the gospel of Jesus Christ." (italics his).

Dan is Academic Vice Principal at Oak Hill College in North London.  A short video on the book can be viewed here.  Dan's bio can be found here.  The book can be purchased through Amazon in the US here, and Amazon in the UK here.  Good work Dan.

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Published: 23 February 2015 23 February 2015

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Carl Trueman on Evangelicals and Lent

Carl Trueman is always fun to read.  He offers some zinging words on the recent trend for some Evangelicals getting very interested in Lent.  His comments are here.

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Published: 15 February 2015 15 February 2015

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Moore and Moore

Russ Moore is a good guy, but I suspect Douglas Wilson has the best of him here on recent events in Alabama.  This issue is concerned with the nature of authority, and the nature of governmental authority in particular.

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Published: 14 February 2015 14 February 2015

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Christianity and Liberty

We have seen in recent days (and months and years) an increasing impatience with, and intolerance toward, the most basic tenets of Christian morality.  Most recently, a Christian couple in Idaho is being threatened with arrest (read again: with arrest), because they cannot as Christians agree to perform the "wedding" ceremony of gay persons (they own and operate a wedding chapel).  This should not be a news flash.  Of course a traditional Christian couple would not want to perform such a ceremony.  Since Christianity's inception, Christians have considered marriage much more than a simple legal and social contract.  Rather, Christians consider marriage between a man and a woman to be a picture of the relationship between Christ and the Church (see Ephesians 5:22 and following).  So of course a Christian committed to basic Christian ethics would refuse to perform what traditional Christianity considers to be completely out of bounds morally (the "marital" union of people of the same sex).  I want to write a longer essay or set of essays on this phenomenal development that we are witnessing.  But one issue which it forces us to consider is the relationship between Christianity and political order.  Much has been written, but here is one book recommendation: Douglas Kelly, The Emergence of Liberty: The Influence of Calvin on Five Governments from the 16th Through 18th Centuries. It is a very good book, and would be a good primer for someone wanting to think through the relationship of the Christian faith to political order.  Kelly simply works through--in five case studies/countries--the way in which one strand of the Christian faith has influenced political order, and contributed to such realities as: consent of the governed, the limitation of centralized power, why political tyranny is illegitimate, etc.

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Published: 21 October 2014 21 October 2014

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