Category: Theology
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Exploring Christian Doctrine: A Guide to What Christians Believe
Tony Lane is professor of historical theology at the London School of Theology. He is a world-class Calvin scholar and author of several books, most recently Exploring Christian Doctrine: A Guide to What Christian Should Believe. The book is part of the Exploring Topics in Christianity series (includes one other volume at the present) which complements…
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Exploring Christian Theology: The Church, Spiritual Growth, and The End Times
It’s probably no secret that I’m a fan of systematic theology. Not everyone shares my enthusiasm, but luckily, part of my job is to figure out how to pass on the excitement. One of the roadblocks that crowds the path is how inaccessible many systematic theologies are. Especially if they are multi-volume works. Usually, you…
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Gospel-Centered Counseling: How Christ Changes Lives
On the one hand, I’m kind of tired of the whole “gospel-centered” usage. On the other hand, I believe in the gospel and am generally for the things that the adjective gets attached to. Counseling is one of those things and I am all for counseling that is gospel-centered, or Christ-centered. I’m also all for…
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Scripture and Counseling: God’s Word for Life in a Broken World
When it comes to counseling and the local church, the role of the Bible figures prominently. For some people, Scripture is sufficient for many problems in life, but not necessarily some of the major issues counselors face. For others, Scripture’s sufficiency is applied more broadly, but questions remain. Addressing many of those questions is Scripture and Counseling:…
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Predestination & Free Will: Four Views of Divine Sovereignty & Human Freedom
This may well be the oldest book I’ve reviewed, to date at least. But, I wondered if IVP Academic would send me for review the volumes I lacked in the Spectrum Multiview series and they graciously did! Predestination & Free Will: Four Views of Divine Sovereignty & Human Freedom is edited by David and Randall Basinger and covers…
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The Christian Faith: A Creedal Account
Several weeks back, I requested a review copy of Exploring Psychology and Christian Faith, mainly because I wanted to use it as a textbook in my psychology class. I was granted the review copy, and am using it and enjoying it. As a by product of my request, I also received a copy of Hans…
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Taking God At His Word: Why The Bible is Knowable, Necessary, and Enough, and What That Means For You and Me
Kevin Deyoung is senior pastor at University Reformed Church in East Lansing Michigan (home of Michigan St.). He blogs at The Gospel Coalition and has written several books in addition to Taking God At His Word (e.g. Crazy Busy and The Hole in Our Holiness). Here, he presents readers a brief primer on the doctrine…
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Paul & Judaism Revisited: A Study of Divine and Human Agency In Salvation
Preston Sprinkle is associate professor of biblical studies at Eternity Bible College. He co-authored Erasing Hell (remember that?) with Francis Chan and co-edited The Faith of Jesus Christ with Michael Bird. His doctoral dissertation was published as Law and Life: The Interpretation of Leviticus 18:5 in Early Judaism and in Paul. The present book, Paul &…
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Justification and The Gospel: Understanding the Contexts and Controversies
In my summer reading, I spent a lot of time with books on Paul (well, one book in particular). That meant also spending a good amount of time reading about justification. In a couple of instances, that was the focus of the entire book. One of those was Westerholm’s Justification Reconsidered. The other was R.…
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Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking A Pauline Theme
Stephen Westerholm opens Justification Reconsidered: Rethinking A Pauline Theme saying, “Those of us brought up, not simply on the letters of Paul, but on a distinctive way of reading those letters, do well to engage with those who read Paul differently (vii).” He then explains that his short work (which is under 100 pp.) will engage…