On April 24, 2008, Dr. Doug Sweeney and Collin Hansen discussed Hansen’s Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008). An MP3 of this discussion, sponsored by the Henry Center, is now available from the Henry Center’s media archive (MP3 | video).

I reviewed Hansen’s book in March for the forthcoming issue of Themelios (more on that later). Highly recommended!

Dale Pritchett, Senior Vice President of Logos Bible Software, argues in “Logos in the Classroom” (PDF | MP3) that Bible colleges and seminaries are on the threshold of transitioning from print resources to electronic ones. This parallels other technological advances, e.g., from slide rule to calculator to computer or from records to cassette tapes to CDs to MP3s.

Here are some excerpts:

• “Last year Logos sold more than 5.2 million digital books. We have 9,000 books now available, and our goal is to release 2,000 additional titles every year.”
• “We are, in reality, an extension—in some cases a replacement—for the bricks and mortar Bible college or seminary library. We have become the world’s largest producer of digital Bibles and academic Bible reference works. We have become an affordable alternative for standard, unabridged books representing more than 100 different publishers. We have become the tool of choice for writers and researchers. . . . We’re a useful resource for distance education and remote campuses. We’re a supplement for classroom demonstration. We are a fully linked, interactive seminary library on a notebook computer. We are, in short, the future today. And we’re totally digital right now. And that’s a good thing because the digital revolution is almost 30 years old.”

Cf. my two reviews of Logos products:

1. Scholar’s Gold
2. PNTC, BECNT, and NIGTC (three NT commentary series)

HT: Phil Gons

I just discovered this accessible pair of articles by a couple evangelical scholars who used to teach NT together at Aberdeen:

1. P. J. Williams, “Modern Old Testament Study“
2. Simon Gathercole, “Modern New Testament Study“

Related: See Mark Dever’s interview “The New Perspective on Paul with Simon Gathercole and Peter Williams” (MP3).

Baker just published a collection of essays by theological heavyweights:

McCormack, Bruce L., ed. Engaging the Doctrine of God: Contemporary Protestant Perspectives. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2008.

Here are the contributors (corresponding to their chapter number):

1. David F. Wright
2. N. T. Wright
3. D. A. Carson
4. Paul Helm
5. Oliver D. Crisp
6. John Webster
7. Henri A. Blocher
8. Pierre Berthoud
9. Stephen N. Williams
10. Bruce L. McCormack
11. Donald Macleod

Check out the Table of Contents in this ten-page PDF of the front matter and preface.

D. A. Carson’s essay “The Wrath of God” (pp. 37–63) is a must-read. Here’s just the skeleton of his argument:

Continue Reading »

All of the MP3s for the general sessions and panel discussions are now available for free downloads. Brief bios of the speakers are available here.

I’d recommend listening to these in order:

1. Ligon Duncan: Sound Doctrine: Essential to Faithful Pastoral Ministry
2. Panel Discussion 1: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
3. Thabiti Anyabwile: Bearing the Image: Identity, the Work of Christ, and the Church
4. Panel Discussion 2: Anyabwile, Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
5. John MacArthur: The Sinner Neither Able Nor Willing: The Doctrine of Absolute Inability
6. Mark Dever: Improving the Gospel: Exercises in Unbiblical Theology
7. Panel Discussion 3: Dever, Duncan, MacArthur, Mahaney, Mohler
8. R.C. Sproul: The Curse Motif of the Atonement
9. Panel Discussion 4: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler, Sproul
10. Albert Mohler: Why Do They Hate It So? The Doctrine of Substitution
11. Panel Discussion 5: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler
12. John Piper: How the Supremacy of Christ Creates Radical Christian Sacrifice
13. Panel Discussion 6: Dever, Duncan, Mahaney, Mohler, Piper
14. C.J. Mahaney: Sustaining a Pastor’s Soul

Related:

• T4G 2008 Highlights and Pictures
• T4G 2006 MP3s (general sessions and panel discussions listed in order)

I thoroughly enjoyed attending T4G 2008 last week (thanks to T4G’s generosity!). It was edifying and God-glorifying.

Here are some highlights and pics:

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D. A. Carson’s Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) is now available.

• Cf. a 12-page PDF of the front matter and preface.
• Cf. my previous post “Dever on Carson’s Latest Book” (March 7, 2007).
• Cf. Eerdmans’s description and Dever’s and Keller’s endorsements.

I heartily recommend this volume.

• Carson skillfully applies his biblical theological framework—interpreting the whole Bible with a robust salvation-historical grid—to the issue of “Christ and Culture” that H. Richard Niebuhr raised in 1951.
• It is a model work for combining biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology for the benefit of the church.
• Though it falls outside the domain of Carson’s primary field (NT exegesis and theology), it is impressively up-to-date with the relevant literature and arguments.

I had the privilege of meticulously reading this volume straight through at least three times at various stages last year. It’s the type of book that rewards slow, thoughtful, even repeated reading.

This evening I live-blogged an event for the Henry Center, reporting what happened at the following debate: “Can a Christian be a Religious Pluralist?” A Debate Between Harold Netland and Paul Knitter. (My respect for super-live-bloggers like Tim Challies rose a bit!)

The following two (lengthy) MP3s by D. A. Carson are penetrating:

• What is an Evangelical? An Assessment of the Evangelical and Roman Catholic Project
• What is Evangelicalism? (1.28.08, Grace Fellowship Church in Toronto)

This afternoon I listened to the more recent one (”What is Evangelicalism?”), and I was encouraged by Carson’s 4.5-minute analysis of the current state of fundamentalism. It is not particularly constructive when evangelicals and fundamentalists broad-brush and launch grenades at each other. Contrast Carson’s conciliatory attitude here: listen from 42:10 to 46:30.

Update: A transcript of the 4.5-minute analysis is available here.

Kevin Bauder is finishing another thoughtful series of short essays: “Fundamentalism and Scholarship.”

1. Not Me
2. What Is a Scholar?
3. Hazards of Scholarship
4. Does Fundamentalism Need Scholars?
5. Does Fundamentalism Have Scholars?
6. How Do We Get Scholars?
7. To Make a Scholar
8. The Scholarly Life
9. Models of Scholarship
10. Scholarship and Separatism
11. The Dual Responsibility of a Christian Scholar
12. The Christian Scholar’s Christian Responsibility

Note: Central Seminary emails these essays every Friday afternoon. You can join the mailing list (as well as access the archives) here.

Four MP3s by D. A. Carson are available from the Nashville Conference on the Church and Theology:

1. Keeping Up with the Conversation: Understanding the Emergent Movement and the Emerging Church (Feb. 8, 2008)
2. The Gospel and Postmodern Minds: How Do We Reach Out to a Changing Culture Without Selling Out? (Feb. 9, 2008)
3. We Preach Christ Crucified: The Danger of Placing Your Faith in Strategic Planning and Ministry Trends (Feb. 9, 2008)
4. The God Who Helps (Feb. 10, 2008)

The second essay in Christ on Campus Initiative’s series was released this morning: Craig Blomberg’s “Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters.” The CCI essays are (1) by evangelical scholars, (2) geared for campus evangelism, and (3) edited by D. A. Carson. Readers and organizations may circulate these essays without charge.

The Christ on Campus Initiative (CCI) is a ministry created for the purpose of preparing and circulating literature for college and university students, addressing an array of important intellectual and practical issues from an evangelical Christian perspective. This initiative is made possible by generous support from the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL) and the MAC foundation (Fort Collins, CO). The editorial team, led by D.A. Carson, commissions top evangelical scholars to oversee the creation and distribution of a variety of resources for university students. The goal of these resources is that they be intellectually rigorous, culturally relevant, persuasive in argument, and faithful to historic, evangelical Christianity.

Here’s an outline of Blomberg’s 29-page article:

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Last week I was honored to give the 2008 William R. Rice Lecture Series at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary on “Keswick Theology: A Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement.”

The manuscript for this lecture series is scheduled for publication in the fall 2008 Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal. It distills my first dissertation (“Keswick Theology: A Historical and Theological Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement, 1875–1920,” Ph.D. dissertation, Bob Jones University, 2006; xxiv + 387 pp.) from about 100,000 to 20,000 words.

Detroit Seminary is hosting the following resources from the lecture series:

1. Handout (five-page PDF)
2. Power Point presentation as a PDF (eighty slides with lots of pictures) [12.1 MB]
3. MP3s:

• A Historical and Theological Survey of the Early Keswick Movement (1:10:32)
• A Theological Analysis of the Early Keswick Movement - Part 1 (57:20)
• A Theological Analysis of the Early Keswick Movement - Part 2 (with Q & A) (49:24)

(photos by Dr. Robert V. McCabe)

Mark Dever posed his eighth “T4Free question” on the T4G blog earlier this week, and I was surprised that my answer was selected. (Perhaps mine had the least misspelled words and the most Piper-like hyphenated ones! Regardless, I’m grateful for this happy providence and eager for edification along with about 5,000 other people at T4G in mid-April 2008.) Here’s Mark’s question followed by the 100-words-or-less answer I submitted:

Q: “What Christian book (other than the Bible) do you think has been read by the most people attending T4G 2008, and why?”

A: “John Piper’s Desiring God

“This richly theological and warmly devotional best-seller has been the means for sending countless Christians on a trajectory towards theology that is increasingly joyful, robust, God-centered, Christ-exalting, and gospel-treasuring.

“My testimony is not unusual. I read it as a freshman in college and again during my first year of seminary, and it had a revolutionary effect on my Christian life. It shaped my attitude towards Reformed soteriology and convinced me that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”

In addition to selling the print book for just $9.50, Desiring God Ministries offers the following free resources:

• the entire book online
• Desiring God Study Guide
• Desiring God Study Guide for Groups
• Desiring God sermon series (text and audio)
• Desiring God seminar (audio)
• other free resources on Christian Hedonism
• other books about Christian Hedonism

I thank God for John Piper. He is a gift to the church.

On a related note, D. A. Carson pays Piper no small compliment in the preface to Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by mentioning him parallel to three other giants of the faith:

“But my aim is much more modest: to convey enough of his [i.e., Tom Carson's] ministry and his own thought that ordinary ministers are encouraged, not least by the thought that the God of Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon, and Piper is no less the God of Tom Carson, and of you and me” (p. 11).

D. A. Carson preached a short series on 2 Thessalonians at College Church in Wheaton for the last three Sundays:

1. The Supremacy of Christ (2 Thess 1) [March 2, 2008]
2. Waiting for the Last Time (2 Thess 2) [March 9, 2008]
3. Waiting in the Mean Time (2 Thess 3) [March 16, 2008]

Last Thursday evening one of my wife’s pre-K4 students was tragically killed. On Monday morning Jenni had to inform her students that their little friend would not be coming back to school. Here’s a lightly edited excerpt from a moving letter she sent to parents Monday afternoon.

I just wanted to give you a quick update on this morning and how gracious God was to us and to the children as we discussed KC’s loss.

Continue Reading »

“If by chance you bear a child, if it is a boy, let it be, if it is a girl, expose it.”

Those chilling words are a husband’s instructions to his wife in a letter dated 1 B.C. (documented below).

Continue Reading »

Mark Driscoll was on the TEDS campus on January 29-30 leading the 2008 Chicago Boot Camp for the Acts 29 network, and I attended and profited from the following (sometimes provocative!) sessions he led:

1. Preaching the Mission: MP3 | Notes
2. Gospel-Centered Families: This is particularly practical. It’s almost entirely Q & A geared for the wives of church planters.

• part 1
• part 2
• part 3
• part 4
• part 5

Also available from the same conference is Mark Dever’s thoughtful session: Church Planting Evangelism.

This week my wife and I listened to a two-part interview that Grant Layman conducted with C. J. and Carolyn Mahaney and their daughters Nicole and Janelle in 2002 (at least that’s the copyright date). My wife had already listened to it and wanted me to hear it. What an edifying, humbling, enjoyable interview. Highly recommended!

1. Part 1: “Grant Layman opens this message on parenting by inviting his audience into the Mahaney’s living room. This session of testimonies from C.J. and Carolyn Mahaney and two of their daughters offer insight into biblical parenting. Grant interviews the Mahaney family on topics including guarding family times together, training godly sons and daughters, faithful confrontation of sin, proper discipline, and building a collection of family memories.”
2. Part 2: “Grant Layman continues an insightful and fun-filled interview with C.J. and Carolyn Mahaney. Daughters Nicole and Janelle share what each appreciated most about her upbringing and make a fascinating statement concerning what they wish their parents had done differently. Topics include the challenges faced by parents of teens, and insight on graciously dealing with those challenges according to Scripture. “

Last month I noted that Mark Dever was scheduled to speak on campus at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School on Wednesday, January 30, 2008, for the Scripture and Ministry Lecture sponsored by the Henry Center.

1. His lecture on church membership is now available (MP3 | video). Here’s a description:

• “Re-ordering Friendship, Love, and Enmity: A Biblical Reflection on Church Membership.” Membership should reflect a living commitment to a local church in attendance, giving, prayer and service; otherwise it is meaningless, worthless, and even dangerous. What does the lack of church membership say to the rest of the world about the church? To be a member is knowingly to be traveling together as aliens and strangers in this world as we head to our heavenly home. Dr. Dever will explore church membership from a biblical and historical approach, touching on the most difficult issues, which keep many Americans from committing to church membership.

2. Also available as is a follow-up interview with Mark Dever on church discipline conducted by Steve Farish on January 31, 2008 (MP3 | video).