Welcome

Category: Theology

  • Faith Alone: The Doctrine of Justification (The 5 Solas Series)

    Going back to my time at Dallas, I’ve been interested in the discussion about the doctrine of justification. It was at that time that John Piper’s The Future of Justification came out, as well as N. T. Wright’s response Justification: God’s Plan, Paul’s Vision (which if you’re keeping score, is a response book to a…

  • New Books of Note

    I don’t read many of Simon Gathercole’s books, but when I do, they are short. Around this time last year I read Justification Reconsidered. There, he was rethinking a Pauline theme, and in some ways, that’s also what he is doing in his recent book Defending Substitution: An Essay on Atonement in Paul. In both books,…

  • The Lost World of Adam and Eve: Genesis 2-3 and The Human Origins Debate

    When I look back at the books I read in seminary, few are as game changing and paradigm shifting for me as John Walton’s Ancient Near East Thought and The Old Testament. It was even for a class, but was recommend by two of my Hebrew professors as a good resource into the cultural background…

  • New Books of Note

    Like most people last Monday, I got sunburned near a large body of water. While I was doing that, I read Scot McKnight’s latest book, A Fellowship of Differents. It is essentially a book about the Christian life in community based heavily on the writings of Paul. The six parts of the book trace the Christian life,…

  • 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…

  • 8-Bit Philosophy: Does Christianity Make Us Weak? (Asks Nietzsche)

    To be honest, Nietzsche makes some good points. However, the version of Christianity he mostly reacts against is not the best. Some of what Nietzsche found unpalatable was simply the offense of the gospel, but some of it was simply offensive.

  • 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…

  • Atonement, Law, and Justice: The Cross in Historical and Cultural Contexts

    Early in his work, Atonement, Law, and Justice: The Cross in Historical and Cultural Contexts, Adonis Vidu notes, “While some excellent monographs have been written, few writers have embraced the task of writing a history of atonement theories” (xiii). In what follows, he doesn’t offer an exhaustive history, but does give a superb overview of the…

  • Reformed Catholicity: The Promise of Retrieval for Theology and Biblical Interpretation

    “Can Christians and churches be catholic and Reformed?” That may well be your first question after reading the title of this book. Thankfully, it’s also the opening lines of the book written by RTS Orlando theology profs Michael Allen and Scott Swain. Along with Puritan William Perkins, Allen and Swain suggest that “to be Reformed…