Tag: Christian Living Page 8 of 16

by Carl R. Trueman
Series: The 5 Solas Series
Paperback, 243 pg.
Zondervan, 2017
Read: October 8 – 22, 2017

After struggling through three books in this series, I will admit to some trepidation about this one — thankfully, Carl Trueman is an author I have a bit of experience with, so I figured it’d be worth the effort. Thankfully, there wasn’t that much effort, and the book was absolutely worth the time.

Trueman organizes this book differently than the others — in Part 1, he considers Sola Gratia in Scripture and Church History. Trueman surveys the idea of grace alone through both Testaments (it’s easier than some would lead you to think to find it in the Old Testament), looking at individual texts as well as themes throughout the books. I would have liked this to be a bit longer — but I really can’t complain about it. Following that, Trueman focuses on the teachings of the Church throughout history about Grace — starting with the early church, focusing on Augustine and his Confessions as emblematic of the first centuries of the church. Then he continues to focus on Augustine but shifts the focus to the controversies sparked by the Confessions with Pelagius and his followers as the prism through which the (Western) Church discusses and teaches Grace since those days. In the next chapter, Trueman focuses on Medieval theology about grace using Aquinas as the example. Following that we get chapters on Luther and Calvin (and those who’d be allied to Calvin’s branch of the Reformation), shaking off the accumulated tradition and misunderstandings to get back to the core of Scriptural and Augustinian teaching (with help from Aquinas). Would I have appreciated another chapter or two about post-Reformational history? Sure. But they weren’t necessary to fulfill Trueman’s aims, and we get a taste of what they’d offer in Part 2.

Part 2 is titled “Sola Gratia in the Church.” Grace is communicated to Christians via The Church, Preaching, Sacraments, and Prayer and so Trueman a. defends that idea and then proceeds to discuss how God goes that in chapters devoted to each of those. For those of the Reformed tradition, there is nothing ground-breaking or controversial here, although Protestants from other traditions might find some of the ideas challenging. These are solid chapters of the kind of teaching I expected from this series, and I appreciated them.

In the book’s Conclusion, Trueman attempts to address the questions: “What would a ‘grace alone’ church look like today? What would characterize its life as a church? How might we recognize such a church when we see it?” The answers to these questions are a mix of doctrinal and practical ideas that he lists in ten points showing the interconnections between them. This conclusion (in building on what came before) is worth at least half the price of the book — just fantastic stuff.

I still have one to go in the series, so I may have to modify this, but this one is by far the best of the bunch — accessible, pastoral, and thorough without sacrificing depth. Trueman doesn’t seem to get distracted by pet details, nor to just beat the same obvious deceased equines on this topic. If you’re going to read just one of the five, let this be it. Alternatively, if the some of the others have left you wanting, give this one a shot, I think you’ll appreciate it.

—–

4 Stars

Growing Downward by Nick Thompson: Spiritual Growth is Not an Ascent; It is a Descent

By HCNewton

On July 3, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Growing Downward:
The Path to
Christ-Exalting Humility

by Nick Thompson

DETAILS:
Publisher: Reformation Heritage Books
Publication Date: May 11, 2022
Format: Kind Edition
Length: 224 pgs.
Read Date: June 19-26, 2022

Here is the unvarnished truth: pride is your number one enemy at every stage of the game. This is true of you regardless of your vocation; your economic, political, or social status; and your age, ethnicity, or education… I begin here because it is only as we come to understand pride as our greatest enemy that we will learn to embrace humility as our greatest ally.

What’s Growing Downward About?

The Publisher’s Description is:

Author Nick Thompson recognizes that pride is our worst enemy. If pride is our chief foe, then humility is our chief friend, even though its company may be painful. But spiritual growth is a descent—we must grow downward. Defining humility as “the downward disposition of a Godward self-perception,” Thompson walks us through the practical implications of this definition, leading us to embrace a God-centered perspective on the self. With winsome illustration and warm pastoral instruction, Growing Downward shows us that the path of humility, though difficult, is the way to true meaning and fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

Thompson is thorough at arriving at his definition of “the downward disposition of a Godward self-perception”—looking at other definitions offered by notable authors and theologians along the way—evaluating and critiquing them.

From this point, he works out the implications of that definition by looking at Existential Humility, Ethical Humility, Evangelical Humility, Ecclesiological Humility, and Eschatological Humility.

So, what did I think about Growing Downward?

As far as the reading experience goes—this is fine. The writing is crisp, it’s clear, it’s accessible, and Thompson makes certain the reader gets his point.

As far as the content? Ehhhhh, I’m not sure. The Introduction and the first part of the book? Those were really, really strong and convincing—and Thompson had me with him there. But after that? It’s complicated to explain, but I’ll try. I liked the individual chapters, and the topics he covered in them. But they seemed disconnected from the whole. Not all of them even seemed that focused on the idea of humility or Godward self-perception. Good material, but to what end?

Instead of an argument built on several lines of reasoning, which is how the book seems to be designed. It seemed to me to be one argument made, with some essays loosely attached to the topic added on. I can see where a lot of these trains of thought can lead back to the main argument. But I look to an author for that work, to show how

The one thing I tripped on more than once was Thompson’s tone—it frequently struck me as less-than-gracious or compassionate. Generally, within a couple of pages, he’d say something to mitigate what I perceived as harshness (or something like that). But I think it’d be best to not need that mitigation.

That said, I fully expect to be in the minority on this. I think many readers will benefit from this book and not get hung up on those things I did.

I liked enough of this to recommend it to you—but just enough. If you do read it, come back and tell me where I’m wrong, okay?

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, the opinions expressed are my own.

REPOSTING JUST CUZ: The Christ of Wisdom by O. Palmer Robertson

By HCNewton

On June 19, 2022

In Theology/Christian Living

The Christ of Wisdom: A Redemptive-Historical Exploration of the Wisdom Books of the Old Testament

by O. Palmer Robertson

eARC, 432 pg.
P&R Publishing, 2017

Read: May 7 – 21, 2017

Robertson’s preface laments the way that the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament is usually ignored in Redemptive-Historical studies —

…how do you fit these wisdom books into the flow of redemptive history that consummates in the Christ? By letting them be what they are in their own distinctiveness. They are, it should be remembered, canonical, divinely revealed, and authoritative writings that tell the world how and what to think about the deeper mysteries of human life. Rather than submitting to the moldings and bendings of modernity, these books broaden our understanding of the nature of redemptive history. Divine progress in the complete restoration of reality does not merely move in a purely linear fashion like the flight of an arrow moving across time and space without deviation until it reaches its target. This “third dimension” of redemptive history moves in a cyclical pattern. For certain aspects of God’s salvation perform according to a pattern of regulated repetition.

To ignore this dimension of redemptive history is to exclude a major portion of the old covenant canon—and that you do not want to do.

So how do you discuss these books from a RH point of view? This is what Robertson seeks to do in this book — not as a final answer, but as the beginning of a search for wisdom along these paths.

In one sense, Robertson could’ve made this easier to talk about this book — there’s not one central argument developed throughout. There’s a general discussion (brief) of wisdom, wisdom Biblically defined, that is. And then using that discussion, Robertson looks at the Wisdom Literature of the Old Testament (and Lamentations, which is not usually considered Wisdom Literature, but can function as such), summarizing each book, looking at the various forms of wisdom described and passed on through it.

Simply,

Wisdom is the ability to understand the basic principles inherent in God’s created order, and to live by those principles. Wisdom enables a person to summarize these basic principles in a succinct and memorable fashion. Wisdom is living out the whole of life with a constant awareness of accountability before a loving, gracious, and just Creator and Redeemer.

The work he does to get to this summary is well worth the time and effort to work through. Actually, that goes for everything in the book, but I’ll hold off on saying that kind of thing for a few paragraphs.

The chapter on Proverbs is, fittingly, the longest and most developed. He discusses various approaches to the book, to understanding its construction and from there trying to understand it:

A much more accurate view of the theology of Proverbs may be gained from a covenantal perspective. The wise sayings of the book are not presented in a vacuum. They are not purely moralistic aphorisms. Instead, they are steeped in theistic assumptions. These wise observations about how the world works assume that God the Creator is none other than Yahweh, the Lord of the Covenant.

This, right here, would help so much of what I’ve read about Proverbs over the last few decades. To get into everything that Robertson says about the pursuit of Wisdom, passing it on and living by it from this book would make this post unbearably long — but it builds the foundation for everything that comes. Proverbs covers Wisdom as a whole — the rest of the book deals with it in specific areas.

While dealing with the personification of Wisdom in Proverbs 8, Robertson gives an excursus, “Athanasius as the Champion of the opponents of Arianism,” that is just gold. I’d love to see this developed into something longer.

Following Proverbs, he moves on to Job. Job doesn’t give us the answers to the puzzling circumstances of life, but for those who understand the book, they learn how to puzzle through the circumstances, how to think about them — how to ask God about them. Yes, there are answers given in the book — not easy answers, not the answers anyone necessarily wants, but answers — answers tied to the hope of the Resurrection. But wisdom knows to look for those answers in the difficulties of life, with a sure faith that is willing to look at dark circumstances and say, “I don’t know why this is happening, but I trust in Him Who does.”

Ecclesiastes, is, naturally, a tricky chapter — Robertson threw me a curveball when setting aside the usual discussion of authorship of the book to note

But a related question of some significance for understanding the book has been generally neglected. This neglected question is the identity of the “target audience”of Ecclesiastes.

Chewing on this a little helps get through some of the discussion of authorship. There are so many divergent readings of Ecclesiastes that your head can swim just trying to get a sense of them, Robertson is a pretty sure guide through them before landing on his conclusion that Ecclesiastes presents a “realistic picture of life” — one that is a precursor to Paul’s discussion in Romans 8, where creation is subjected to frustration, but that this is being renewed. I do think this chapter could’ve been organized in a more straight-forward way, but I appreciate the way that Robertson makes you work through various considerations and themes before leading to his conclusions — which are all very helpful.

His discussion of Lamentations, summed up in the subtitle “How to Weep,” was one of the best things I’ve read on the book (an admittedly too-short list). You may think that’s a pretty easy thing to learn — but there’s a wise way, a godly way to weep over the tragedies that will come into our lives. The book of Lamentations teaches us that — and, here’s the RH emphasis coming through — there’s a hope tied to the wise weeping. A hope tied to faith in God’s commitment to preserving a repentant people to Himself.

Lastly, we get to the wisdom of “How to Love” (in a marital sense) in the Song of Songs. The way he reads the book is a “Redemptive-Historical” way, in

terms of the redemptive work of God in restoring humanity to the situation prevailing at the time of creation . . . a restoration of the initial blessing of man and woman in their relation to each other, just as when they first stood in each other’s presence “both naked” but feeling “no shame” (Gen. 2:25). This Song rejoices in the fullness of God’s redemption of the marriage relationship.

He concludes this chapter uniquely, with a script for a Dramatic Reading of the Song of Songs — I think there could’ve been a bit more instruction on how to approach such a Reading — and why — than he gave. But I really appreciated that part.

He could’ve used a conclusion to wrap things up — returning to the closing admonition of the opening chapter. But that’s probably just a taste thing on my part.

There’s a focus on the literary/poetic forms in each book tying in the themes and teachings of them to the way the author presents them. This kind of discussion — no matter the type of literature (inspired or not) always stretches me. I imagine I’m not alone in that — in fact, I bet many people will skip those parts. This is to their own detriment. Robertson discusses these matters in a way that takes some effort to understand, but it’s effort that pays off.

This is a truly helpful book — not full-fledged commentaries on any of the books, but helpful summaries pointed towards seeing the wisdom passed down in each book, and tied into the Redemptive work going on in history all around us. I found it interesting that the recent A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament doesn’t approach some of these books the same way as Robertson — in some ways flatly contradicting him. I’d hoped for more overlap between the two works approaching this material from the same framework — but none of the contradictions or differences change the overall message of the Biblical material, just shadings. Honestly, in each case, I think Robertson’s readings are easier to square with the texts in consideration (and not just because he has more pages to develop his points, either).

Robertson, as always, delivers the goods with this book. The reader has to think about what he says, has to drag out their Bible and use the two books together, but will ultimately come out the better for it. I found this book to be incredibly helpful, insightful and something that drove me back to the fullness and fulfillment of all the wisdom of God — Jesus the Messiah. Just where Robertson wants his readers to focus.

Disclaimer: I received this eARC from P&R Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for this post — thanks to both for this.
N.B.: As this was an ARC, any quotations above may be changed in the published work — I will endeavor to verify them as soon as possible.

—–

4 Stars

In Divine Company by Pierce Taylor Hibbs: Communication Failure?

By HCNewton

On June 12, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

In Divine Company: Growing Closer to the God Who Speaks

by Pierce Taylor Hibbs

DETAILS:
Publication Date: June 7, 2018
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 43 pg.
Read Date: June 5, 2022

God is a communicative being who speaks with himself in three persons and speaks to his creation by way of revelation. This communicative nature of God is utterly critical. The moment we say God does not speak in any recognizable sense is the moment we throw our theology in the wastebasket, along with any hope of relationship. Speech is at the core of who God is, and it’s how we come to know him.

What’s In Divine Company About?

Like many, Hibbs sees a problem in the prayer life of most Christians, and it plays a significant role in the feeling too many have of being distant from God. He calls this a “communicative malnourishment.”

His treatment for CM is two-pronged:

predictable, I think, but I hope to look at it in fresh ways: (1) following God’s voice in Scripture and listening to what the world is saying about him (hearing from God), and (2) praying to the Trinity (speaking with God).

This short booklet looks at God (and then His people) as communicative beings, as language as communion behavior. God’s communication comes from General and Special Revelation, ours is in prayer.

What did I think about In Divine Company?

If you read this book and change nothing in your life, then either I have failed as a writer or you have failed as a responsive reader…I want to be forthright in saying change is the most important measure of value for this book. So, I encourage you to read and grow, not merely to read and know.

If it’s the most important measure of value for the book, it’s really the best way to evaluate the book. It’s too soon for me to say how much this book has changed me, it’s only been a week—but I think the potential is there.

I love this approach to thinking about prayer and the problems with our prayer life. By better understanding the nature of our communicative God, we better understand our need (as image-bearers) to communicate with Him. Communication is part of our nature as it is His nature, how can we not communicate with him, and seek to find more ways and more time to do so? To be better listeners and better talkers?

Hibbs has got to be my favorite theological writer today. There are theologians that I learn more from, but none that I enjoy reading like him—it only makes sense, he cares a bit more about language and writing than your typical theologian.

This is good for the mind and offers plenty of tools to use for change. The rest is up to the reader.

4 Stars

Repentance: Turning from Sin to God by Thomas Boston: Calls to Faith and Repentance as Clear Today As They Were 300 Years Ago

By HCNewton

On May 15, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Repentance:
Turning from Sin to God

by Thomas Boston

DETAILS:
Publisher: Christian Heritage
Publication Date: September 19, 2012
Format: Paperback
Length: 250 pg.
Read Date: May 1-8, 2022

What’s Repentance About?

This is a collection of sermons preached by Thomas Boston to his congregation in the parish of Ettrick in the early eighteenth century.

The sermons were selected from the sixth volumes of his collected works, and really weren’t conceived of as a set by him. They’re all on the theme of Repentance, from a variety of texts of Scripture.

They are warm, pastoral, clear, and firm. Pretty much everything you want and expect in a collection of Eighteenth-Century Presbyterian sermons.

Tweaking Boston

There were some layout changes and restructuring of the original texts for this book (it’s too long to detail it here)—basically taking works from the early 1700s and making them read like something that was written in the early 2000s.

It bugged me. It might make it easier to read and more approachable to contemporary readers, but it left a bad taste in my mouth.

Modernization of spelling and punctuation don’t bother me that much (I prefer to read it without the editing, but I’m weird that way). It’s the other tweaks that get to me.

The Introduction

Not at all surprisingly to anyone who’s ever read anything J.I. Packer ever wrote about Puritans and their successors the Introduction he wrote is almost as good as the rest of the book. It’s simply impossible to read that and not get ramped up for the rest.

So, what did I think about Repentance?

I like Boston—I’ve never not profited from time with his work. The Crook in the Lot is one of the greatest works I’ve ever read.

However (you knew there was a “but” coming), I’m not entirely convinced this collection is the best representation of either the doctrine or the preacher. As Packer notes, by the time of the later Puritans and then Boston, the emphasis on repentance had shifted from the penitent life (as espoused by Luther, Calvin, Book of Common Prayer, etc.) to the initial act of repentance of the convert. It’s that focus that dominates this book.

It’s good that it does. It’s important that it does. There’s not a word that Boston says on that point that is incorrect. But, I really could’ve used more about what repentance should look like every day, calls to/reminders for the believer to shape their lives that way. I realize that says more about me than the work, but given the title, that’s what I expected.

It’s a good collection of sermons. Boston’s way with words is rare and great to read. I just didn’t appreciate this as much as I’d hoped to.

3 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Reposting Just Cuz: The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ by Bruce A. Ware

By HCNewton

On May 8, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Was flipping through this book the other day, dipping my toes in here and there after reading Bavinck on Christ’s humanity (not that there was a problem with Bavinck, I just needed someone else’s voice in my head for a minute). So it seemed fitting to repost this today, rather than something half-baked on another book. I just wish that I’d finished the sentence I abandoned in paragraph #4….

—

The Man Christ Jesus: Theological Reflections on the Humanity of Christ

by Bruce A. Ware
Kindle Edition, 160 pg.
Crossway, 2012
Read: March 9, 2014

One of Ware’s presuppositions — repeated throughout this book — is that evangelical Christians today have a good understanding of and embrace the doctrine of the Divinity of Christ, but their understanding of his humanity is wanting — enter this book. Without dipping a toe into Nestorianism, Ware wants his readers to understand the humanity of Jesus. He explains this so with a constant eye to His divinity — and how that divinity is expressed in the life of the God-man.

One of his main interests is for his readers to understand the dependency of Jesus on the Spirit — His indwelling, guidance and empowering. Without that indwelling, it would be impossible for Jesus to carry out His father’s will. If we grasp that, we see the limitations of the divine nature of Christ to his earthly work, which may seem paradoxical, but isn’t as Ware will explain.

The application portions to every chapter keep this book from being merely theoretical (however great that theory is) to helping readers put shoe leather to this teaching — as every teaching ought. It’s just easier when the author goes out of his way to help us start that on our own.

I really appreciated the chapter “Resisting Temptation,” Ware’s reflections on Hebrews 4:15 and the idea of Jesus being tempted to sin in general. He surveys some of the leading theories before suggesting his own idea how the idea of the impeccable theanthropos being tempted without sinning. He put into words an idea or two that had been floating around in my own head for a few years, and

I was surprised that Ware had to devote an entire chapter defending the masculinity of the God-man, although I shouldn’t have been. Sadly, this was a pretty boring chapter. Ware really beat this horse far beyond the point of its flatline. Sadly, he probably needed to be as through given today’s thinking.

Deep enough to discourage a casual read, but friendly enough that this should be able to be read by thoughtful laity.

—–

4 Stars

Old Made New by Greg Lanier: A Practical and Engaging Guide for Laypeople

By HCNewton

On April 24, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Old Made New:
A Guide to the New Testament
Use of the Old Testament

by Greg Lanier

DETAILS:
Publisher: Crossway
Publication Date: April 12, 2022
Format: Paperback
Length: 137
Read Date: April 10-17, 2022

What’s Old Made New About?

Lanier’s goal is to enable the average reader of the New Testament to understand how and why the authors would use an Old Testament passage at a particular point. As often as the NT uses the OT, that’s so important.

He begins—and this is beyond sad that he has to—by explaining why the reader of the NT would want to understand their use of the OT. He then differs his approach from others—primarily he’s not going to get bogged down in or distracted by technical considerations. As interesting as I find that kind of thing, he has a point.

In Chapter 1, he explains his method for analyzing the NT usage of a portion of the OT (I won’t get into that here), and then he spends the next few chapters demonstrating it.

The bulk of the book consists in tracing the NT authors’ engagement with the OT along three major themes:
Chapter 2—articulating the gospel in terms of the saving work of God in history and the gift of salvation to individual believers
Chapter 3—articulating the fullness of Jesus in his person and work, both as divine Son and human Savior
Chapter 4—articulating the identity of the church as eschatological Israel, as well as its mission and conduct for today

Each chapter has a mix of shorter examples that help prove out these themes, as well as longer case studies (six per chapter) that model for the reader how to do the work.

Appendix

There is a fourteen-page appendix to this book, “Inventory of New Testament Uses of the Old Testament,” listing most of the major agreed-upon uses of the Old Testament in order of New Testament chapter and verse, and then notes what kind of NT usage (Quotation, Allusion, Citation). There are some disagreements about what verses are NT uses of the Old, so Lanier keeps it to those with widespread agreement.

This is a very useful list both for the sake of reference and to help the reader practice the principles in the book. I know I’m coming back to this appendix.

I would’ve liked another version of this list using the same data, but in order of the OT book/chapter/verse—only to make things easier.

So, what did I think about Old Made New?

Lanier did a great job of balancing explaining his points with demonstrating the principles, and showing why the reader would want to use these principles. This is an engaging book, an eminently practical read, and an easy-to-use hermeneutic guide.

I really liked Lanier’s 3-step approach to analyzing the usages, it’s easy to wrap your brain around both as an example and for following the example. His case studies are both great object lessons and interesting for what he shows about the passage. I’d have had no problem reading these chapters if they were twice as long for personal benefit. Getting a handle on tools like this is such an aide for personal study and understanding, and Lanier’s given the Church a great gift with such an easy-to-understand and easy-to-use guide.

I definitely recommend this to your attention, study, and application. You’ll be rewarded.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

Instruction in Christian Love by Martin Bucer, Paul Traugott Fuhrmann (Translator): A 16th Century Classic We Need Today

By HCNewton

On April 17, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Instruction in Christian Love [1523]

by Martin Bucer, Paul Traugott Fuhrmann (Translator)

DETAILS:
Publisher: Wipf & Stock Publishers
Publication Date: August 4, 2008
Format: Paperback
Length: 52 pg.
Read Date: April 10, 2022

What’s Instruction in Christian Love About?

This was written in response to some requests to expand on Bucer’s “sketchy lectures,” on the topic. In this brief book, he considers two ideas:

…according to the Scripture I exhort every one of you not to live for himself, but for his neighbor. I shall later show how to attain this ideal, for it can be realized in this world and life…

There are two chapters in the work, the exhortation, and application.

The Exhortation to not live for yourself, but for your neighbor takes the bulk of the work. Bucer begins by showing this obligation comes from the way humans were created and that the obligation continues—particularly for the believer. He then goes on to decry men seeking their own advantage, how that fuels injustice, wrapping up by saying the Christian not only shouldn’t seek their own advantage but should give up what is rightly due to them in order to promote the well-being of others.

The second chapter focuses on how the believer can carry out their duties—it was helpful and convincing. Almost everything he says here isn’t exclusive to this call to self-abnegation, but can be applied to most/all Christian duties. Which makes it more valuable, really.

So, what did I think about Instruction in Christian Love?

It’s a short work, so there’s not much to say. The second chapter is useful and can even be easily applied to the modern reader (sometimes 16th Century works are harder to relate to in their application).

But the treasure of this book is in the convicting and inspiring first chapter. I really had to be impressed with some of Bucer’s arguments and interpretation.

I came across a mention/description of this book in Meador’s What Are Christians For?, and I probably should’ve waited longer between the two—I couldn’t appreciate this work for Bucer’s genius as Meador’s words were still echoing in my ears. If I came to it fresher, I think I’d be more impressed.

But oh, well, it’s still a good work—and an easy read (outside of the conviction) that was well worth the time, and in years to come will be a very profitable re-read for me.

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.

What Are Christians For? Life Together at the End of the World by Jake Meador: A View for Living in Culture and Nature

By HCNewton

On April 10, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

What Are Christians For?:
Life Together at the End of the World

by Jake Meador

DETAILS:
Publisher: IVP
Publication Date: February 21, 2022
Format: Hardcover
Length: 170 pg.
Read Date: March 27- April 3, 2022

God looks at this world and loves it, which is why we can and should do the same. This world is not something we should seek to escape through conquest or bend to our will through technique, power, or control. Rather, it is a gift given to us by God for our joy and his glory. Because God is love and his law is good, we can look at our neighbor and love him or her. Because God gave himself to us, we can give ourselves to others. We can confidently and joyfully enter into these debts of love that we build up over a lifetime of living in the world, and we can dispense them with extravagance, trusting that whatever wrongs we might experience today as a result of such living will be gathered up and made right in the glorious and perfect love of God.

The Back of the Book

What does a Christian political witness look like in our day?

Politics ought to be defined by fidelity to the common good of all the members of society. But our modern Western politics are defined by a determination to bend the natural world and human life to its own political and economic ends. This wholesale rejection of the natural order is behind the dominant revolutions in our history, and defines our experience in Western society today—our racialized hierarchy, modern industry, and the sexual revolution.

In What Are Christians For?, Jake Meador lays out a proposal for a Christian politics rooted in the givenness and goodness of the created world. He is uninterested in the cultural wars that have so often characterized American Christianity. Instead, he casts a vision for an ordered society that rejects the late modern revolution at every turn and is rooted in the natural law tradition and the great Protestant confessions. Here is a political approach that is antiracist, anticapitalist, and profoundly pro-life. A truly Christian political witness, Meador argues, must attend closely to the natural world and renounce the metallic fantasies that have poisoned common life in America life for too long.

Faithful Presence

In his discussion of the Christian response to those revolutions, Meador borrows a scheme from James Davison Hunter describing the four postures Christians have taken: defensive against, relevance to, purity from, and faithful presence.

He doesn’t spend a lot of space—but sufficient space—defining and then critiquing the first three, but gives more space to faithful presence. And actually, everything he argues for in the remainder of the book could fit in this category. I want to say I’d heard of Hunter’s categories before this, but I can’t remember where (in print or lecture). But first off, I really appreciated the schema in terms of describing how the American Church has responded. But even more, I appreciated Meador’s explanation of faithful presence and then his application of it.

Influences

Meador builds the arguments in this book on the work of Herman Bavinck—particularly his book, Christian Worldview. But he’s drawing on several other thinkers and writers from across the theological spectrum (a methodology borrowed from Bavinck). You can see the fingerprints of Lewis, Tolkien, Wendell Berry, John Paul II, Solzhenitsyn, Martin Bucer—and others. There’s a breadth of influences here that’s impressive and adds a lot to the arguments (and makes narrow-minded guys like me a little uncomfortable).

So, what did I think about What Are Christians For??

What did [Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn] propose as a way through the revolution? We must turn, our eyes upward to the heavens, he said, not as a place to conquer, as his compatriots in the space program believed, but as a reminder that our lives exist as a vapor in the wind, and then comes the judgment.

We do not conquer the heavens; we are judged by them. And if we fail to discover the sources of spiritual health, there is nothing else for us. Our spiritual lives will continue to be trampled on by the weight of our age. And if our spiritual lives are destroyed, no amount of wealth or power can atone for such a loss.

This seems like one of those books that I need to read a handful of times and then read some scholarly reviews—pro and con—before I can really say I have a handle on the strengths and weaknesses of the arguments. Thankfully, this isn’t that kind of blog.

How did it read? Very nicely. Meador’s writing is strong, it’s clear, and he’s able to express complex thoughts in a very digestible manner. Sure, I think I need to read it a few more times before I could say I mastered the thoughts—but that’s on me, not the text, this is just not the kind of thing I spend a lot of time thinking about. I appreciated Meador being critical of both the American Left and the American Right (you rarely see that in Christian literature), while putting forth a vision built on the best of the Christian traditions.

I don’t think Meador offers a perfect solution to the situation we find ourselves in, but there’s a lot of insight and wisdom to be found in these pages. And even if it’s not perfect, it’s a whole lot better than anything else I’ve found.

4 1/2 Stars

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Recovering Our Sanity: How the Fear of God Conquers the Fears that Divide Us by Michael Horton

By HCNewton

On April 3, 2022

In Non-Fiction, Theology/Christian Living

Recovering Our Sanity:
How the Fear of God Conquers
the Fears that Divide Us

by Michael Horton

DETAILS:
Publisher: Zondervan
Publication Date:  February 14, 2022 
Format: Kindle Edition
Length: 320 pg.
Read Date: February 27-March 13, 2022

Even in more conservative contexts today, the reading of a “fear of God” passage is often quickly followed up with an explanation, dying the death of a thousand qualifications. The upshot is that fear doesn’t really mean “fear.” In such widespread dismissals we are not only failing to give God his due but are depriving ourselves and each other of the only antidote to the crippling fears that haunt us.

…The fear of God leads to trust, and trust bears the fruit of the Spirit, producing a harvest of blessings for ourselves and for others. Fear really is worship— we fear what we believe is ultimate, what we think has the last word over our lives.

What’s Recovering Our Sanity About?

In Part 1, “The Fear to End All Fears,” the goal is to remind readers about the Biblical virtue of the Fear of God—what it means, how it contrasts to other fears, and how when our focus is on the Fear of God, other fears lose significance and power.

In Part 2, “Facing Our Fears with Eyes Raised to God,” Horton puts shoe leather to this understanding of Fear of God vs. other fears. He looks at our fears of death, suffering, disease, the future—and, perhaps most importantly, other human beings.

Confronting Our Fear of Each Other

Once we regain the fear of God— indeed, of Christ as well (he’s not just the friend of sinners but the judge of all)—and face up to who we are before him, coming with empty hands to receive his Son, we’ll begin to lose this fear of the world. We will not be embarrassed when the unkempt widow sings off-key with the gusto of heartfelt conviction or when the building is drab or if we have never had a brush with greatness and our pastor has never been photographed with anybody in the news. The faithful preaching of the Word, baptism, and the Lord’s Supper; the gracious care, encouragement, and warnings of elders and the wider body; the extension of Christ’s love for temporal needs through the deacons; common prayers, singing, confession of our faith and of our sins, Christ’s declaration of forgiveness, and even God’s greeting at the beginning and his benediction at the end— all these will seem so marvelously familiar and new to us at the same time. And then we will begin to not need the world’s affection any longer.

Roughly the last third of the book is taken up by the third part of Part 2, “Confronts Our Fear of Each Other.” In this Horton talks about the fear we have of other Christians and other people outside the Church—there’s a focus on social and political issues and how American Christians ought to react to them instead of how we tend to. Horton avoids a “Left Wing” or “Republican” response—finding positive things on both sides of an issue (many of which shouldn’t find binary responses, but it seems impossible for Americans to do anything else), as well as things to critique on both sides.

Horton goes out of his way not to demonize those who disagree, but reminds his readers that there are those on each side who are fellow image-bearers, and all need Christ more than they need to be corrected or encouraged about their stances on any issue. The Church’s calling is to set aside the focus on the temporal and point others to the eternal and the world to come, while showing our gratitude for Christ’s work by serving those around us.

This sub-section is worth the price of the book (not that the rest was a waste).

So, what did I think about Recovering Our Sanity?

My goal in this book is not to take sides in cultural and political debates. Instead, it is to raise our eyes to heaven so that our sanity can be restored, as Nebuchadnezzar experienced in Daniel 4.

There were more than a few times where I wondered if Horton had lost track of the thesis of the book—I found each chapter, each topic that he covered very valuable and was impressed by the wisdom that Horton offered.

But I was wrong about that—and by the end, it was easier to see where he was going all along. Horton’s been one of those writers that have been helpful to me for a couple of decades now and it’s good to see that hasn’t changed.

There’s a lot to chew on here, and as I said, a lot of wisdom to be gleaned. I can’t imagine every reader is going to agree with everything he has to say (and I can’t believe that Horton expects that, either)—but his major points are sound, Biblical, and needed by the American Church so that we remember what our priorities are supposed to be.

4 Stars

This post contains an affiliate link. If you purchase from it, I will get a small commission at no additional cost to you. As always, opinions are my own.