Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Ten Books Schnabel Recommends on the End Times

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Eckhard Schnabel, 40 Questions About the End Times (40 Questions; Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2011), 321 (numbering added):

  1. Archer, Gleason L., ed. Three Views on the Rapture: Pre-, Mid-, or Post-Tribulation. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 1996.  [The second edition came out in 2010, and the only repeat author is Doug Moo.]
  2. Blomberg, Craig L., and Sung Wook Chung, eds. A Case for Historic Premillennialism: An Alternative to “Left Behind” Eschatology. Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2009.  [See A. J. Gibson’s review in Themelios.] [Read more…] about Ten Books Schnabel Recommends on the End Times

Diagnostic Questions for Aspiring Pastors

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Dave Harvey, Am I Called? The Summons to Pastoral Ministry  (Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 63–64:

[E]verything we’ll talk about presupposes that your sense of call is focused more on serving the church than on fulfilling a dream.

Here are some questions you should think about now, because they’re going to make a big difference later.

What’s your present involvement in a local church? If you were a pastor, would you be any more committed to the church than you already are? What does your answer say about you? [Read more…] about Diagnostic Questions for Aspiring Pastors

Harry Potter Is Filled with Implicit and Explicit Christian Themes

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Admission: I read a book about the Harry Potter series. And I liked (most of) it:

John Granger. How Harry Cast His Spell: The Meaning Behind the Mania for J. K. Rowling’s Bestselling Books. 4th ed. Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2006. 304 pp. (34-page sample PDF)

I actually read a few others, too:

But they weren’t as captivating as this one (at least as this one starts out—it fizzles a bit).

I didn’t plan to read to read it straight through. I checked it out via my public library’s inter-library loan, and I planned to give it about 30 to 60 minutes. But after reading the first few chapters, I bought it in Kindle format and marked it up as I read the whole thing straight through. Chapters 1–10 and 19–20 are more interesting than the others.

The book is popular, not academic, and sometimes it is a bit corny. But its insights are worth the read. I don’t follow all of the symbolic connections Granger makes in this book: some of them seem like too much of a stretch (especially when deriving hidden meanings via tenuous etymologies), but most of them make sense.

I didn’t know that there are “Potter Scholars,” but TIME calls John Granger the “Dean of Harry Potter Scholars.”

One point that Granger demonstrates very well is that all seven Harry Potter books are filled with implicit and explicit Christian themes. He begins to unpack his argument in this sample PDF, but the rest of the book relentlessly and overwhelmingly proves that argument.

[Read more…] about Harry Potter Is Filled with Implicit and Explicit Christian Themes

Successful Rereading: Maintaining the Magic

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HP

This week Jenni and I finished re-listening to Jim Dale’s masterful reading of the Harry Potter series.

We enjoyed it so much the first time that we read the books again two years later, and the timing was just right. We loved it right out of the gate in book 1. We made so many more thematic connections the second time through that we missed the first time. (We initially focused on putting together the broad storyline.) What a pleasure.

We can relate to what Alan Jacobs writes about here—at least with reference to Harry Potter and Narnia—in The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011):

Children often have this experience:

Ten Narnia Resources

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My oldest daughter just finished hearing The Chronicles of Narnia for the first time. After we finished The Last Battle, Kara asked wistfully, “Daddy, are there any more Narnia books?” I had to confirm what she already knew: there are only seven Narnia books.

But she’s already looking forward to reading them again and again and again.

We utilized ten resources to enjoy Narnia, and I recommend them all:

1. The Unabridged Books

These are essential. All other resources merely supplement them.

It is pure pleasure to read these aloud to your children. [Read more…] about Ten Narnia Resources

15 Gospel-Centered Questions to Ask

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Jonathan K. Dodson,“Gospel-Centered Questions to Ask,” appendix 1 in Gospel-Centered Discipleship  (Re:Lit; Wheaton: Crossway, 2012), 155–56 (formatting added):

Here is a list of questions to help you cultivate gospel motivations.

Questions 11–15 are taken from Sam Storms’s book A Sincere and Pure Devotion to Christ.

See . . . forty-five more questions in David Powlison’s list of “X-ray Questions.”

  1. What do you desire more than anything else?
  2. What do you find yourself daydreaming or fantasizing about?
  3. What lies do you subtly believe that undermine the truth of the gospel?
  4. Are you astonished with the gospel? [Read more…] about 15 Gospel-Centered Questions to Ask