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Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

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Wordsmithy

December 30, 2011 by Andy Naselli

This pithy book is fun to read:

Wilson, Douglas. Wordsmithy: Hot Tips for the Writing Life. Moscow, ID: Canon, 2011. 120 pp.

Wilson gives seven pieces of advice (pp. 10–11):

  1. Know something about the world, and by this I mean the world outside of books. This might require joining the Marines, or working on an oil rig or as a hashslinger at a truck stop in Kentucky. Know what things smell like out there. If everything you write smells like a library, then your prospective audience will be limited to those who like the smell of libraries.
  2. Read. Read constantly. Read the kind of stuff you wish you could write. Read until your brain creaks. Tolkien said that his ideas sprang up from the leaf mold of his mind: your readings are the trees where your fallen leaves would come from. Mind mulch. Cognitive compost. [Read more…] about Wordsmithy

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Douglas Wilson, writing

Detroit Seminary Starts a Blog

December 19, 2011 by Andy Naselli

DBTS’s faculty just started a blog.

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Bill Combs, Bob McCabe, Dave Doran, Mark Snoeberger

Fifteen Favorite Christmas Songs

November 28, 2011 by Andy Naselli

Here are fifteen of my favorite Christmas songs:

  1. “The 12 Days of Christmas” (live; studio) | Straight No Chaser | Holiday Spirits | video
  2. “Angels’ Carol” | John Rutter, the Cambridge Singers | Christmas with the Cambridge Singers | video
  3. “The Christmas Can-Can” | Straight No Chaser | Christmas Cheers | video
  4. “Christmas Fantasy for Orchestra” | Dan and Heidi Goeller | The Word Became Flesh
  5. “Everlasting Life” | The Rushingbrook Children’s Choir | The Most Wonderful Birthday of All
  6. “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” | Dan Forrest | Prepare Him Room
  7. “Joy to the World” | Empire Brass | Joy to the World
  8. “Linus & Lucy” | Vince Guaraldi Trio | A Charlie Brown Christmas
  9. “A Little Christmas Music: Medley a la Mozart” | The King’s Singers, Kiri Te Kanawa | A Little Christmas Music
  10. “Lo! How a Rose” | SMS Men’s Chorus | King of Glory
  11. “Magnificat” | Keith and Kristyn Getty | An Irish Christmas
  12. “Mary, Did You Know?” | Kathleen Battle, accompanied by Christopher Parkening | Angel’s Glory | lyrics
  13. “Sleep, Jesus, Sleep” | Shannon Harris | Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man
  14. “Somewhere in My Memory” | John Williams, the Boston Pops Orchestra | Joy to the World
  15. “Suo Gan,” the instrumental part from 1:11 to 2:19 | Irish Tenors | Home for Christmas

What are some of your favorite songs?

Update in December 2016: I recently discovered another one. Our girls love The Nutcracker. We’ve probably played it hundreds of times for them. So this song by Straight No Chaser makes me laugh.

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: humor, Music

Steve Jobs

November 21, 2011 by Andy Naselli

Last week I read Steve Jobs, the recent biography by Walter Isaacson.

(The audiobook is about 24 hours long, and I listened to it in 12 hours on double speed. The narrator reads very slowly.)

Fascinating.

If I had to summarize Steve Jobs with just two words, I’d choose these:

  1. genius
  2. jerk

Reflections on the book and the man:

  1. Tim Challies
  2. Mark Ward
  3. Stephen Altrogge
  4. Malcolm Gladwell

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: technology

Themelios 36.3

November 14, 2011 by Andy Naselli

TGC published the latest issue of Themelios this morning.

I contributed two book reviews:

  1. Review of John Dickson, Humilitas: A Lost Key to Life, Love, and Leadership. (I highlighted this book last month.)
  2. Review of Steven E. Runge, Discourse Grammar of the Greek New Testament: A Practical Introduction for Teaching and Exegesis.

Note also Rod Decker’s “An Evaluation of the 2011 Edition of the New International Version.” (It revises a paper I mentioned in July.) Related to Decker’s article is a recent unpublished one:

William W. Combs. “The History of the NIV Translation Controversy.” A paper presented at the Mid-America Conference on Preaching in Allen Park, MI (hosted by Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary). October 20, 2011 (MP3).

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Bible translation, Greek, humility, Themelios

Omit Needless Words

October 18, 2011 by Andy Naselli

I agree with Jim.

James M. Hamilton Jr., “Appreciation, Agreement, and a Few Minor Quibbles: A Response to G. K. Beale,” Midwestern Journal of Theology 10, no. 1 (2011): 67:

I want to register a stylistic complaint. Beale is prolix. It’s as though he is exclaiming, “Why should I say in three words what I can expand to ten?!” In the “Introduction” to “the little book,” E. B. White epitomizes Professor Strunk: “‘Omit needless words!’ cries the author on page 23, and into that imperative Will Strunk really put his heart and soul.” Imagine the pleasure Strunk would take eliminating words from Beale’s oeuvre. To take one example, consider the title of his second lecture, “The Inaugurated End-Time Tribulation and Its Bearing on the Church Office of Elder and on Christian Living in General.” Edwardsian in its fullness, but would not “Elders and the End-Times” have been sufficient? I love the ideas that Beale communicates, but I wonder whether he hopes to be paid on the Dickensian wage (critics of Charles Dickens complain that his books are so long because he was paid a penny a word).

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: G. K. Beale, Jim Hamilton, writing

Lit!

August 31, 2011 by Andy Naselli

This book comes out later this month:

Tony Reinke. Lit! A Christian Guide to Reading Books. Wheaton: Crossway, 2011. 202 pp.

You know it’s good when Leland Ryken, professor of English at Wheaton College, says this about it:

There is so much to commend about this book that it is hard to know where to start. The most obvious virtue is its scope. On the subject of reading, Reinke covers every possible topic. Each topic, in turn, is broken into all of its important subpoints. With a lesser writer, this could produce a tedious book, but the opposite is true here. Reinke says just enough, but not too much. The effect is like seeing a prism turned in the light. There is never a dull moment. Once I sensed that Reinke was going to cover all the important topics, and with unfailing good sense and Christian insight, I could hardly put it down. ‘What will Reinke say about that topic?’ I found myself asking. But to add yet another twist, he has read so widely in scholarly and religious sources that I do not hesitate to call the book a triumph of scholarship. Reinke writes with an infectious and winsome enthusiasm. It is hard to imagine a reader of this book who would not catch the spark for reading after encountering Reinke’s excitement about reading and his carefully reasoned defense of it.

Here’s the table of contents: [Read more…] about Lit!

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: Books

Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

August 29, 2011 by Andy Naselli

Erik Thoennes, Life’s Biggest Questions: What the Bible Says About the Things That Matter Most, (Wheaton: Crossway, 2011), 35–37 (formatting added):

Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

The ability to discern the relative importance of theological beliefs is vital for effective Christian life and ministry. Both the purity and unity of the church are at stake in this matter. The relative importance of theological issues can fall within four categories:

  1. absolutes define the core beliefs of the Christian faith;
  2. convictions, while not core beliefs, may have significant impact on the health and effectiveness of the church;
  3. opinions are views or personal judgments that generally are not worth dividing over; and
  4. questions are currently unsettled issues.

These categories can be best visualized as concentric circles, similar to those on a dart board, with the absolutes as the “bull’s eye” (see fig. 3.4).

Into which category an issue falls should be determined by the cumulative force of at least eight considerations: [Read more…] about Essential vs. Peripheral Doctrine

Filed Under: Other Tagged With: evangelicalism, fundamentalism

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Exegetical Fallacies, 3rd ed.

Exegetical Fallacies, 3rd ed.

Tools to Study the Bible and Theology

Help! I Want to Be a Manly Man

God's Will and Making Decisions

How to Read a Book: Advice for Christian Readers

Predestination: An Introduction

Dictionary of the New Testament Use of the Old Testament

Tracing the Argument of 1 Corinthians: A Phrase Diagram

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1433580349/?tag=andynaselli-20

Tracing the Argument of Romans: A Phrase Diagram of the Greatest Letter Ever Written

The Serpent Slayer and the Scroll of Riddles: The Kambur Chronicles

The Serpent and the Serpent Slayer

40 Questions about Biblical Theology

1 Corinthians in Romans–Galatians (ESV Expository Commentary)

How Can I Love Church Members with Different Politics?

Three Views on Israel and the Church: Perspectives on Romans 9–11

That Little Voice in Your Head: Learning about Your Conscience

How to Understand and Apply the New Testament: Twelve Steps from Exegesis to Theology

No Quick Fix: Where Higher Life Theology Came From, What It Is, and Why It's Harmful

Conscience: What It Is, How to Train It, and Loving Those Who Differ

NIV Zondervan Study Bible

Perspectives on the Extent of the Atonement

From Typology to Doxology: Paul’s Use of Isaiah and Job in Romans 11:34–35

Four Views on the Spectrum of Evangelicalism

Let God and Let God? A Survey and Analysis of Keswick Theology

Introducing the New Testament: A Short Guide to Its History and Message

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