Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Warning to Calvinists: Don’t Let Your Love for Truth Excuse Factionalism

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Two new books address a familiar controversy:

  • Michael Horton. For Calvinism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011.  [PDF sample]
  • Roger E. Olson. Against Calvinism. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2011. [PDF sample]

(Horton wins hands-down on the more attractive book cover—not to mention the argument!)

Horton’s last chapter is entitled “Calvinism Today: A SWOT Analysis.” Here’s how he introduces it:

We know from daily experience that our greatest strengths can also become our greatest weaknesses.

  1. Persistence can become stubbornness;
  2. sympathy can devolve into sentimentality; and
  3. genuine concern for others sometimes turns into an obsequious craving for approval.
  4. Remarkable gifts of leadership and creativity can be used for good or ill, depending on the motivation and the goals.
  5. The same is true of movements, since they are largely the collective activity of people like us.

It has become popular for businesses and organizations to conduct a periodical “SWOT” analysis, [Read more…] about Warning to Calvinists: Don’t Let Your Love for Truth Excuse Factionalism

Tom Holland’s New Commentary on Romans

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When Doug Moo recommends something on Romans, I take note because he’s the Jedi-master of Romans.

Tom Holland. Romans: The Divine Marriage; A Biblical Theological Commentary. Eugene, OR: Pickwick, 2011. 543 pp.

  1. Douglas J. Moo: “As the subtitle indicates, Tom Holland’s Romans is truly both biblical and theological, as the letter is set firmly in its unfolding canonical context. Holland shows how Romans contributes to our understanding of God’s covenant arrangement with humankind. The commentary digs deeply into current scholarship on the Old Testament roots of Paul’s teaching, yet presents its conclusions in accessible language.”
  2. Robert W. Yarbrough: “This vigorously argued commentary seeks to allow Old Testament themes and thought patterns, not misguided scholarly conventions, to control Romans’ message. . . . Scholars of Romans will be stimulated by interaction with this canonically alert, creative, and frequently contrarian exposition and synthesis of a Pauline classic.”
  3. Anthony C. Thiselton: “Tom Holland always remains alert to the influence and relevance of the Old Testament and emphasizes the impact of Paul’s thought upon the church as a community as well as on the individual as part of that community. Above all, Tom Holland deploys his scholarship to produce a very salient and practical commentary.”

[Read more…] about Tom Holland’s New Commentary on Romans

Gospel Meditations for Missions

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This booklet becomes available this week:

Chris Anderson, ed. Gospel Meditations for Missions: Thirty-One Daily Readings to Help You Be Gospel-Saturated All Day, Every Day. Madison, OH: Church Works, 2011.

You can read the introduction and two meditations in this PDF sample.

I love the authors. They’re faithful servants.

Here’s an excerpt from one of the meditations (day 31): [Read more…] about Gospel Meditations for Missions

D. A. Carson’s Theological Method

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Update in October 2023: I updated my essay for a new book of essays by D. A. Carson:

Andrew David Naselli. “D. A. Carson’s Theological Method.” Pages 11–50 in The Gospel and the Modern World: A Theological Vision for the Church. Edited by Brian J. Tabb. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2023.

* * * * * * *

This essay appears in the latest issue of SBET:

Andrew David Naselli. “D. A. Carson’s Theological Method.” Scottish Bulletin of Evangelical Theology 29 (2011): 245–74.

It revises a paper I submitted to Kevin Vanhoozer at TEDS in December 2006 for his PhD seminar “Advanced Theological Prolegomena.” I told some friends in the class at the time that I’d like to publish my essay in about five years, which would give me more time to better understand Don Carson’s theological method.

Here’s the outline:

1. Carson’s Background: Some Factors That Influence His Theological Method

1.1. Carson’s Family
1.2. Carson’s Education
1.3. Carson’s Professional Experience
1.4. Some Other Background Factors

2. Carson’s Corrigible Presuppositions

2.1. Carson’s Metaphysics: God
2.2. Carson’s Epistemology: Chastened Foundationalism [Read more…] about D. A. Carson’s Theological Method

HCSB vs. ESV vs. NIV

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Two months ago Liberty University hosted a discussion on Bible translation between three Bible translators:

  1. Ray Clendenen (HCSB)
  2. Wayne Grudem (ESV)
  3. Doug Moo (NIV)

I watched the three presentations and Q&A this week, and they helpfully introduce the issue:

HCSB

ESV

NIV

Panel Q&A

I’m looking forward to B&H’s book next year that will present four perspectives on Bible translation authored by the three men above plus Philip Comfort (NLT), edited by Dave Croteau and Andreas Köstenberger.

Related:

  1. The Best All-Around Book on Bible Translation
  2. How Not to Argue about Which Bible Translation Is Best

Update on 3/31/2017: In my latest attempt to explain how to interpret and apply the Bible, I include a chapter on Bible translation (pp. 50–81).

Fifteen Favorite Christmas Songs

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Here are fifteen of my favorite Christmas songs:

  1. “The 12 Days of Christmas” (live; studio) | Straight No Chaser | Holiday Spirits | video
  2. “Angels’ Carol” | John Rutter, the Cambridge Singers | Christmas with the Cambridge Singers | video
  3. “The Christmas Can-Can” | Straight No Chaser | Christmas Cheers | video
  4. “Christmas Fantasy for Orchestra” | Dan and Heidi Goeller | The Word Became Flesh
  5. “Everlasting Life” | The Rushingbrook Children’s Choir | The Most Wonderful Birthday of All
  6. “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly” | Dan Forrest | Prepare Him Room
  7. “Joy to the World” | Empire Brass | Joy to the World
  8. “Linus & Lucy” | Vince Guaraldi Trio | A Charlie Brown Christmas
  9. “A Little Christmas Music: Medley a la Mozart” | The King’s Singers, Kiri Te Kanawa | A Little Christmas Music
  10. “Lo! How a Rose” | SMS Men’s Chorus | King of Glory
  11. “Magnificat” | Keith and Kristyn Getty | An Irish Christmas
  12. “Mary, Did You Know?” | Kathleen Battle, accompanied by Christopher Parkening | Angel’s Glory | lyrics
  13. “Sleep, Jesus, Sleep” | Shannon Harris | Savior: Celebrating the Mystery of God Become Man
  14. “Somewhere in My Memory” | John Williams, the Boston Pops Orchestra | Joy to the World
  15. “Suo Gan,” the instrumental part from 1:11 to 2:19 | Irish Tenors | Home for Christmas

What are some of your favorite songs?

Update in December 2016: I recently discovered another one. Our girls love The Nutcracker. We’ve probably played it hundreds of times for them. So this song by Straight No Chaser makes me laugh.

Are Profits Moral?

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Four men—two businessmen and two theologians—coauthor an answer to that question and reach this conclusion:

Clearly, in the biblical system of ethics, profit is godly if it is gained in God’s way. And surprisingly, this means that not making a profit may also be a sin against God, one’s neighbor and oneself!

Adam Smith established by rational evaluation that profit making was an inherent part of human conduct as it worked itself out in the social environment of human culture. What Adam Smith described was actually a traditional perspective of the Reformed tradition as evidenced by Max Weber. This is not only evident in Weber’s analysis, however. It is in fact established by a careful reading of the Reformed tradition’s classic ethical treatise, the Westminster Larger Catechism. And this serves to underscore how an inherent hostility to profits gained in a just manner is actually an expression of the socialistic spirit that emanates  from Marx’s Communist Manifesto.

While there clearly can be “obscene profits” under the Calvinistic system, that is, a violation of one’s duty to God and man in acquiring profits, it must also be maintained that profit making itself is not inherently obscene. If such were not the case, the parable of the talents given by our Lord could not righteously include the words to the faithful steward in Matthew 25:26–27, “His master replied, ‘You wicked, lazy servant! So you knew that I harvest where I have not sown and gather where I have not scattered seed? Well then, you should have put my money on deposit with the bankers, so that when I returned I would have received it back with interest” (NIV).

—Philip J. Clements, Peter Lillback, Wayne Grudem, and John Weiser, “Are Profits Moral? Answers from a Comparison of Adam Smith, Max Weber, Karl Marx, and the Westminster Larger Catechism,” in Business Ethics Today: Foundations (ed. Philip J. Clements; Philadelphia: Westminster Seminary Press, 2011), 160–61.

Related:

1. Phil Clements interviews Peter Lillback about the Reformed faith and capitalism:

2. Wayne Grudem begins to answer the question, “What is at risk for business if we lose a Christian worldview?”

3. “If I Become Rich, Won’t Someone Else Become Poor?”

Two New Bible Translations

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Recently I’ve been reading two new Bible translations:

  1. The Expanded Bible: Explore the Depths of the Scriptures While You Read. Translated by Tremper Longman III, Mark L. Strauss, and Daniel Taylor. Nashville: Nelson, 2011. 1910 pp. [Preview the front matter and the Gospel of John.]
  2. The Kingdom New Testament: A Contemporary Translation of the New Testament. Translated by N. T. Wright. New York: HarperOne, 2011. 526 pp. [Preview it using Amazon’s “Look Inside” feature.]

Neither translation is one that churches will adopt as their primary one for preaching, teaching, and memorizing. But [Read more…] about Two New Bible Translations