Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Andy Naselli

Reading the Church Fathers

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Michael A. G. Haykin gives six reasons that we should read and study the church fathers (Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church [Wheaton: Crossway, 2011], 17–28):

  1. For freedom: “[S]tudy of the Fathers, like any historical study, liberates us from the present.”
  2. For wisdom: “[T]he Fathers can provide us with a map for the Christian life.”
  3. To understand the New Testament: “We have had too disparaging a view of Patristic exegesis and have come close to considering the exposition of the Fathers as a consistent failure to understand the New Testament.”
  4. Because of bad press about the Fathers: “[T]hey are sometimes subjected to simply bad history or bad press.”
  5. As an aid in defending the faith: “The early centuries of the church saw Christianity threatened by a number of theological heresies: Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism, to name but three. While history never repeats itself exactly, the essence of many of these heresies has reappeared from time to time in the long history of Christianity.”
  6. For spiritual nurture: “The study of the church fathers, like the study of church history in general, informs Christians about their predecessors in the faith, those who have helped shape their Christian communities and thus make them what they are. Such study builds humility and modesty into the warp and woof of the Christian life and as such can exercise a deeply sanctifying influence.”

So where should you start? Haykin suggests some books in Appendix 1 (157–58, bullet-points added):

Reading the Fathers: A Beginner’s Guide

[Introduction]

Where does one begin reading the Fathers? Well, first of all, I would start with two tremendous secondary sources:

  • Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (Yale University Press, 2003) and
  • Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin, 1993).

Together these will provide an excellent orientation in terms of the history of the Patristic era (Chadwick) and the spirituality of the Fathers (Wilken). [Read more…] about Reading the Church Fathers

Tim Keller on Preaching and Ministry

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I love listening to Tim Keller preach or explain how he preaches and ministers in Manhattan. I don’t always agree with his exegetical steps, but I always learn from his penetrating insights and stimulating observations.

I recently listened to two thought-provoking lecture series that Keller presented at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary:

  1. Evangelism and Church Planting in Postmodern Cities (2003)
  2. Preaching to the Heart (2006)

The CDs (which aren’t cheap) include extensive PDF handouts.

Related:

  1. Preaching Christ in a postmodern world (a 22.4-hour D.Min. course)
  2. Preaching to the heart (two lectures in 2008)
  3. Three central emphases of Keller’s preaching
  4. Reason for God DVD and other related resources

Doctrinal Boundaries

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Dave Doran recalls six books or articles by evangelicals “about the need to formulate doctrinal boundaries” and “the question of separation”:

1. Carson, D. A. Love in Hard Places. Wheaton: Crossway, 2002.

2. Mohler Jr., R. Albert. “Reformist Evangelicalism: A Center without a Circumference.” Page 131–50 in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times. Edited by Michael S. Horton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2000.

3. Grudem, Wayne. “Why, When, and for What Should We Draw New Boundaries?” Page 339–70 in Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity. Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2003. [Read more…] about Doctrinal Boundaries

Making the Transition to Elder Governance

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This book just came out this month, and it looks like one that will serve some churches well:

Daniel Evans and Joseph Godwin Jr. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition. Eugene, OR: Resource, 2011. xvii + 120 pp.

Description:

When the leadership of Patterson Park Church looked for a book explaining the process of transitioning from a board-run church to an elder-led form of church government, a structure they had come to believe was more in line with Scripture, they found none. God honored their efforts and two of their elders decided a book still needed to be written. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition examines church government from a biblical and historical context and tells the story of Patterson Park’s transition. The authors are hopeful that God will use their experience to help others considering such a transition.

Table of contents: [Read more…] about Making the Transition to Elder Governance

Cultural Differences

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Christopher Catherwood, Church History: A Crash Course for the Curious (2nd ed.; Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 196:

I think it fair to say that the main difference between Fundamentalism and what we would now call historic Evangelicalism is as much cultural as anything else and is particularly an American phenomenon.

(It’s valuable to hear the perspectives of others—in this case a British evangelical historian who is the grandson of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)

Related: Cultural and Theological Conservatism

Twenty OT Prayers Appealing to God’s Concern for His Own Glory

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See them here, a table excerpted from Jim Hamilton’s God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment: A Biblical Theology. (That two-page PDF is available only today through Thursday.)

Hamilton explains:

These prayers that appeal to God’s concern for his own glory show how the believing remnant in the old covenant responded to God’s pursuit of his own glory: they joined him in it. These OT saints adopted God’s priorities and based their prayers on what they understood to be of greatest concern to God himself–his reputation among the nations, the glory of his name, the revelation of the truth about who he is. Moses, Joshua, David, Solomon, Elijah, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, Asaph, Asa, and Jehoshaphat all petition God on the basis of his concern for his own glory.

Incidentally, there is a massively important point of application here: this is how we, too, should pray. The perspective of the biblical authors is not merely to be studied but adopted, embraced, and lived.

These prayers appealing to God’s concern for his glory are applied to a variety of situations and employ a variety of expressions, and they had to be located the old fashioned way, which is still the best way to examine a biblical theme: by reading slowly through the OT, marking them as they appeared, and then gathering them all into one place. So this chart saves you a ton of work, but actually doing this kind of work for yourself is the best way to study the Bible because it demands that you read attentively, remember what you’ve read, correlate new information with what you’ve already seen, and assimilate the results into a coherent whole.

So in this table I list every prayer in the Old Testament that appeals to God’s concern for his own glory; at least, I think I got them all! If you find one that I missed I’d love to know about it.

See also Hamilton’s explanation on the 9Marks blog.

Heart > Mind

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John Piper, Taste and See: 140 Meditations (Sisters, OR: Multnomah, 2005), 28:

One profound biblical insight we need to know is that our heart exploits our mind to justify what the heart wants. That is, our deepest desires precede the rational functioning of our minds and incline the mind to perceive and think in a way that will make the desires look right. It is an illusion to think that our hearts are neutral and incline in accordance with cool rational observation of truth. On the contrary, we feel powerful desires or fears in our heart, and then our mind bends reality to justify the desires and fears.