Theology That Bites Back
My apologies for creating the impression that I somehow got derailed from my ongoing review of Aimee Byrd’s book. I had inadvertently created this impression by getting derailed in fact, but it was not because of sloth, forgetfulness, ennui, or anything else bad like that. It was the press of other topics, all of them …
Introduction: A fine statement on social justice and gospel issues came out yesterday, and so I signed it. I would encourage all of you to head over there and sign it as well. On top of that, another edifying exercise might be for someone to keep track of who does not sign it, particularly among …
Introduction: In her next chapter, Aimee Byrd continues a similar pattern. She says a lot of good things, like a handful of pearls with no thread to make a necklace. But she also says some worrisome things, and then third, she assembles part of what she says to support her central non sequitur. After addressing …
I don’t have a great deal to say about this next chapter—on Christ as our Elder Brother—because most of it is very good. The mistake that Aimee Byrd is making is the same one again. She says a number of valuable things about the biblical relationship of brothers and sisters, some of them even glorious …
Introduction: A few weeks ago, I wrote something that caused some consternation in some predictable quarters. I said: “But here are some different examples. This one is taken from the world, not from Scripture, but we can learn something about the world from it. Why, if a woman sleeps with a hundred men, is she …
Introduction: Aimee Byrd is very aware of a mistake that would, in this kind of cultural analysis, be a very easy one to make. I am glad she is aware of it because it shows she is actively trying to avoid making it, and that is all to the good. Unfortunately, this awareness has not …
Introduction: And so—as we continue to work our way through Aimee Byrd’s book, Why Can’t We Be Friends?—we continue to find stuff to talk about. In part I suppose that this is because life between the sexes is variegated and complex, and not a simple and straightforward relationship, like that which exists between Point A …
Introduction Now that the Revoice conference is in the rear-view mirror, it is officially an event in the past. This means that—it should be obvious that it means that—your standard issue PCA pastor, personally orthodox, can go back to pretending that everything is normal. All is okay. The alarmists were wrong, in that the sky …
In her fifth chapter, Aimee Byrd helpfully offers some qualifications (and/or exceptions) to what she has been generally arguing for. She makes the important general point that temptation and sin in this area is devastating and really bad. And she also says some really good things in this chapter about how the law does not …
Introduction So I want to begin my review of this chapter of Aimee Byrd’s book with some agreement. Although I differ strongly with her overarching thesis, I also want to make it clear that I believe she is reacting to some genuine problems in the “purity world.” I have seen some of those problems myself, …
