Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Dignity

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This week I listened to the audiobook of Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Nov. 2010). Wow. What a story.

One of the book’s motifs is that POWs craved dignity as much as they craved physical necessities like food and clothing:

Few societies treasured dignity, and feared humiliation, as did the Japanese, for whom a loss of honor could merit suicide. This is likely one of the reasons why Japanese soldiers in World War II debased their prisoners with such zeal, seeking to take from them that which was most painful and destructive to lose. On Kwajalein, Louie and Phil learned a dark truth known to the doomed in Hitler’s death camps, the slaves of the American South, and a hundred other generations of betrayed people. Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it. The loss of it can carry a man off as surely as thirst, hunger, exposure, and asphyxiation, and with greater cruelty. In places like Kwajalein, degradation could be as lethal as a bullet. (p. 183, emphasis added)

What is “the only real foundation for human dignity and human rights”? Humans are created in the image of God.

Charlotte’s Web: A Model of Good Writing

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Last month Tony Reinke encouraged me to read E. B. White’s Charlotte’s Web (1952) to my daughter. Not only would my daughter love it, but I could learn a lot about how to write better.

That was good advice. My daughter Kara and I read it together in late April and thoroughly enjoyed it. It was her first “chapter” book without pictures on every page. I watched the 1973-film several times as a child, but I had never read the book (nor have I seen the 2006-film).

E. B. White knows how to write. Simple. Clear. Elegant. Magical.

That didn’t just happen. White worked tirelessly at it. He revised Charlotte’s Web many times until the wording was just right. (White contributes to the first of the “Six Useful Books on Writing” I list here.)

I love how the book ends. Someday I hope my friends can say this of me: “It is not often that someone comes along who is a true friend and a good writer. Charlotte was both.”

A Good Excuse for Not Wearing Neckties

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Public-health officials trying to reduce hospital-acquired infections have adopted this one:

forbidding doctors to wear neckties because, as the U.K. Department of Health has noted, they

  • “are rarely laundered,”
  • “perform no beneficial function in patient care,” and
  • “have been shown to be colonized pathogens.”

—Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, Super Freakonomics, p. 298 (bullet-points added).

Mark Driscoll: A Fundamentalist in Everything but Name?

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One of John R. Rice’s grandson just wrote this book:

Andrew Himes. The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family. Seattle: Chiara, 2011.

Himes (b. 1950), who identifies himself as a follower of Jesus but not as a fundamentalist or evangelical, has a provocative perspective on Mark Driscoll (pp. 13–14):

Mark Driscoll is the prominent pastor of Mars Hill Church in a neighborhood near my home in Seattle. I’ve attended Driscoll‘s church several times to listen to his preaching and get a clear sense of his theology, which is identical in almost every respect with older fundamentalists such as John R. Rice, although he adds a twist of Calvinism . . . .

Driscoll does not claim to be a fundamentalist, and many who today willingly accept the label of fundamentalist would not claim him as their sectarian brother. Nonetheless, Driscoll is a fundamentalist in everything but name, and shares virtually all his doctrinal positions and attitudes with any other fundamentalist. [Read more…] about Mark Driscoll: A Fundamentalist in Everything but Name?

Hymns: Modern and Ancient

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This hymnal should be available by early next week:

Fred R. Coleman, ed. Hymns: Modern and Ancient. Milwaukee: Heart, 2011.

“These 134 songs from both present day and past hymn writers have been arranged in four-part harmony for local church, congregational singing. This songbook is intended to be a supplement to traditional hymnals.”

Each song also includes guitar chords.

You can view the list of the 134 songs here. It includes some of my favorites:

  • Before the Throne of God Above
  • How Deep the Father’s Love
  • I Will Glory in My Redeemer
  • In Christ Alone
  • The Gospel Song
  • O Church, Arise
  • The Power of the Cross
  • O Great God

Fred writes in the acknowledgments that his wife, Ruth Coleman, “did the majority of the harmonization of the tunes and all of the Finale typesetting. The concept and the song content were my only contributions; she did all the work and made it a reality.”

Our understanding of God and the gospel affects the quality of our worship through singing, and the quality of what we regularly sing affects our understanding of God and the gospel. These rich hymns engage our affections for the Triune God, and I thank God for them.

Keith Getty on Why Our Musical Understanding Must Go Beyond Contemporary Music

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Keith Getty, “Leading Corporate Worship Music,” a workshop at The Gospel Coalition’s national conference on April 13, 2011, 56:30–59:03:

If our musical understanding is built out of only contemporary music, we are to a large degree foolish people for three main reasons:

  1. We have such a rich history to tap into. The history of hymnody is dominated by some of the greatest composers in history. It is dominated by some of the greatest poets in history. It is dominated by some of the most brilliant theologians crafting liturgy over hundreds of years. It is dominated by some of the most dramatic conversions and historical moments that shaped countries and nations and cultures. For us to turn out backs to that and say that we here in Illinois today in our room know better and don’t need to learn from them is silly. So there is a richness for us to learn from.
  2. (Tim Keller mentions it in his article on worship in Worship by the Book .) I think there is a sense in which we should have something in our worship services which reminds us that we are part of something that has gone on for centuries. I think it is important for the outsider to see that we’re not a cult. I think it’s important for others to see that we learn from the past.
  3. I think it’s just good to do some of it sometimes. It’s just good stuff. It’s good to use. . . . There is no way to satisfy everybody’s musical tastes. But we do have a job to feed our congregations. So we start from there and not from musical tastes and know that we’re part of a rich history.

Related: Don Carson’s introductory essay in the above book is available for free as a PDF:

D. A. Carson, “Worship under the Word.” Page 11–63 in Worship by the Book. Edited by D. A. Carson. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2002.

Frontline Missions: Dispatches from the Front

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Over the past few years, Jenni and I have been deeply moved, encouraged, and challenged by four DVDs produced by Frontline Missions:

For nearly 20 years Frontline Missions International has worked among people in areas of war, persecution, and poverty, primarily in restricted-access countries, seeking to strengthen the Church, give voice to persecuted Christians, and preach and publish the Good News.

Previews

More previews and excerpts.

About Dispatches from the Front

Endorsements

Are you afraid to open your eyes and see death and destruction in the world? Dispatches from the Front will open your eyes to the great needs of the lost, enflame your heart to go to the nations, and give you the courage to carry on the ministry of the Gospel of Jesus Christ for the glory of God. This is a bold call to action.
–Burk Parsons, pastor, author, editor of Tabletalk magazine [Read more…] about Frontline Missions: Dispatches from the Front