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Chad Hall: Driscoll: Tony Jones

Chad Hall posts an interesting review of two recent books: Driscoll's, Vintage Jesus and Tony Jones', The New Christians.

Though Hall's analysis has drawn fire from multiple sides, I found the review intriguing and clear. He places the books in dialogue and uses the contrast both to show why he used to consider himself "emerging" and no longer does as well as highlighting the strengths of each book as an opportunity to reshape the current dialogue.

Hall is clear about his own vantage point, but is appropriately critical of both books:

Based on the title, I expected Driscoll to pop the cork on an enduring theology that over time increases in flavor and potency. But the book was more flat Coke than fine wine.

and

The New Christians gave a true and honest depiction of the emergent church movement. That’s not to say it was an attractive picture. I felt Jones presented himself and the movement as condescending, contradictory, and closed.

Personally, I think we should all thank him for saving us $30, but maybe all of us will change our minds when we read Tony Jones' response and Driscoll's response.

Breaking Through Roadblocks

The video below contains some tremendous advice from This American Life's Ira Glass. Essentially, Glass encourages creative professionals to persevere in their creative endeavors even when they know that the quality of their work isn't up to their own standards. The same advice could be applied to any profession or any endeavor we are passionate about. That is, if something is worth being done, it is worth being done poorly. Where the test comes is whether or not we're willing to continue doing it poorly until we find a way to do it well.

For those that have never listened to the Glass's This American Life, get in the archives and start seeing what you've been missing. Season 1 of the Showtime version of the show is phenomenal-- and you can buy it here: This American Life - Season 1. Those interested in Season 2 can check the official Showtime site

On a similar note, the best book I have ever read dealing with breaking through this type of resistance is Steven Pressfield's book, The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles. I think Pressfield should be required reading for everyone on the planet. It is one of the best books I've read in the past several years.

Books That I Have Pre-Ordered Since March

three have come, and three more to look forward to!

ESV STUDY BIBLE PRE-ORDER DISCOUNT + A29 RECEIVES 5%

Pre-Order ESV Study Bible at 35% Off and Crossway Donates 5% to Acts 29 Church Planting Network

DETAILS

Technorati Tags: A29, puppy

Monergism End of the Year Sale

For those that don't get Monergism's newsletters, I thought I would link their end of the year sale. I'm sure there are countless items that would be well worth your end of the year book money, but I wanted to especially direct your attention to Scougal's Life of God in the Sould of a Man — on sale for a mere $3.99! This is one of the greatest books I have ever read and one that I try to keep on hand to give away. They also have all ESV Bibles at 45% off — including the Single Column Reference Bible for $43.99.

Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission

I just received the newest issue of JETS and it includes several important book reviews (including Denny Burk's review of God's Indwelling Presence and Mark Karlberg's reviews of Jesus' Blood and Righteousness: Paul's Theology of Imputation and The Way of Salvation). The review I found most intriguing, however,  was Don Howell's review of Robert Plummer's new book,  Paul's Understanding of the Church's Mission: Did the Apostle Paul Expect the Early Christian Communities to Evangelize? (Paternoster Biblical Monographs).

Howell introduces his review this way:

Did the apostle Paul expect the early Christian communities to evangelize? This is the subtitle of the book and also the central question that Plummer seeks to answer. Framed in another way, did Paul command the churches that he addresses in his epistles to imitate him in centrifugal missionary outreach? His answer, supported by lexical, exegetical, and logical argumentation, is a resounding affirmative. To some, Plummer's conclusion may seem obvious and thus the question hardly worth asking. However, the history of interpretation on this issue has been divided, and therefore a fresh look at the evidence is justified. Plummer makes the disturbing observation from his survey of the research that few books written by missiologists are informed by sound methods of biblical theology and, conversely, biblical scholars rarely interact with insights from missiologists. Surely this is a call to both groups for better integration of their respective disciplines.

This book has immense potential-- not only to model for us an exegetical foundation for missiology-- but also to redirect trajectories among certain veins of missional ecclesiology that discriminate against evangelistic proclamation and conversionist models.

I ordered the book last night.

Two New Books on Christology

In the summer of 2005, I had the distinct privilege of studying the doctrine of Christ under Oliver Crisp. Crisp's class helped me understand the formation of the doctrine of Christ as well as gave me a critical framework through which to process contemporary issues in Christology. (I re-read the questions from our take-home final yesterday and am still working through some of the topics addressed). I mention this for two reasons:

1) I can think of few doctrines that demand more serious attention from Christians.

2) I spent the last few days with my nose in two new books on the subject:

• Oliver Crisp, Divinity and Humanity: The Incarnation Reconsidered (Current Issues in Theology) This book presents many of the issues presented by Dr. Crisp in our class, though in a much more formal and complete way. I think Dr. Crisp is a brilliant theologian and whole-heartedly commend anything of his you can get your hands on (though some of it comes at a hefty price). For those interested in hearing Crisp's lectures from Regent, you can purchase the entire course from the Regent Bookstore. Or, you can download the course from regentaudio.com.
• I have read portions from Stephen Nichols' forthcoming, For Us and for Our Salvation: The Doctrine of Christ in the Early Church and can't wait for August to deliver the final copy. In addition to tracing the development of the doctrine from the New Testament through Chalcedon and providing the reader with primary source documents, the book contains several useful appendices (a glossary, tables of pertinent biblical texts, and extensive guide for further reading). You can read the blurbs at Crossway's site as well as Jim Hamilton's blurb about the book.

Technorati Tags: Christology, Crossway, OliverCrisp, StephenNichols

$5 Books At Desiringgod.org

from the dg blog:

Every book in our store will be $5 on June 27-28, Wednesday and Thursday next week.

No limits, so spread the word.

Mark your calendars. This sale is limited to the online store.

Technorati Tags: JohnPiper, desiringgod.org

Gordon Fee's Pauline Christology

Gordon Fee's new book, Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study is now available (at least through the Regent Bookstore). Matthew Montonini has sample pages from the book available at his blog. Seeing that there is no time in the foreseeable future that I'll be able to read this, I'm anxious to hear the conversations and reviews. For everything else Gordon Fee you can imagine (including tons of great audio resources), checkout Gordon Fee Online.

Pauline Christology: An Exegetical-Theological Study

Crossway re-publishes Chosen For Life

Crossway has just re-published Sam Storms' book, Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election. This is not only the first book on election that I read, but it is one of the first theological books I ever read-- and the impact of this book on my life could scarcely be over-stated (which, I realize, for someone given to over-statement, this is a bold claim).

The new book, according to Sam, is

...a revised and greatly expanded version of the earlier work. This edition of Chosen is approximately two-thirds longer than the first one, with new material on James Arminius, the nature of Arminianism (specifically, prevenient grace, the nature of God’s will, and its view of Romans 9), more extensive analysis of the relevant biblical texts (especially John 10, John 17, Ephesians 1, and Romans 9), together with new insights from Calvin, Edwards (on both election and total depravity), and Spurgeon, among others. There is also a completely new chapter addressing the question of why didn’t God choose everyone to be saved, as well as two new Appendices on praying for the lost and the order of the divine decrees.

See the Crossway Chosen for Life page (download the Introduction and Chapter 1)

Chosen for Life: The Case for Divine Election

(continue reading for endorsements)

Technorati Tags: Crossway, SamStorms