Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Practical Theology

Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness

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In C. S. Lewis’s brilliant address “The Weight of Glory,” he talks about our “desire for our own far-off country.” Then he asks,

Do you think I am trying to weave a spell? Perhaps I am; but remember your fairy tales. Spells are used for breaking enchantments as well as for inducing them. And you and I have need of the strongest spell that can be found to wake us from the evil enchantment of worldliness which has been laid upon us for nearly a hundred years.

On March 1 I preached a sermon on 1 John 2:15–17 in Bethlehem College & Seminary chapel about breaking “the evil enchantment of worldliness.” (By the way, preachers used to address worldliness more often. I searched Charles Spurgeon’s published sermons and discovered that he used the word worldliness over 350 times.)

Here’s a video of the 40-minute sermon:

I ask and briefly answer twelve questions about 1 John 2:15–17: [Read more…] about Do Not Love the World: Breaking the Evil Enchantment of Worldliness

3 Helpful Books on Productivity: Essentialism, Deep Work, and Reset

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I recently read three helpful books on productivity. I still think the best overall book on productivity is Tim Challies’s Do More Better: A Practical Guide to Productivity. But these three books served me by reinforcing and supplementing Do More Better.

The first two are secular (with lots of common grace). The third is evangelical.

1. Greg McKeown. Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less. New York: Crown Business, 2014.

  • Figure out what your core responsibilities and most important goals are.
  • Block out time for that.
  • Say No to other things—even good things—that you don’t have bandwidth for.
  • Don’t feel guilty about saying No.
  • Don’t overcommit. Setting strategic boundaries frees you to do what is most important. Less is more.

[Read more…] about 3 Helpful Books on Productivity: Essentialism, Deep Work, and Reset

Carson: 10 Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives

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The next issue of Themelios doesn’t release for a few months, but we are releasing the lead article in that issue early because it is so timely:

Carson, D. A. “Subtle Ways to Abandon the Authority of Scripture in Our Lives.” Themelios 42 (2017): 1–12. [web version | PDF]

Carson addresses a number of controversial issues, including what Jen and Brandon Hatmaker have recently argued to support monogamous same-sex marriage.

Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical

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makingsenseI benefitted from carefully reading this book:

Timothy Keller. Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical. New York: Viking, 2016.

It’s a prequel to Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, a New York Times best seller and the modern version of C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.

To learn why Keller wrote this prequel, read Matt Smethurst’s interview with Keller.

Then read Andrew Wilson’s review.

Then watch the talk Keller gave to employees of Google: [Read more…] about Making Sense of God: An Invitation to the Skeptical

Social Media Can Make You Unhappy While Pressuring You to Always Appear Happy

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freitasThis book opened my eyes to how social media emotionally crushes so many people:

Donna Freitas, The Happiness Effect: How Social Media Is Driving a Generation to Appear Perfect at Any Cost (New York: Oxford University Press, 2017).

Freitas is a sociologist who previously wrote a book on the hookup culture among college students. The more she researched college students, the more she realized how social media is sucking happiness out of them. [Read more…] about Social Media Can Make You Unhappy While Pressuring You to Always Appear Happy