Joseph Bottum just announced on the First Things blog that Richard John Neuhaus has passed away. There will be more to say on this later, but for now here’s Bottum’s post:
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Change That Even I Can Believe In
John Harwood interviewed President-elect Barack Obama last night and asked him what college football team should be ranked number one right now. Obama reiterated his support for a playoff system in Division 1A college football. That’s change that even I can believe in!
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All Things Are Better In Koine
To all my Greek students past, present, and future. I thought you would really enjoy this one. Some guys at BIOLA have produced a video about Bible students who have to go through grueling semesters of learning Koine Greek (Koine means “common” and it refers to the popular form of Greek spoken at the time of the New Testament). Here are my favorite lines: 1.     “λέγομαι á¼Î³á½½,” which sounds like “leggo my eggo”2.    “Bill Mounce gonna make you bounce . . . Daniel Wallace” I am looking forward to teaching my Greek 4 class this semester, but I promise there will be no rapping . . . well, maybe a little.…
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Can’t Get Enough of Carl Trueman
I agree with Justin Taylor who feels a tad embarrassed that he posts everything Carl Trueman writes. Contrary to what you might think (given all the links I give to Dr. Trueman), I am not getting paid for this. I really do think Trueman’s stuff is just that good. His latest essay for Reformation21 is a must-read: “Why Are There Never Enough Parking Spaces at the Prostate Clinic?” It’s a wry look at evangelicals who are obsessed with cultural analysis and cultural relevance. His contention is that an obsession with culture can undermine a Christian commitment to universal truths. He writes:
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Endorsements of Wright’s Response to Piper
Last week I posted a notice about Tom Wright’s forthcoming response to John Piper on the issue of justification. The work is titled Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision. The book will be available in Great Britain from SPCK on February 1, and in the United States from Intervarsity in June. Intervarsity has already posted a webpage about the book and has included a list of interesting endorsements. I find three things that are striking about this list.
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Peter Williams Debates Bart Ehrman
Bart Ehrman recently debated Peter Williams on the reliability of the New Testament manuscripts (HT: Justin Taylor). The discussion took place on a British radio program called “Unbelievable.” You can sign-up for the podcast, download the mp3 here, or listen to it below. [audio:http://media.premier.org.uk/unbelievable/f884634c-cd93-4002-a5fb-589cab03a90a.mp3] Ehrman’s book Misquoting Jesus is essentially the starting point for the discussion. The book narrates Ehrman’s own spiritual journey in which he went from being an evangelical Christian to an agnostic. Ehrman’s faith collapsed when his belief in inerrancy collapsed. In the book, Ehrman seeks to explain why a knowledge of the textual basis of the NT undermines inerrancy. I reviewed Ehrman’s book a couple of…
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Family Worship by Don Whitney
It’s only 63 pages long, but Don Whitney’s Family Worship: In the Bible, in History & in Your Home is a great little book. The book is aimed at Fathers primarily, but it also has a target on any believer that is the spiritual leader of their home. The basic thesis of the book is that Christian families should be worshiping together on a daily basis. Every family, Whitney argues, should set aside time to read the Bible, pray, and sing together. Citing a Barna study, Whitney laments that many Christian parents rely upon their church almost exclusively for the discipleship of their children. Whitney writes:
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Seyoon Kim on Anti-Imperial Interpretation
I’ve been working on a book review of Seyoon Kim’s Christ and Caesar: The Gospel and the Roman Empire in the Writings of Paul and Luke. In this book, Kim is arguing against the likes of N. T. Wright who contend that Paul includes coded political messages in his letters in order to subvert the Roman Empire. In reading through Kim’s work, I am struck by how similar his critiques are to the ones that I made in a recent article for JETS. We raise some of the same methodological questions, but our work is entirely independent of one another. As I was reading last night, I found one paragraph…
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N. T. Wright Responds to John Piper
Michael Bird has a preview of N. T. Wright’s response to John Piper on the topic of justification. Wright’s book is titled Justification: God’s Plan and Paul’s Vision, and it will be available early next year. Here’s Bird’s description: “This book is a response to many of Wright’s North American critics and to John Piper’s The Future of Justification in particular. It is not a point for point reply to Piper but a general articulation of what Wright really thinks about justification with some hand-to-hand combat with Piper (as well as others such as Carson and Seifrid) along the way. Wright gives a very forthright defence of his position, but…
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What are you doing New Year’s Eve?
What am I doing New Year’s Eve? This year the Burk family will be enjoying some South Georgia Caviar while watching LSU take on Georgia Tech in the Chick-fil-a Bowl. What are you doing New Year’s Eve?