Andy Naselli

Thoughts on Theology

Heroes of the First Centuries: Children’s Books by Sinclair Ferguson

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Sinclair Ferguson is writing a series of children’s books called “Heroes of the Faith.” The first three books highlight heroes of the first centuries:

Click the images above for more information, including

  • sample PDFs,
  • descriptions of each book, and
  • Ferguson’s “personal word to parents” about his new series.

I read these three books to my 2.75-year-old daughter last week, and she enjoyed them (and has kept asking me to read the story of Polycarp to her again). But she got restless while I read them because there are a lot of words on each page and the prose is more at the level of elementary-school children.

Each book ends with a timeline that lists heroes of the faith that Ferguson apparently plans to write books about: [Read more…] about Heroes of the First Centuries: Children’s Books by Sinclair Ferguson

Thriving at College

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When I read this practical book a few weeks ago, I thought, “This is the perfect high school graduation gift. And it would also benefit college students, parents, professors, and pastors.”

Alex Chediak. Thriving at College: Make Great Friends, Keep Your Faith, and Get Ready for the Real World! Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House, 2011.

Westminster Books is running a sale that ends on April 5:

  • $7.50 for the first copy (50% off)
  • $9.00 for each subsequent copy (40% off)

About forty people have endorsed it, including Randy Alcorn, David Dockery, Rick Holland, Al Mohler, Chris Morgan, Leland Ryken, Sam Storms, and Bruce Ware.

Chediak, associate professor of engineering and physics at California Baptist University, is the author of With One Voice: Singleness, Dating, and Marriage to the Glory of God and editor of Five Paths to the Love of Your Life. [Read more…] about Thriving at College

Reading the Church Fathers

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Michael A. G. Haykin gives six reasons that we should read and study the church fathers (Rediscovering the Church Fathers: Who They Were and How They Shaped the Church [Wheaton: Crossway, 2011], 17–28):

  1. For freedom: “[S]tudy of the Fathers, like any historical study, liberates us from the present.”
  2. For wisdom: “[T]he Fathers can provide us with a map for the Christian life.”
  3. To understand the New Testament: “We have had too disparaging a view of Patristic exegesis and have come close to considering the exposition of the Fathers as a consistent failure to understand the New Testament.”
  4. Because of bad press about the Fathers: “[T]hey are sometimes subjected to simply bad history or bad press.”
  5. As an aid in defending the faith: “The early centuries of the church saw Christianity threatened by a number of theological heresies: Gnosticism, Arianism, and Pelagianism, to name but three. While history never repeats itself exactly, the essence of many of these heresies has reappeared from time to time in the long history of Christianity.”
  6. For spiritual nurture: “The study of the church fathers, like the study of church history in general, informs Christians about their predecessors in the faith, those who have helped shape their Christian communities and thus make them what they are. Such study builds humility and modesty into the warp and woof of the Christian life and as such can exercise a deeply sanctifying influence.”

So where should you start? Haykin suggests some books in Appendix 1 (157–58, bullet-points added):

Reading the Fathers: A Beginner’s Guide

[Introduction]

Where does one begin reading the Fathers? Well, first of all, I would start with two tremendous secondary sources:

  • Robert Louis Wilken, The Spirit of Early Christian Thought: Seeking the Face of God (Yale University Press, 2003) and
  • Henry Chadwick, The Early Church (Penguin, 1993).

Together these will provide an excellent orientation in terms of the history of the Patristic era (Chadwick) and the spirituality of the Fathers (Wilken). [Read more…] about Reading the Church Fathers

Tim Keller on Preaching and Ministry

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I love listening to Tim Keller preach or explain how he preaches and ministers in Manhattan. I don’t always agree with his exegetical steps, but I always learn from his penetrating insights and stimulating observations.

I recently listened to two thought-provoking lecture series that Keller presented at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary:

  1. Evangelism and Church Planting in Postmodern Cities (2003)
  2. Preaching to the Heart (2006)

The CDs (which aren’t cheap) include extensive PDF handouts.

Related:

  1. Preaching Christ in a postmodern world (a 22.4-hour D.Min. course)
  2. Preaching to the heart (two lectures in 2008)
  3. Three central emphases of Keller’s preaching
  4. Reason for God DVD and other related resources

Doctrinal Boundaries

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Dave Doran recalls six books or articles by evangelicals “about the need to formulate doctrinal boundaries” and “the question of separation”:

1. Carson, D. A. Love in Hard Places. Wheaton: Crossway, 2002.

2. Mohler Jr., R. Albert. “Reformist Evangelicalism: A Center without a Circumference.” Page 131–50 in A Confessing Theology for Postmodern Times. Edited by Michael S. Horton. Wheaton: Crossway, 2000.

3. Grudem, Wayne. “Why, When, and for What Should We Draw New Boundaries?” Page 339–70 in Beyond the Bounds: Open Theism and the Undermining of Biblical Christianity. Edited by John Piper and Justin Taylor. Wheaton: Crossway, 2003. [Read more…] about Doctrinal Boundaries

Making the Transition to Elder Governance

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This book just came out this month, and it looks like one that will serve some churches well:

Daniel Evans and Joseph Godwin Jr. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition. Eugene, OR: Resource, 2011. xvii + 120 pp.

Description:

When the leadership of Patterson Park Church looked for a book explaining the process of transitioning from a board-run church to an elder-led form of church government, a structure they had come to believe was more in line with Scripture, they found none. God honored their efforts and two of their elders decided a book still needed to be written. Elder Governance: Insights into Making the Transition examines church government from a biblical and historical context and tells the story of Patterson Park’s transition. The authors are hopeful that God will use their experience to help others considering such a transition.

Table of contents: [Read more…] about Making the Transition to Elder Governance

Cultural Differences

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Christopher Catherwood, Church History: A Crash Course for the Curious (2nd ed.; Wheaton: Crossway, 2007), 196:

I think it fair to say that the main difference between Fundamentalism and what we would now call historic Evangelicalism is as much cultural as anything else and is particularly an American phenomenon.

(It’s valuable to hear the perspectives of others—in this case a British evangelical historian who is the grandson of David Martyn Lloyd-Jones.)

Related: Cultural and Theological Conservatism