Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Themelios 33:3

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The latest issue of Themelios was released today, and it is outstanding! (It is available as a 129-page PDF or in HTML.)

  1. Editorial | D. A. Carson
  2. Minority Report: The Way of the Christian Academic | Carl Trueman
  3. The Gospel and the Poor | Tim Keller
  4. Shared Intentions? Reflections on Inspiration and Interpretation in Light of Scripture’s Dual Authorship | Jared M. Compton
  5. The Center of Biblical Theology in Acts: Deliverance and Damnation Display the Divine | James M. Hamilton Jr.
  6. Salvation History, Chronology, and Crisis: A Problem with Inclusivist Theology of Religions, Part 2 of 2 | Adam Sparks
  7. Ezra, According to the Gospel: Ezra 7:10 | Philip Graham Ryken
  8. Book Reviews | 32 reviews
    1. Old Testament | 4 reviews
    2. New Testament | 6 reviews
    3. history and historical theology | 3 reviews
    4. systematic theology and bioethics | 15 reviews, 2 book notes
    5. ethics and pastoralia | 1 review
    6. missions and culture | 2 reviews

Publications

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I just updated my publications page:

  1. I reorganized it. Before it was organized chronologically as a single list, but now it is organized chronologically under three categories: books, articles, and reviews.
  2. I uploaded most of the articles and reviews.

Church Works Media

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My friend Chris Anderson introduces a new website: Church Works Media (RSS feed). The site includes some contributions from Joe Tyrpak, a gifted, godly young pastor and one of my close friends (e.g., he’s one of my accountability parters).

Bob Kauflin testifies,

Even though I’m usually associated with a more contemporary style of music than what is found on this site, I deeply resonate with the values of ChurchWorksMedia.com. In my interactions with Chris Anderson over the years, his desire to faithfully communicate in song the truth and wonder of God’s Word has been unmistakable. I’m glad to see the hymns he and others have been writing gain a wider audience through this website.

“Fundamentalist baggage”

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Here are a couple of interesting paragraphs from Greg Beale‘s latest book, The Erosion of Inerrancy in Evangelicalism: Responding to New Challenges to Biblical Authority (Wheaton: Crossway, 2008).

In fact, there is an increasingly popular attitude that the Chicago Statement and the term inerrancy carry significant “fundamentalist baggage,” with all the negative associations that go with the word fundamentalism (e.g., narrow, obscurantist, anti-scholarly, unsophisticated). I have found that this perspective is also shared by some more conservative biblical and theological scholars. This is not the place to discuss the origins of the word fundamentalism and the development of the use of the word. Suffice it to say that what appears to be “fundamentalist” is in the eye of the beholder.

J. I. Packer in his “Fundamentalism” and the Word of God has given a nice, brief discussion of the origins of fundamentalism and how the word has come to be used. Though that was written in the late 1950s, his basic points still hold. There he distinguishes a fundamentalist view of Scripture from an  evangelical view, the latter of which he subsequently identified with the Chicago Statement on inerrancy since he himself was one of the more well known among its signatories in 1978 (p. 21).

What We Should Do with Our Money

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This morning my pastor, Mike Bullmore, finished his sermon series on 1 Corinthians with a sermon on 1 Corinthians 16 entitled “What We Should Do with Our Money” (37:48 long). Mike hit a home run with this one. It’s an excellent example of how to preach on giving. He approaches it with just the right tone and spirit, and he avoids the errors of both legalism (e.g., “Christians must give exactly 10% of their gross income or else they are robbing God!”) and libertinism (e.g., “Christians are not required to tithe” with the implication that giving is optional).

Here’s a brief overview/paraphrase of the sermon: [Read more…] about What We Should Do with Our Money

Carson: “Mystery and Fulfillment”

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I just read s-l-o-w-l-y through a 44-page article for the third time. (The last time I read it was fall 2006.) In my view this is the most brilliant academic article that D. A. Carson has written:

D. A. Carson. “Mystery and Fulfillment: Toward a More Comprehensive Paradigm of Paul’s Understanding of the Old and New.” Pages 393–436 in The Paradoxes of Paul. Vol. 2 of Justification and Variegated Nomism. Edited by D. A. Carson, Peter T. O’Brien, and Mark A. Seifrid. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen Testament 181. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2004.

It richly repays repeated, thorough readings. But be warned: it’s dense. What follows is an uneven summary that doesn’t do it justice. (Read the whole thing. It’s worth the price of the book, which amount to a little less than $1 per page.) Understanding this article will help one make connections between the OT and the NT more richly.

Note: Italics in quotations are in the original. [Read more…] about Carson: “Mystery and Fulfillment”