Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

That Little Voice in Your Head: Learning about Your Conscience

by

A few years ago my friend J. D. Crowley and I wrote a book on the conscience. Our target audience was adults, not children.

Then my daughter Kara, who was eight years old at the time, asked me if I would write a book on the conscience for children. How could I say no to that?

So I attempted to write my first children’s book (which releases this week):

Andrew David Naselli. That Little Voice in Your Head: Learning about Your Conscience. Illustrated by Julie Carter. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus, 2018.

[Read more…] about That Little Voice in Your Head: Learning about Your Conscience

NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible

by

The NIV Zondervan Study Bible, edited by D. A. Carson, released three years ago. (See my roundup here, which includes eight videos.)

I worked on that study Bible as the assistant editor for four years full-time and for a fifth year part-time. I managed the project and helped copyedit all of the notes and essays for content and style.

Zondervan is now repackaging that resource as the NIV Biblical Theology Study Bible.

It’s available from Amazon, and starting today it’s on sale for one week from Westminster Bookstore (sale ends September 4).

An Interview about Keswick Theology with the Director of Keswick Ministries

by

I have spent a lot of time researching Keswick or higher life theology. I wrote a PhD dissertation on it (2006), and I condensed it into an article (2008) and revised it as an academic book (2010), which I recently condensed and updated into a more accessible book (2017).

Here is how I define two key terms in my 2010 book Let Go and Let God?

  1. The “early Keswick movement” refers to a movement from 1875 to 1920 that was (1) conservatively evangelical; (2) based on and distinguished by the belief that the majority of Christians are living in defeat and that the secret to living “the higher life,” “the deeper life,” or “the victorious Christian life” is consecration followed by Spirit-filling; and (3) stimulated by annual conventions at Keswick, England, and literature by its propagators.
  2. Keswick theology refers to the view of sanctification shared by the prominent propagators of the early Keswick movement.

Keswick is a small town in the Lake District in northwest England, and it recently became a World Heritage Site. Since 1875, it has hosted a meeting in July for the Keswick Convention. It started as a small one-week event, but now it runs for three weeks and attracts up to 15,000 adults and children. Its impact has extended all over the UK and the world. From 1875 to about 1920, those meetings featured higher life theology. Beginning in the 1920s, the Keswick Convention’s view of sanctification began to shift from the view that the leaders of the early Keswick Convention promoted from 1875 to 1920. William Graham Scroggie (1877–1958) led that transformation to a view of progressive sanctification closer to the Reformed view. More recently its speakers have included people like Don Carson, Tim Chester, Sinclair Ferguson, and Christopher Ash, whose views on the Christian life differ significantly from the early Keswick movement.

For the first half of 2018, my family lived in Cambridge, England, during my research sabbatical, and in June I was able to visit Keswick for the first time.

I also corresponded with some brothers who work for Keswick Ministries, and the Ministry Director, Dr. James Robson, kindly answered a few of my questions. [Read more…] about An Interview about Keswick Theology with the Director of Keswick Ministries

Wayne Grudem’s Introduction to Christian Ethics

by

This book is now available:

Wayne Grudem. Christian Ethics: An Introduction to Biblical Moral Reasoning. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2018.

My endorsement:

This is the best all-around book on Christian ethics I’m aware of, and I plan to require it as the primary textbook for my course on biblical ethics. Grudem writes in his characteristic style: clear, logical, accessible, and (usually!) persuasive. [Read more…] about Wayne Grudem’s Introduction to Christian Ethics

The Structure and Theological Message of 1 Corinthians

by

My family is spending the first half of 2018 at Tyndale House in Cambridge, England, while I spend a research sabbatical drafting a commentary on 1 Corinthians for Crossway’s new ESV Bible Expository Commentary series.

The theological journal Presbyterion just published a 17-page article I wrote that is a more detailed version of part of my commentary’s introduction:

Andrew David Naselli. “The Structure and Theological Message of 1 Corinthians.” Presbyterion 44.1 (2018): 98–114.

My conclusion:

  • The most plausible structure for 1 Corinthians is that the letter addresses a string of ten parallel controversial issues in the church.
  • The letter’s theological message is that the gospel requires God’s holy people to mature in purity and unity.

8 Videos from the Theologians on the Christian Life Conference

by

On April 20–21, Bethlehem College & Seminary (my school) and Crossway (my favorite publisher) cohosted the Theologians on the Christian Life Conference.

Steve Nichols and Justin Taylor edit the Theologians on the Christian Life series that Crossway has published since 2012. The series is historically informed and warmly devotional.

Here are eight videos from the conference:

1. Justin Taylor Interviews John Piper

[Read more…] about 8 Videos from the Theologians on the Christian Life Conference

Was It Always Idolatrous for Corinthian Christians to Eat Εἰδωλόθυτα (Food Offered to Idols) in an Idol’s Temple? (1 Corinthians 8–10)

by

The latest issue of Southeastern Theological Review just released (9.1), and it includes an article I wrote on 1 Corinthians 8–10:

“Was It Always Idolatrous for Corinthian Christians to Eat Εἰδωλόθυτα in an Idol’s Temple? (1 Cor 8–10).” Southeastern Theological Review 9 (2018): 23–45.

Here’s the abstract:

Does Paul teach in 1 Cor 8–10 that it was always idolatrous for Corinthian Christians to eat εἰδωλόθυτα [eidōlothuta] in an idol’s temple?

Gordon Fee and other exegetes present three interrelated arguments that the answer is yes:

(1) eating εἰδωλόθυτα in an idol’s temple was an inherently religious event;

(2) εἰδωλόθυτος means meat sacrificed to idols that one eats in an idol’s temple; and

(3) 1 Cor 8 parallels 10:14–22.

But the more plausible answer is no:

(1) eating εἰδωλόθυτα in an idol’s temple could be a non-idolatrous social event—like eating in a restaurant;

(2) εἰδωλόθυτος means meat sacrificed to idols—whether one eats it in an idol’s temple or at home; and

(3) 1 Cor 8 differs significantly from 10:14–22.

What motivated me to study this issue in the first place was not primarily the historical-cultural context but the literary context. I cannot harmonize 1 Cor 8:9–10 with 10:14–22 unless what Paul describes in 8:9–10 is actually a disputable matter and not always idolatry.