The Complete Life Lived, Graven Images and All

Okay then. I have finished Piper’s book, and I still like it. It is well worth reading, and should be taken seriously. He emphasizes a number of things that I believe that Wright should incorporate into his broader insights, without giving up those broader insights. There are any number of places where the sweep of …

Whatever We Call It

The next to last chapter of Piper’s book (not counting appendices) returns to the question of imputed righteousness. “Wright regards the imputation of God’s righteousness as something that can be imputed to us or counted as ours as at best a category mistake” (p. 163). And of course, we need to return to a distinction …

Speaking of Second Temple Judaism . . .

There are a couple of things to be drawn out of chapter ten, in which Piper argues (and in my view, demonstrates) that there is a single self-righteous root for both “self-help moralism” and prideful “ethnic badges.” That is the first point. But the second, and the one where I want to spend some attention, …

If That’s Grace, Then We Don’t Want Any

In the ninth chapter of Piper’s book, he starts to get into the issues that make Wright’s project really vulnerable — if we take Wright’s offerings in the “take it or leave it” way he offers them. For my part, I intend to continue to learn from Wright, but that can’t be done on Wright’s …

Cattiness at the Christian School

Once there were two headmasters of two Christian schools who were good friends. They lived in different cities, and didn’t see one another very often, but they did make a point of catching up a couple times a year. One time they got together for lunch when their schools were competing in a regional spelling …

Then Learn from the Baptist

Let me begin my discussion of this next chapter in Piper with a caution for any defenders of Wright who think that Piper is “missing it,” or “not understanding,” or anything along those lines. This chapter is discussing issues right at the heart of the Reformed understanding of how the gospel works. Piper is arguing …