Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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Plea Prayers In The Psalms
The balance between protest or expression of pain, and plea or request, is the reverse of that which characterizes Christian prayer. Christians are reticent about telling God things that God presumably knows, though they are then oddly unrestrained about itemizing what God should do even though they recognize that God could work this out. Prayer…
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Set Apart By Kisses
With these scriptural themes in mind, the depth of the beloved’s words to and about her lover begins to become apparent. If the “best ointments” are those given by the Lord to us—if, as Leviticus puts it, the “anointing oil of the Lord” (oleum unctionis Domini; 10:6–11; 21:10–12) is what sets apart the priests of…
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The Purifying Flame of Christ’s Passion
The Lord, therefore, your scriptural imagination can tell you, wants to kiss your lips with a passion, to redden them with the redness of his passion for you. The “scarlet thread” of the beloved’s lips, stained by the blood of the Lord’s passion and inflamed by the heat of his kisses, belongs to the Lord’s…
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Worship As Identity Formation
When you sing your praise, lament, and gratitude, you are not only—nor even principally—expressing your feelings or aspirations or beliefs. No, you are reconfiguring yourself as one who praises, one who laments, and one who is grateful, and at the same time making more intimate (more full of kisses and embraces and caresses and delight)…
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Did God Really Say?
Overview Did God Really Say? is a collaboration between Reformed, Westminster, and Covenant theological seminaries. As you can imagine, that makes this book a response from leading Reformed authors concerning the inerrancy of Scripture. Though relatively short (under 200 pages), several of the essays are shortened version of full length book treatments. For instance, Michael…
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The 7 Backstories of The Hebrew Bible
Just recently, Eerdmans was gracious enough to send along Gregory Mobley’s The Return of The Chaos Monster – And Other Backstories of The Bible. I’ve had my eye on it for a while, and even just flipping through the introduction, I can already tell its going to be thought provoking (and probably deserving of a…
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Stephen Wellum on How People Put Together The Bible
Within evangelical theology, dispensational and covenant theology largely frame how people “put together” their Bible and, as such, function as dominant theological viewpoints. Each “system” serves as an interpretive grid for understanding the story line of Scripture and thus functions as “whole-bible theologies” (i.e. biblical theologies) which lead to systematic theological conclusions. In this way,…
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Christ-Centered Biblical Theology
I don’t remember when I first heard of Graeme Goldsworthy, but it was probably at some point during my time in Dallas. I’ve had my eye on his Gospel-Centered Hermeneutics, which I guess would make a good companion to this volume. Eventually, I’ll pull the trigger, but since his Christ-Centered Biblical Theology was released earlier this year,…
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The Life of God in The Soul of The Church
Way back in the mid 1600’s, a guy named Henry Scougal wrote a short little book to encourage a friend in his spiritual life. It was later published for wider readership as The Life of God in the Soul of Man. I would probably be unfamiliar with it myself if John Piper didn’t make a…
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Stephen Wellum on Systematic Theology and Worldview
Systematic theology, then, inevitably involves theological construction and doctrinal formulation, grounded in biblical theology and done in light of historical theology, but which also involves interacting with all areas of life – history, science, psychology, ethics, and so on. In so doing, systematic theology leads to worldview formation as we seek to set the biblical-theological framework of…
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