“With an extraordinary profusion of stylized goods to choose from – designer ties, designer scents, designer automobiles, and designer jeans – we now have a rich palette from which to paint our own meaning, to state our own identity.” [David Wells, Losing Our Virtue (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), p. 144]
My Doxy Is Orthodoxy
“And thus, orthodoxy means straight belief or correct opinion. Who could be against this, one wonders. As it turns out, no one is against it — every man affirms that what he maintains is the truth. Every person in the world, all day long, every day, thinks he’s right. Even those hapless relativists and nihilists …
Postscript on Timeless Truths
Yesterday I posted something on N.T. Wright’s take on timeless truths, and here is one additional thought on that subject. Relativism wants to localize all values, decentering everything. This is what lies behind the postmodern shift from virtues to values. The virtue of honesty is the same in every culture, time and place. But values …
Augustine Nails It
Sometime in the last few years I enjoyed reading through Faber’s Book of Aphorisms. Well, apparently, David Field liked that book too, and has been posting some of his favorites on his blog. This morning he put one up I did not remember, which is odd because it so aptly describes so much of what …
Grace in a High Chair
When Jesus taught His disciples that they should not labor for the meat that perishes, their response was to ask what work they should do in order to work the works of God. Jesus replied that the work of God was that they would believe on the one whom God had sent. They asked what …
Like One Another
By the grace of God, we are growing into a genuine community. This means that we must deal with far more than the simple issues that attend membership in a religious club that meets once a week. We are learning to live together. This means shared meals. It means watching one another’s children. It means …
The Mirror Surface
“Style, therefore, may be an act of cannibalization as we take from others to create our own surface, even though it may be entirely unrelated to who we actually are. It is, however, who we want to be.” [David Wells, Losing Our Virtue (Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 1998), p. 143]
Islam or Death?
An Afghan man, Abdul Rahman, is on trial in Afghanistan for converting to Christianity. He faces the death penalty for leaving Islam, and you can read about his plight here. Contact your congressman about it. Whatever our views on the war generally, we sure don’t want our troops there supporting a government that would allow …
Scriptural Hermeneutics
Here is an interesting site that has some good info on Old Testament passages that are quoted in the New Testament. Since this whole subject mounts the central challenge to “scientific” hermeneutics in the evangelical camp, I would encourage all evangelicals everywhere to pursue this subject diligently. Longnecker’s book on the subject was really informative, …
Three Cheers for Timeless Truths
Anyone who has read even a little bit of N.T Wright’s stuff knows that he regularly takes a swing at the whole idea of “timeless truths.” Now I think I know what he is getting at, but I really think the whole subject needs to be nuanced far more than I think Wright does. All …