Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Critiquing William Webb’s Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic

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Reaoch - coverFive months ago I highlighted Don Carson’s critique of William Webb’s trajectory hermeneutic (copied at the end of this post).

Now there’s a more comprehensive, book-length critique:

Benjamin Reaoch. Women, Slaves, and the Gender Debate: A Complementarian Response to the Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2012.

It revises Reaoch’s PhD dissertation at Southern Seminary under Tom Schreiner, who writes the foreword.

Reaoch makes several arguments:

  • Slavery and the role of women are two critically different issues.
  • The NT neither condemns nor commends slavery.
  • Gender passages apply transculturally because they are rooted in creation.

[Read more…] about Critiquing William Webb’s Redemptive-Movement Hermeneutic

Leaders Book Summaries

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[This is an advertisement for Dave Frederick‘s Leaders Book Summaries, written by Tim Stevens.]

booksI don’t know how many times a week someone says to me, “You’ve got to read this book. It’s unbelievable.” If I read every book that someone said was life-changing, I’d spend my entire life reading. With kids, church activities, and my ministry/job—I don’t get nearly as much reading done as I’d like.

In fact, this picture is the current pile of books on my desk that people have handed or sent me. My assistant asked me what I was going to do about the growing column of books. My best idea was to eliminate the shelf above it so the pile can continue to grow. Bottom line: I CAN’T KEEP UP!

A couple months ago I discovered a group called Leaders Book Summaries. Guess what they do? They summarize books. It was started by Dave Frederick, a pastor who believes in the church and believes in leadership. He understands the dilemma we all face between the tyranny of the urgent and the growth we all want as leaders. So he reviews a couple books every month—and sends subscribers a 10–15 page summary, as well as a 2-page “nutshell.” I’ve read several—and they are spot on! Instead of wading through content to get a few nuggets of great stuff—Dave’s team takes the time to whittle down the content so there is gold in every paragraph. [Read more…] about Leaders Book Summaries

Alleviating Poverty

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Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert. When Helping Hurts: How to Alleviate Poverty Without Hurting the Poor—and Yourself. 2nd ed. Chicago: Moody, 2012. 272 pp.

From David Platt’s foreword:

[T]his book is virtually required reading for everyone in our church who is intentionally engaging the poor here and around the world. I cannot recommend it highly enough for anyone who is passionate about spreading and showing the love of Christ to the “least of these.” [Read more…] about Alleviating Poverty

This Is How We Pray for Our Children

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crowleyGuest post by J. D. and Kim Crowley

[The Crowleys have six children, and J. D. is a pioneer missionary-linguist in Cambodia.]

For around 30 years Kim and I have prayed for our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and their spouses (often during a time of fasting and prayer during the Tuesday or Wednesday lunch hour). Besides praying for individual requests as needs arose, we have prayed the same general requests below, week after week, year after year—and we’re constantly amazed how God faithfully answers. [Read more…] about This Is How We Pray for Our Children

Mike Bullmore on How Christians Should Think about the Next Presidential Election

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I highlighted this four years ago, and I encountered it again last week when re-listening to Mike Bullmore’s sermons on 1 Corinthians 12–14. It’s so good it’s worth highlighting again.

On October 26, 2008, Mike Bullmore prefaced his sermon with an outstanding 135-second pastoral exhortation in light of the upcoming election on November 4, 2008. I think he’d say the same thing re the upcoming election on November 6, 2012 (two weeks from today).

An excerpt:

There’s something more important than your voting next Tuesday . . . and that is where your confidence is, where your security is. . . . Let there be no loss of confidence in the goodness of God. Let there be no loss of security, whoever is in office. . . . There’s no cause no matter what happens—ever—for those who belong to God to worry or complain or whine.

Listen to the whole thing (2:15 min.).

C. S. Lewis Letters to Children

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Jenni and I recently read this book:

C. S. Lewis. C. S. Lewis Letters to Children.  Edited by Lyle W. Dorsett and Marjorie Lamp Mead. New York: Macmillan, 1985. 120 pp.

Tim and Kathy Keller mention it in The Meaning of Marriage:

As a girl of twelve, Kathy wrote to C. S. Lewis and received answers from him, which she taped to the inside covers of her copies of the Narnia Chronicles. His four letters to her (to “Kathy Kristy”) can be found in his Letters to Children and the third volume of Letters of C. S. Lewis. (p. 245, note 2)

C. S. Lewis wrote his third and fourth letters to Kathy less than a month before he died.

Lewis’s letters are fun and instructive to read. They are filled with his typical wit, and Lewis models how adults should treat children with respect.

11 excerpts: [Read more…] about C. S. Lewis Letters to Children

The New City Catechism and 5 Related Resources

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New-City-CatechismLast week Tim Keller asked “Why Catechesis Now?”

This morning TGC introduced the New City Catechism, adapted by Tim Keller and Sam Shammas from Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York.

TGC explains that catechisms have at least three purposes:

  1. Comprehensively explain the gospel, including the building blocks on which the gospel is based.
  2. Address and counteract the heresies, errors, and false beliefs of our time and culture.
  3. Form a distinct people, a counter-culture that reflects the likeness of Christ individually and communally.

The New City Catechism adapts three other catechisms:

  1. Calvin’s Geneva Catechism
  2. the Westminster Shorter and Larger Catechisms
  3. the Heidelberg Catechism

More:

  • It has 52 Q&As, one for each week of the year.
  • The answers have two levels: a simpler version and a more complex one (e.g., for children and adults).
  • Each Q&A includes commentary from a historical preacher and a short video from a TGC council member or pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.
  • The catechism is available online.
  • The Q&As are available in a 7-page PDF.
  • The interactive iPad app is free.
  • You can change the settings online and in the iPad app:

settings

5 Related Resources

Four recent books:

  1. DeYoung, Kevin. The Good News We Almost Forgot: Rediscovering the Gospel in a 16th Century Catechism. Chicago: Moody, 2010. (Cf. the first ever rap song about the Heidelberg Catechism.)
  2. Johnston, Mark G. Our Creed: For Every Culture and for Every Generation. Phillipsburg, NJ: P&R Publishing, 2012.
  3. Piper, John, ed. A Baptist Catechism. Minneapolis: Desiring God, 2012. (Free 40-page PDF)
  4. Trueman, Carl R. The Creedal Imperative. Wheaton: Crossway, 2012.

Questions with Answers by Dana Dirksen

(From #3 in “Bible Memory for Young Children“)

A mother and her children sing Bible verses and Q&A taken from a digest of the Westminster Shorter Catechism (Stephen Hildebrandt’s The Catechism for Young People). Some are more catchy than others (e.g., “How can you glorify God,” sample 3 here).