Today Christianity Today posted Doug Sweeney‘s “My Top Five Books on Church History.”
Don Carson’s Advice about Two Ways to Approach Writing a Dissertation
Don Carson’s review of Chris VanLandingham’s Judgment and Justification in Early Judaism and the Apostle Paul includes sound advice about two ways to approach writing a dissertation (Carson’s advice also applies to writing a research paper):
I frequently tell my doctoral students as they embark on their research that dissertations in the broad field of the arts disciplines, including biblical and theological disciplines, can, at the risk of slight oversimplification, be divided into two camps.
[1. Deductive Approach] In the first camp, the student begins with an idea, a fresh insight, a thesis he or she would like to test against the evidence.
[2. Inductive Approach] In the second, the student has no thesis to begin with but would like to explore the evidence in a certain domain to see exactly what is going on in a group of texts and admits to uncertainty about what the outcome will be.
[1] The advantage of the first kind of thesis is that the work is exciting from the beginning and directed by the thesis that is being tested; the danger is that, unless the student takes extraordinary precautions and proves to be remarkably self-critical, the temptation to domesticate the evidence in order to defend the thesis becomes well-nigh irresistible.
[2] The advantage of the second kind of thesis is that it is likely to produce more even-handed results than the first, since the researcher has no axe to grind and is therefore more likely to follow the evidence wherever it leads; the danger is that there may not be much of a thesis at the end of the process, but merely a lot of well-organized data.
In reality, of course, dissertation projects regularly straddle both camps in various ways. But VanLandingham’s work neatly falls pretty exclusively into the first camp. That makes for interesting reading. Unfortunately, VanLandingham’s work also demonstrates in a superlative fashion the dangers of this sort of approach.
Paradoxical Humans and Your Worldview
Daniel L. Migliore observes that humans are paradoxical:
“We human beings are a mystery to ourselves. We are rational and irrational, civilized and savage, capable of deep friendship and murderous hostility, free and in bondage, the pinnacle of creation and its greatest danger. We are Rembrandt and Hitler, Mozart and Stalin, Antigone and Lady Macbeth, Ruth and Jezebel” (Faith Seeking Understanding: An Introduction to Christian Theology [2d ed.; Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2004], p. 139).
How many worldviews can adequately account for that? Christians account for it with the Fall in Genesis 3 and by tracing harmatiological trajectories all the way through to the consummation in Revelation 21–22. The Fall is an essential component of the Bible’s storyline; without it we’d have a hard time making sense out of reality.
The Fall, however, is only part of the frame of reference necessary for making sense out of reality. That frame of reference is supplied by the Bible’s storyline. For a thoughtful presentation of that storyline, see chapters 5–6 in D. A. Carson, The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996), pp. 193–314.
See also chapters 2–3 in D. A. Carson, Christ and Culture Revisited (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, forthcoming [Spring 2008]).
The Centrality of the Cross in Our Worship
In “The Cross: Crucial in Worship,” Bob Kauflin argues that Jesus’ cross-work is related to our worship in three ways:
- “Jesus’ atoning work on the cross is our means of access.”
- “Jesus’ atoning work on the cross makes our worship acceptable.”
- “Jesus’ atoning work on the cross is the object of our adoration.”
“Reflections on Logos Books and Print Books After Moving”
Phil Gons reflects on advantages of Logos books over print books after moving his his library from South Carolina across the country to Washington. I heartily agree with him!
Cf. “Are E-Books Riskier Than Print Books?” and “How Is an E-Library Superior to a Print Library?” in my review of Scholar’s Library: Gold (Logos Bible Software).
ETS and SBL
This morning I returned home from San Diego, where I attended the annual meetings for the Evangelical Theological Society and the Society of Biblical Literature. I immensely enjoyed the sunny weather in San Diego (where I lived in 1994–1995 and where Jenni and I honeymooned in 2004), seeing and making new friends, and buying and browsing books!
“Preach the Word”: A Festschrift for R. Kent Hughes
Crossway just released a superb book on preaching in honor of Kent Hughes:
Leland Ryken and Todd A. Wilson, eds. Preach the Word: Essays on Expository Preaching: In Honor of R. Kent Hughes. Wheaton: Crossway, 2007.
- See Crossway’s description of the book as well as its contents, introduction and chapter 1 as a PDF, and back cover.
- You can read the entire book online here.
- D. A. Carson‘s “Challenges for the Twenty-first-century Pulpit” (pp. 172–89) is exceptionally insightful.
Excuses for “Book Plunder”
The latest post on “Addenda & Errata” (a blog by IVP editors) is hilarious: “Top Ten Things to Say on Returning Home with Conference Book Plunder.” (I already shared the article with my wife, so I won’t be able to use any of these excuses—except for #3—after returning home from ETS and SBL in San Diego!)