Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

D. A. Carson’s Christ and Culture Revisited

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christ-and-culture-revisited.jpgD. A. Carson’s Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2008) is now available.

I heartily recommend this volume.

  • Carson skillfully applies his biblical theological framework—interpreting the whole Bible with a robust salvation-historical grid—to the issue of “Christ and Culture” that H. Richard Niebuhr raised in 1951.
  • It is a model work for combining biblical, historical, systematic, and practical theology for the benefit of the church.
  • Though Carson normally publishes in the fields of NT exegesis and theology, this book is impressively up-to-date with the relevant literature and arguments.

I had the privilege of meticulously reading this volume straight through at least three times at various stages last year. It’s the type of book that rewards slow, thoughtful, even repeated reading.

D. A. Carson on Evangelicalism (and Fundamentalism)

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The following two (lengthy) MP3s by D. A. Carson are penetrating:

This afternoon I listened to the more recent one (“What is Evangelicalism?”), and I was encouraged by Carson’s 4.5-minute analysis of the current state of fundamentalism. It is not particularly constructive when evangelicals and fundamentalists broad-brush and launch grenades at each other. Contrast Carson’s conciliatory attitude here: listen from 42:10 to 46:30.

Update: A transcript of the 4.5-minute analysis is available here.

Kevin Bauder: “Fundamentalism and Scholarship”

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Kevin BauderBauder has finished another thoughtful series of short essays: “Fundamentalism and Scholarship.”

I’ve combined all 12 short essays into one PDF.

  1. Not Me (January 4, 2008)
  2. What Is a Scholar? (January 11, 2008)
  3. Hazards of Scholarship (January 18, 2008)
  4. Does Fundamentalism Need Scholars? (January 25, 2008)
  5. Does Fundamentalism Have Scholars? (February 1, 2008)
  6. How Do We Get Scholars? (February 8, 2008)
  7. To Make a Scholar (February 15, 2008)
  8. The Scholarly Life (February 22, 2008)
  9. Models of Scholarship (February 29, 2008)
  10. Scholarship and Separatism (March 14, 2008)
  11. The Dual Responsibility of a Christian Scholar (March 21, 2008)
  12. The Christian Scholar’s Christian Responsibility (March 28, 2008)

Note: Central Seminary emails these essays every Friday afternoon. You can access the archives here.

Craig Blomberg: “Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters”

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The second essay in Christ on Campus Initiative’s series was released this morning: Craig Blomberg‘s “Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters.” The CCI essays are (1) by evangelical scholars, (2) geared for campus evangelism, and (3) edited by D. A. Carson. Readers and organizations may circulate these essays without charge.

The Christ on Campus Initiative (CCI) is a ministry created for the purpose of preparing and circulating literature for college and university students, addressing an array of important intellectual and practical issues from an evangelical Christian perspective. This initiative is made possible by generous support from the Carl F. H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding (Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, Deerfield, IL) and the MAC foundation (Fort Collins, CO). The editorial team, led by D.A. Carson, commissions top evangelical scholars to oversee the creation and distribution of a variety of resources for university students. The goal of these resources is that they be intellectually rigorous, culturally relevant, persuasive in argument, and faithful to historic, evangelical Christianity.

Blomberg

Here’s an outline of Blomberg’s 29-page article:

[Read more…] about Craig Blomberg: “Jesus of Nazareth: How Historians Can Know Him and Why It Matters”

Keswick Theology

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Last week I was honored to give the 2008 William R. Rice Lecture Series at Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary on “Keswick Theology: A Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement.” (Update: It’s available as a PDF.)

Keswick

The manuscript for this lecture series is scheduled for publication in the fall 2008 Detroit Baptist Seminary Journal. It distills my first dissertation (“Keswick Theology: A Historical and Theological Survey and Analysis of the Doctrine of Sanctification in the Early Keswick Movement, 1875–1920,” Ph.D. dissertation, Bob Jones University, 2006; xxiv + 387 pp.) from about 100,000 to 20,000 words.

Detroit Seminary is hosting the following resources from the lecture series:

  1. Handout (five-page PDF)
  2. Power Point presentation as a PDF (eighty slides with lots of pictures) [12.1 MB]
  3. MP3s:

Keswick 2

(photos by Dr. Robert V. McCabe)

Update (June 2, 2010): This analysis of Keswick theology is updated and now available as a book.

Update on 8/23/2017: My latest book attempts to survey and analyze “let go and let God” theology more accessibly:

No Quick Fix

John Piper’s “Desiring God”

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Mark Dever posed his eighth “T4Free question” on the T4G blog earlier this week, and I was surprised that my answer was selected. (Perhaps mine had the least misspelled words and the most Piper-like hyphenated ones! Regardless, I’m grateful for this happy providence and eager for edification along with about 5,000 other people at T4G in mid-April 2008.) Here’s Mark’s question followed by the 100-words-or-less answer I submitted:

Q: “What Christian book (other than the Bible) do you think has been read by the most people attending T4G 2008, and why?”

A: “John Piper’s Desiring God

“This richly theological and warmly devotional best-seller has been the means for sending countless Christians on a trajectory towards theology that is increasingly joyful, robust, God-centered, Christ-exalting, and gospel-treasuring.

“My testimony is not unusual. I read it as a freshman in college and again during my first year of seminary, and it had a revolutionary effect on my Christian life. It shaped my attitude towards Reformed soteriology and convinced me that God is most glorified in me when I am most satisfied in Him.”

desiringgod.jpg

In addition to selling the print book for just $9.50, Desiring God Ministries offers the following free resources:

I thank God for John Piper. He is a gift to the church.

On a related note, D. A. Carson pays Piper no small compliment in the preface to Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor: The Life and Reflections of Tom Carson by mentioning him parallel to three other giants of the faith:

“But my aim is much more modest: to convey enough of his [i.e., Tom Carson’s] ministry and his own thought that ordinary ministers are encouraged, not least by the thought that the God of Augustine, Calvin, Spurgeon, and Piper is no less the God of Tom Carson, and of you and me” (p. 11).