From time to time at Mablog, I do a detailed review of a book, working through it chapter by chapter. This is a collection of my observations about N.T. Wright’s book Surprised by Scripture.
Surprised by Scripture: Review
Theonomy Is a Many-Splendored Thing
I may say this without fear of contradiction because a poet, one of our own, has taught us that love is a many-splendored thing, and no less than the apostle Paul himself has taught us that love is the fulfillment of the law. “Owe no one anything, except to love each other, for the one …
Book of the Month/October 2017
Princeton University Press has a series of “biographies” of great religious books, which is in itself a great idea. I had only read one of them before—Alan Jacobs’ bio of the Book of Common Prayer—and so I came with enthusiasm to George Marsden’s “life” of Mere Christianity. The book did not disappoint, and was really …
The Divine Glory, Welterweight Division
“This is not a [book] to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force.” Attributed to Dorothy Parker I believe I mentioned in passing that I recently picked up Greg Boyd’s God at War. I was pursuing more information on the divine council, having read Michael Heiser’s fine books on that topic, …
Quick Follow Up on The Flag
As a number of you noticed, I wrote yesterday on what I regard as empty posturing on the part of the Southern Baptist Convention. This elicited a lot of reactions and comments, and so I thought to follow everything up with a few additional comments of my own. One of the reactions was by Jeff …
A Polecat in a Hollow Tree
Originally published January 22, 2010 As many of you know, the most recent issue of Tabletalk is devoted to N.T. Wright and the New Perspective. My intention in this space is to blog through this issue, article by article. My anticipation is that I will like some of the articles very much, and others, not …
Book of the Month/December 2015
If you were to try to sum up the significant contributions of Anglican theologian Richard Hooker in the words of a Broadway musical, you could do no better than to point to the lyrics of Gershwin’s It Ain’t Necessarily So — referring of course to the chorus and not the verses. Now I am not …
Such That the Culture Notices
So it appears that I owe N.T. Wright an apology. For years I have read him as a postmillennialist who wouldn’t admit it, one who inexplicably wouldn’t use the standard terminology. But it now seems that this is not accurate at all — he is more like an amillennialist who won’t use the standard terminology. …
Reading List of Completed Books
As you peruse this list, please keep in mind that these books were read, and evaluated, over a period of many years. As my understanding of God’s Word (not to mention the world) has grown, the predictable result is that I would now evaluate many of these works differently — DW 2024: 1. The Rights …
Excommunicated Gnats, Ordained Camels
So let us talk about C.S. Lewis, N.T. Wright and the topic of human evolution. I have recently taken N.T. Wright to task for his take on those who oppose his approach to theistic evolution. As it happened, just after posting that well-thought out epistolary sunbeam of mine, I was listening in my truck to …