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Category: Practical Theology

  • Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives

    In general, I try to keep up with Baker Academic’s Engaging Culture series. In fact, I’m hoping to share more about the titles in that series over the summer. The most recent title is Paul Heintzman’s Leisure and Spirituality: Biblical, Historical, and Contemporary Perspectives. It is, in short, “an exploration of how Christians and the church…

  • New Books of Note

    One of my earliest reviews was Joe Thorn’s Note to Self. I thought it was an excellent little devotional work.It is not so much something you read and move on from, but continue to come back to read time and time again. In a very similar vein, Joe Thorn’s most recent book, Experiencing The Trinity: The…

  • How Carl Trueman Changed My Mind About Luther

    Carl Trueman and I go way back. He doesn’t probably know it (or care), but his writing style and point of view tend wake me from my dogmatic slumbers. The first things I read from him were Wages of Spin and Minority Report, both checked out from the DTS Library. Around this time, Republocrat came out. Later,…

  • What Does The Bible Really Teach About Homosexuality?

    It is hard to imagine a more relevant subject in our culture than the issue of homosexuality. Specifically, the issue at hand is how religious liberty and gay rights relate. A more pressing issue, in my mind at least, is how the church is to understand homosexuality and relate to persons who identify as gay…

  • New Books of Note

    Last year, I used Gerald Bray’s God is Love: A Biblical and Systematic Theology for my 11th grade Bible class. Along the way, I offered several posts with excerpts: The Christian Experience of God God Has Spoken To Us Christian Worldview and Speaking About God The Practice of Theology and Theology of Faith The Mystery…

  • Covenant and Commandment: Works, Obedience, and Faithfulness in the Christian Life

    It seems like every few months or so, another title is released in IVP Academic’s New Studies in Biblical Theology series. Even as I work on this review, I’ve already started a more recent work in the series and just noticed that another title is coming this summer. None of this should be construed as…

  • Sanctification: Explorations in Theology and Practice

    One of my on-going interests in Christian theology is the nature of sanctification. Some of it is no doubt stemming from interest in how to personally grow in grace. A larger part of it though is learning how to best shepherd and disciple others in their personal growth in holiness. Helpfully, I was able to…

  • Advancing Trinitarian Theology: Explorations in Constructive Dogmatics

    For the last three years, theologians have gathered in California for the Los Angeles Theology conference. This past year the focal point was the atonement. The first year, it was Christology. Last year it was the Trinity, and thanks to Zondervan, I’ve the published copy of the papers presented. The opening chapter is by one…

  • God’s Battle Plan For The Mind: The Puritan Practice of Biblical Meditation

    One thing that struck me after reading Tim Keller’s book on prayer was how much importance he placed on meditation. Not just meditation in the abstract, or even the secular benefits of it, but the practice of meditating specifically on Scripture as a prelude to prayer. He spent a good portion on the topic, but I…

  • Tim Challies Guide to John Owen’s Mortification of Sin

    Earlier this fall, Tim Challies went through John Owen’s Mortification of Sin, one of three works collected together in Overcoming Sin & Temptation recently updated and published by Crossway. If you missed out, here’s his list of posts: You Must Put Sin to Death Owen says that Christians—the choicest Christians—hate sin and pursue it to its…