In this last Dawkins installment, I want to do two things. The first is to briefly summarize his last chapter and respond to it. The second task is to develop something I mentioned in an earlier post — viz. that Dawkins is more than half ashamed of what he is doing — and for good …
In the Zone
The ninth chapter of Dawkins’ book is entitled “Childhood, Abuse, and the Escape from Religion.” The chapter is almost impudent in its intellectual dishonesty, and more than impudent in its proposal. Dawkins begins by telling a heart-wrenching story from 19th century Italy, in which a young Jewish boy (Edgardo Mortata) had been secretly baptized by …
Rabbitless Rocks
In the next chapter, Dawkins seeks to answer the question, “Why are you so hostile?” So believers in God are delusional. So what? Why get that datum wound tight around your axle? He also has to explain why, given his adversarial stance toward Christianity and creationism, he never takes “part in debates with creationists.” With …
Pina Coladas, and Walking in the Rain
The next chapter in Dawkins is called “The ‘Good’ Book and the Changing Moral Zeitgeist,” and it is one of the strangest bits of business I have encountered in some time. The first part of the chapter is dedicated to proving how the Bible exhibits “sheer strangeness” and is “just plain weird” (p. 237). To …
One Last Thing
Not a lot of complaints about the last essay in this volume, a chapter on justification and pastoral counseling by Dennis Johnson. Like some of the the others, this chapter was just great also, with a sub-standard federal-visiony footnote jury-rigged into the argument. Like I said, not a lot of complaints about the text proper. …
Stuff I Heard in the Hallways
The next chapter in CJ&PM (should’ve done that before) is by Julius Kim and is entitled “The Rise of Moralism in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Preaching.” What might this have to do with the current federal vision controversy? Well, nothing, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fine and instructive article. A very good article, in …
Do This and Live, or Live and Do This
The next chapter by Scott Clark begins oddly, but the latter part is just a standard discussion of the law/gospel issues. First the oddity. We have heard a great deal about how the gospel itself is under attack in this controversy. This is because certain settled Reformed shibboleths have been pronounced funny, and anyone who …
Scratching the Itch of Morality
In the next chapter, Richard Dawkins undertakes the question of morality, seeking to ground that morality on the unshakeable foundation of evolution. What kind of foundation might that be? Well, let’s go down into the basement and have ourselves a little check. But before getting to this important issue, Dawkins gives us some samples of …
Recapitulation Drives Out Grace
The next two essays in Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry are by Hywel Jones, and are tightly related, and so I will treat them together. As with Robert Godfrey’s contribution, there is not a lot to disagree with here. The bulk of what is written here is good, sturdy Reformed stuff. At the same time, …
Not Impersonal Fuel
We are not coming to the Lord’s Supper as though it were a gas station, and as though the grace imparted were the fuel. It is true that the Scriptures speaking of grace, and mercy, and peace as abstract nouns. This is certainly a scriptural way of speaking, provided we do not do what sinners …