Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Beer and Bacon: Christian Hedonism 2.0

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RigneyThat’s not the title of Joe Rigney‘s next book, but it could be:

Joe Rigney. The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2015.

Update: It’s now in a second edition and in an abridged version:

Rigney, Joe. The Things of Earth: Treasuring God by Enjoying His Gifts. 2nd ed. Moscow, ID: Canon, 2024.

Rigney, Joe. Strangely Bright: Can You Love God and Enjoy This World? 2nd ed. Moscow, ID: Canon, 2024.

The four men who have most influenced Joe’s thinking on this subject are Jonathan Edwards, John Piper, C. S. Lewis, and Doug Wilson. Wilson has quipped that Piper’s Christian hedonism could use a little more “beer and bacon.” Joe has fleshed that out, and this book is the result.

Check out the contents in this 48-page sample PDF, including a foreword by John Piper. I’m not sure I’ve read a more glowing foreword.

I’ve heard Joe teach the contents of this book, and I recently read it myself. Time well spent.

In 2012, Joe Rigney interviewed John Piper and Doug Wilson on “Desiring God and Bacon”:

Update: Matt Reagan interviews Joe Rigney about the book:

Related: I’ve mentioned Joe Rigney in four previous posts:

  1. Joe Rigney Explains How Envy Works and How to Fight It
  2. Should Christians Drink Alcohol?
  3. Live Like a Narnian
  4. The Best Book on Sexual Purity (see the end of the post)

C. S. Lewis Collection (30 vols.)

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lewisVery good news: Today Logos Bible Software put their 30-volume C. S. Lewis Collection on pre-pub.

Coming soon.

Recommendation: Pre-order it now. (1) You’ll lock in a better price, and (2) it will help the collection release sooner.

This 2-minute video explains how Logos pre-pub works:

Update (3/23/2015): I’ve added this new collection to my Logos library, and I just added each book one by one to my Zotero library. Love it.

Even if you already own some or all of these volumes in print or another format, you should seriously consider getting them for Logos. Its powerful search engine, specialized resource tagging, multi-platform apps and syncing, integration into an interconnected digital library, and notes and highlighting tools add significant value to the content.

Learn more here and in this video:

3 Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing

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This morning the latest issue of Themelios released.

It includes an article I wrote entitled “Three Reflections on Evangelical Academic Publishing” (web version | PDF).

It’s the most personal essay I’ve written.

Here’s the abstract:

In light of John A. D’Elia’s A Place at the Table and Stanley E. Porter’s Inking the Deal, this article shares three reflections on evangelical academic publishing.

Ladd inking

(1) Evangelical scholarship is a gift to evangelicals for which they should be grateful.

(2) Evangelical academics should aim to be academically responsible more than being academically respectable.

(3) Evangelical scholarship is ultimately about glorifying God by serving Christ’s church.

Related:

  1. Kevin DeYoung, “7 Ways Christian Academics Can Be Truly Christian“
  2. Dane Ortlund, “Reflections on Christian Publishing“

C. S. Lewis: What Christmas Means to Me

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This short essay by C. S. Lewis originally appeared in Twentieth Century 162 (December 1957): 517–18, reprinted in God in the Dock: Essays on Theology and Ethics (ed. Walter Hooper; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2014), 338–40.

* * * * * * *

Three things go by the name of Christmas. One is a religious festival. This is important and obligatory for Christians; but as it can be of no interest to anyone else, I shall naturally say no more about it here. The second (it has complex historical connections with the first, but we needn’t go into them) is a popular holiday, an occasion for merry-making and hospitality. If it were my business to have a ‘view’ on this, I should say that I much approve of merry-making. But what I approve of much more is everybody minding his own business. I see no reason why I should volunteer views as to how other people should spend their own money in their own leisure among their own friends. It is highly probable that they want my advice on such matters as little as I want theirs. But the third thing called Christmas is unfortunately everyone’s business. [Read more…] about C. S. Lewis: What Christmas Means to Me

The Real Problem with Gambling

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gamblingThat’s the title of a short appendix in this book:

Vern S. Poythress. Chance and the Sovereignty of God: A God-Centered Approach to Probability and Random Events. Wheaton: Crossway, 2014.

Here’s what Poythress calls “The Real Problem with Gambling” (pp. 279–81):

The preceding appendix has analyzed a number of gambling systems by which gamblers hope to “beat the odds” and make a killing. We could consider still more systems. In each case, careful calculations of the probabilities show that the gambler will not win in the long run. In fact, in casino games the probabilities are always stacked against the customer, so that in the long run the casino consistently takes in money from every form of gambling that it offers on its premises. [Read more…] about The Real Problem with Gambling

How Do You Know If You’re Qualified to Serve As an Elder?

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RinneMy responsibility as a professor at Bethlehem College & Seminary includes training elder-qualified men in our seminary. What does it mean to be elder-qualified?

Jeramie Rinne answers that question with six statements in Church Elders: How to Shepherd God’s People Like Jesus (9Marks; Wheaton: Crossway, 2014), 19–29.

You know you’re qualified to serve as an elder if . . . [Read more…] about How Do You Know If You’re Qualified to Serve As an Elder?

Is It Sinful for Unmarried Couples to Make Out?

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Gerald Hiestand convincingly argues that the answer is yes:

Gerald Hiestand, “A Biblical-Theological Approach to Premarital Sexual Ethics: or, What Saint Paul Would Say about ‘Making Out,’” Bulletin of Ecclesial Theology 1 (2014): 13–32.

This article expands on the first two chapters in Gerald Hiestand and Jay Thomas, Sex, Dating, and Relationships: A Fresh Approach (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012).

Here’s the article’s thesis: [Read more…] about Is It Sinful for Unmarried Couples to Make Out?