Several weeks ago I left you with the second installment of my review of J.I. Packer's Knowing God, one of the works that made it onto ESN's March Madness bracket, The Best Christian Books of All Time. As I said then, this book has greatly impacted the way I see and live in the present world. I'm far from being able to say that I've got this life under wraps (and I hope I never think I do), but Packer's words have led me to question and wrestle with many “wrapped” beliefs that I would've probably left inside that worn, … [Read more...] about Best Christian Books of All Time Review Series: Knowing God Pt. III
Best Christian Books of All Time Reviews: Knowing God, Pt. II
Last week I wrote the first part of what will be a several-part review of J.I. Packer's Knowing God. This week I'm going to take a look at the remaining chapters of Part I before moving on and moving through a bit of Part II. Knowledge and Idolatry Chapter 3, "Knowing and Being Known," deals more directly with the distinction between knowledge about and knowledge of (which I highlighted in last Thursday's post). I like to call the former "factual" and the latter "intimate." Concerning the latter, Packer … [Read more...] about Best Christian Books of All Time Reviews: Knowing God, Pt. II
Best Christian Books of All Time Reviews: Knowing God, Pt. I
During the month of March, here at InterVarsity's Emerging Scholars Blog, we offered a distraction away from the tomfoolery of the NCAA and held a little tournament of our own. "What are the best Christian books of all time?" we asked. And you answered. We had hundreds of nominations for works of poetry, fiction, romance. You name it. Some of the books that made it to the bracket surprised me, but what really caught my attention were some of the outcomes of the early rounds. Several of the first round losers were my … [Read more...] about Best Christian Books of All Time Reviews: Knowing God, Pt. I
Fame, Glory and the Struggle of a Christian Academic
As a student in the secular academy -- wait. No. If Plato was right (and I think he was spot on here), then whether a student of the secular academy or a fireman or a pastor, I am lured by ever-glistening immortal fame. Every one of us, no matter what he does, is longing for the endless fame, the incomparable glory that is theirs, and the nobler he is, the greater his ambition, because he is in love with the eternal. Symposium 208d: And did you know, the sweet singing of Homer's sirens was not dangerous for its … [Read more...] about Fame, Glory and the Struggle of a Christian Academic
White Martyrdom and the Unpersecuted People of God
To be a confessing Christian is to be one who longs to act, think and be more like Jesus, and one who, along that journey of transformation, admits deep need for God's power, grace and body. Lent is a time to re-admit this need. In the early years of The Way of Jesus, persecution was the norm. One of the readings from this Sunday's lectionary comes from an epistle Paul wrote from prison (Philippians 3:4b-14). He was in prison for being a Christian. There have been, and still are, countless “red martyrs”--men and … [Read more...] about White Martyrdom and the Unpersecuted People of God