Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Other

Charts on the Book of Revelation: Literary, Historical, and Theological Perspectives

by

chartsDon’t be put off by this book’s title. It’s not what you think.

Mark Wilson. Charts on the Book of Revelation: Literary, Historical, and Theological Perspectives. Kregel Charts of the Bible and Theology. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2007.

Check out this 32-page PDF sample, which includes the table of contents and many of the charts. But don’t skip over the first two pages of the PDF: the endorsements. The Revelation scholars who endorse the book include [Read more…] about Charts on the Book of Revelation: Literary, Historical, and Theological Perspectives

The Flight to the Ford in Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring Movie

by

My family loves The Lord of the Rings.

See “Ten Resources for Enjoying Tolkien’s The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings.” For Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy (resource 7), I write,

This is one of the few cases where Jenni and I think that the films are better than the books. We probably just lost all of our literary credibility (not that I had much of it). We find Tolkien’s writing style often tedious.

artI recently read a book that has helped me more critically view films:

Paul Munson and Joshua Farris Drake. Art and Music: A Student’s Guide. Reclaiming the Christian Intellectual Tradition. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.

Munson and Drake take a little over four pages to critically analyze the scene from Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring in which Arwen and Frodo flee on horseback to the ford.

Here’s what Munson and Drake think (pp. 77–81): [Read more…] about The Flight to the Ford in Peter Jackson’s The Fellowship of the Ring Movie

ESV Reader’s Bible

by

ESVRBThis new Bible releases at the end of this month:

ESV Reader’s Bible. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.

Bible readers should celebrate this new Bible because it strips out the verse numbers (but, unfortunately, not the chapter numbers!).* It’s the first ESV Bible to do this. Check out the format in this 10-page PDF sample.

*My friend Mark Ward’s mostly enthusiastic review of the ESV Reader’s Bible more passionately makes the same point.

How does this format benefit readers?

  1. See “Tip #3. Read without any chapter or verse references.”
  2. See thoughts #6, 9, and 10 here.
  3. See my book reviews that explain this in more detail.
  4. See Gordon Fee’s third reason for revising his commentary on 1 Corinthians.

My Top Choice for a Textbook on the Doctrine of the Church

by

AllisonLast semester at Bethlehem College & Seminary I taught a systematic theology course on the doctrines of the church and the end times. This is the primary text I used for the doctrine of the church, and I plan to use it again when I teach the course in the future:

Gregg R. Allison. Sojourners and Strangers: The Doctrine of the Church. Foundations of Evangelical Theology Series. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

I love how Allison organizes the book, and I agree with his theological method. His arguments are well-reasoned and usually persuasive. [Read more…] about My Top Choice for a Textbook on the Doctrine of the Church

Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World’s Difficult Places

by

dispatchesJustin Taylor describes my friend Tim Keesee exactly right in his foreword to Tim’s new book:

Tim Keesee. Dispatches from the Front: On Gospel Transformation, Suffering, and Witness. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.

(You may recall Tim Keesee from his telling the stories in the Dispatches from the Front DVDs by Frontline Missions.)

Here’s Justin Taylor’s foreword (pp. 11–13): [Read more…] about Dispatches from the Front: Stories of Gospel Advance in the World’s Difficult Places

Taking God at His Word

by

takingSeveral years ago I attempted to write a short, accessible chapter on the doctrine of Scripture as part of a book that Kevin DeYoung edited. Now Kevin’s most recent work is a short, accessible book on the doctrine of Scripture:

Kevin DeYoung. Taking God at His Word: Why the Bible Is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means for You and Me. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.

It’s what we’ve come to expect from Kevin: sound, edifying, accessible, and witty. This is the best overall popular-level book on Scripture that I’m aware of.

  1. This 20-page PDF sample includes the front matter and chapter 1.
  2. Two DeYoung interviews: (a) TGC and (b) Books at a Glance
  3. Kevin preached on this topic at T4G a few weeks ago: “Never Spoke a Man Like This Before: Inerrancy, Evangelism and Christ’s Unbreakable Bible.” My school’s president called this sermon “powerful and massively important.”

How to Make Your Mac Read Text Aloud

by

Did you know that your Mac can read text aloud? The feature is called “Text to Speech.”

I’ve been using it in three ways:

  1. Listen to a relatively long blog post or email while doing something else that allows me to multitask.
  2. Listen to something I’m copy-editing (whether it’s something that I or someone else wrote). This helps pace me, and it helps me spot typos. Sometimes my ears hear errors that my eyes miss.
  3. Listen to an English Bible translation that I don’t already own as an audio-Bible. (On listening to audio-Bibles, see here and here.) This is especially helpful when you want to listen to a variety of English translations while looking at a particular passage in Greek or Hebrew.

So how do you do this on a Mac?

1. Open “System Preferences,” and select “Dictation & Speech.”

SP

Update on 11/7/2016: macOS Sierra does not have a “Dictation & Speech” icon. For Dictation, select Keyboard. For Speech, select, Accessibility.

[Read more…] about How to Make Your Mac Read Text Aloud