Ten Books

from Jesus Outside the Box:

"This can be a quick one! Don't take too long to think about it! Ten books you've read that will always stick with you! First ten you can recall in no more than 15 minutes! Then tag ten others!"

My 10 Books

Fallen Angel

This new film about Larry Norman, who passed away about a year ago, looks very interesting.

Jon Reid reviews the new movie here.

Michael Newnham has an interview with the Canadian documentary filmmaker David Di Sabatino behind the film here.

Related: Metapost - Larry Norman Goes Home

ht: Andrew Jones

Taylor Redux

Kenny Sheppard has posted some more helpful links on Charles Taylor.

On Charles Taylor

For a couple of years now, Kenny has been encouraging me to read Charles Taylor. At his suggestion some time ago I purchased Taylor's A Secular Age. Publisher's Weekly summarizes Taylor's philosophical tome in this manner:

In his characteristically erudite yet engaging fashion, Taylor, winner of the 2007 Templeton Prize, takes up where he left off in his magnificent Sources of the Self (1989) as he brilliantly traces the emergence of secularity and the processes of secularization in the modern age.

In the first paragraph of A Secular Age's first chapter, Taylor himself asks,

One way to put the question that I want to answer here is this: why was it virtually impossible not to believe in God in, say, 1500 in our Western society, while in 2000 many of us find this not only easy, but even inescapable?

Kenny's about to finish his course work at Johns Hopkins here in Charm City and if I don't finish the book soon, I'll lose my most valued interlocutor.

Towards the end of completing Secular Age, I've begun reading through this helpful overview that Kenny suggested.

The current nearly monolithic secular culture, when viewed from at least a prima facie perspective, is fascinating to me and I'm looking forward to learning Taylor's perspective on how this has come about.

In Search of the Quinessential Baltimore Diner, Continued

I believe that this is Year 3 in which I have partnered with Kenny Sheppard (Prolegomena) in search of the Perfect Baltimore Diner. Since our first breakfast we've visited:

• The Double T,
  
• The Paper Moon,
  
• Overlea Diner,
  
• Golden West Cafe,
  
• Two Sisters Grill,
  
• Pete's Diner,
  
• & Frank's Diner

(Kenny, is this list complete?)

On Saturday, Kenny, who's working on his Ph.D at Johns Hopkins on atheism and the intellectual history of 17th century England, and I visited the Silver Moon Diner. It was great! The food was fantastic; Kenny's even become a Scrapple aficionado. But best of all was the great conversation with my good friend.

Kenny took the picture above and a few others which can be found here. (For reasons beyond my capacity to imagine, we have not taken pictures on every single visit).

Is the Recent Resurgence of Calvinism Changing the World?

It is according to Time Magazine.

ht: justin taylor

if you want to understand what happened to our economy...

....just click here.

Economic Recovery, Media Coverage, and Hope

Princeton psychologist Daniel Kahneman won a Nobel prize in economics a few years back for his work in Prospect Theory. One of Dr. Kahneman's revolutionary findings was that when individuals make economic decisions, those decisions are 70% emotional. Previous to Kahneman's discovery, economists would theorize that people make their decisions based on their best rational analysis as to what course of action will result in their keeping or acquiring the most money. But that's not the way it works most of the time.

I thought about Dr. Kahneman on Friday when I was having an interesting discussion with an economist about the troubled United States economy and media coverage. She agreed with me that negative media coverage does inhibit economic recovery. When I thought about Dr. Kahneman, I realized why.

We spend because we have a hope that our spending is a good decision. We invest on hope. If media coverage underlines the doom and gloom, then spending and investing will be suppressed.

This line of thinking reminded me of FDR and how optimism and hope was such a crucial aspect of his leadership. Through both the Depression and World War II, FDR always communicated that America would eventually triumph over all obstacles. Obama was communicating a similar optimism this past Saturday when he said, "We will get through this."

Colin Powell has said that optimism is a force multiplier. This is true for the economy and for many - if not all - areas of human endeavor. Dr. Martin Seligman, of the University of Pennsylvania, details the positive results of optimism in his book Learned Optimism. Malcolm Gladwell, in his most recent book Outliers, similarly explains how individuals work longer and harder through difficulties when they believe that the result of their extra effort will be positive. Their hope then drives them to superior accomplishment.

Jesus followers have a firm basis for optimism in a God who loves us and has all power. He alone can give us a peace which "transcends all understanding" (Phil. 4:4-7). In the midst of financial tsunamies, health crises, relational heartbreak, etc., sometimes our only psychological basement - at times the only foundation for our peace - is our knowledge of the character of God.

ESV Study Bible Online Now Available to All

until the end of this month:

link

This is a very valuable resource that's worth checking out!

Three Questions

A few days ago, a dear friend of mine shared with me three questions that a mutual friend used to center herself. I was talking to Beth about this, but couldn't remember two of the three questions. I did recall that one dealt with being present. Beth and I formulated three questions of our own that I've been using the last several days. They've been helpful. They are:

• Am I At Peace? Do I trust God with all my worries and with my soul (Matthew 6:25-34, Philippians 4:6-7). Beth shared with me the image of a pebble being dropped into a calm pond. The pond responds perfectly to the pebble - or the boulder - and then returns to its previous calm. When we are at peace with God, our responses to trouble can be measured and appropriate. If we do not have that peace, then we are absorbed with self and our precarious situation. If we do not have that peace, then the best that we can come up with another is either a deceived calm or an act.
  
  
• Am I Present? Having peace from and with God, I am then in a position of strength. With that strength, I can afford to focus wholly on either the person in front of me or on the task that is serving the person who is not present. The vertical must enable the horizontal. The past is gone or is covered by Christ's cross. The future I can trust to God, for I cannot control it now. But I have been given the gift of being able to focus on the right now.
  
  
• Am I Purposed? Since we are both at peace and present for the other or for the task, we can be intentional in the moment. We are able to move most fully out of our love for God and for the other (Matthew 22:37-39). God's love purifies and focuses us.

More Great Sportsmanship

"I never in my life thought I'd hear people cheering for us to hit their kids," recalls Gainesville's QB and middle linebacker, Isaiah. "I wouldn't expect another parent to tell somebody to hit their kids. But they wanted us to!""

- and Stacey Sublett points us to this gem.

a beautiful story of sportsmanship

"He went alone to the free throw line, dribbled the ball a couple of times, and looked at the rim.

His first attempt went about two feet, bouncing a couple of times as it rolled toward the end line. The second barely left his hand."

read the whole story

Todd Hunter...

...has a new website! Check it out.

Our New Dog: Raider Sport Shields

We took a dog break for a couple of years. But with my traveling a lot, Beth and the girls really wanted to get another dog for protection and so we rescued Raider, a boxer (?)/lab (?) mutt who is one of the sweetest dogs we've ever met. She's a puppy but her large paws indicate that she won't stay small.

We lost our last dog because we had to have her put down as she was so vicious. So this time we wanted to be more intentional about raising up our dog and so we hired Tecla Walton with Angel K-9 who has been super helpful. We have learned a lot.

I've posted more pictures of Raider here. We are very much enjoying this magnificent beast!

"U.S. judges admit to jailing children for money"

unbelievable. I'm speechless.

"The Lincoln Canon" by Fred Kaplan

Another indication of the slow excruciating death of the industry I poured twenty years of my life into was the Washington Post's recent announcement that next week will be the last edition of its Book World as a stand alone publication. The Sunday Washington Post is my only newspaper subscription. I try to read it in hard copy every week. Being a bibliophile, I especially enjoy learning about new books from reading Book World.

Now, in truth my first sentence was melodramatic; for both the news industry and Book World will be continuing in digital form. But until digital paper becomes cheap and ubiquitous, our eyes will continue to prefer the written page to the digital. I don't mean that people will have that preference; I mean it literally. Our eyes find it easier to read ink on paper than letters on screens. So while as a blogger of seven years I clearly embrace the digital age, I retain a sentimental attachment to the printed page.

But I digress.

What moved me to eulogize the Post's Book World was, once again, another incident of my learning about great books from the publication. Fred Kaplan offered a great piece highlighting the best books available in the Lincoln biographical corpus. Longtime readers of this blog know that I have an affinity for historical biographies, so I thought they might be interested in this piece.

photograph from wikipedia

Some Thoughts on The Shack

As of today, The Shack has been #1 on the New York Times Bestseller List for 36 straight weeks. At the time of this writing, The Shack was the #6 best-selling book of all categories on Amazon.com.

I cannot remember when I've finished a book and then promptly began it a second time the very next day, but that's exactly what I did with The Shack a couple of weeks ago. I finished my second reading of the book a few days ago.

I found the book to be quite powerful. Realizing that the book is controversial, I nevertheless am giving the book a qualified recommendation and am encouraging my friends to read it discerningly.

Some of the critiques that one reads of Young's work are theological. I do not believe it's invalid to criticize the theology behind a creative piece of fiction, but I do think it's unrealistic to expect comprehensive systematic theology from such a work. Some things are simply not addressed in a work of fiction that we would expect to be addressed in systematics. And so I'm hesitant to agree with those critiques that have foundation in a charge of incompleteness. Nevertheless, I did find theological shortcomings in the book though I also appreciated other aspects of the work.

I did not agree with all of the comments in the book regarding authority and hierarchy. I got the impression from reading The Shack that all hierarchy is an unmitigated wrong. I, on the other hand, believe loving authority is not only legitimate on earth but that we also see it in the Godhead (in distinction from what Sarayu claims on p. 122).

I also was not sure what Young was getting at when he had Jesus say that He did not wish for folks to become Christians (p. 182). I have no problem with anyone saying that organized Christianity does not always equal true Christianity, but Jesus comments here seemed to be overstatement.

One critique of The Shack is that it promotes Ultimate Reconciliation (UR). When I read the book, I wondered about this myself. My feeling is that the book had the flavor of Ultimate Reconciliation. Moreoever, Young's story collaborator Wayne Jacobsen in his article Is THE SHACK Heresy? asserts earlier drafts of the the book did reflect William P. Young's leanings toward Ultimate Reconciliation at that time.

However, Jacobsen writes, "While some of that was in earlier versions because of the author’s partiality at the time to some aspects of what people call UR, I made it clear at the outset that I didn’t embrace UR as sound teaching and didn’t want to be involved in a project that promoted it." However, Jacobsen also implies in his article that the collaborative process itself had an affect on Young's theological views including, it would see, any predispositions Young had toward UR. And I believe Young when I have heard him say emphatically in subsequent interviews that he believes in Hell.

Regarding the critique that the book does not accurately convey the Trinity, for myself I was not looking for it to definitively portray the Trinity. It's a work of creative fiction and clearly the author took some liberties. When I have taught theology I have told my students that the day that I explain the Trinity to them in such a way that they go, "Ok, now I get it! That makes perfect sense" that is the day that they can be assured that I have no idea what I'm talking about. We should not be shocked that our finite minds cannot completely comprehend the One Who is infinite. And I felt that there was a definite tension in Young's portrayal of the Trinity that was consistent with the mystery of "God in three persons." But do I think Young got it right? No, of course not. But I do feel that he gave an interesting portrait of God.

One aspect of the book I appreciated was the honest treatment of the most difficult theological question encapsulated in Mackenzie's terrible tragedy: Why would a loving, all-powerful being allow six-year-old Missy to be brutally murdered? I was satisfied that Young did not attempt to provide a definitive theodicy but that in the book the author gave some hints toward an answer that had to do with humanity's freedom to choose. I personally believe that a completely satisfying theodicy is not possible this side of the Jordan. I appreciated that Young did not wrap this theological problem up in a artificially contrived bow.

But perhaps the aspect of the book I appreciated the most was the portrayal of God's personal involvement with Mack. I do believe that God's omnipotence implies his ability to deal with each of his creatures with loving individuality. It was moving to see Young's portrayal of this.

And so I found the book helpfully provocative but I am sensitive to, and in some cases sympathetic with, those who might critique its theology in places. I am also open to being shown that I have missed theological deficiencies in the book that should be highlighted.

But all these concerns expressed, I cautiously recommend The Shack as one way to helpfully challenge our paradigm of God in a way that might lead to a fuller understanding of Him.

Other Information Available Online About The Shack:

• You can learn more about William P. Young here.
  
  
• See a video of William P Young sharing the story behind the story.
  
  
• Mark Driscoll on The Shack (mostly critical)
  
  
• Wayne Jacobsen: Is The Shack Heresy? (mostly favorable)
  
  Jacobsen is an author who was one of Young's collaborators on the story and co-founded Windblown Media that publishes the book.
  
  
• Tim Challies' Review of The Shack (pdf) (mostly critical)
  
  
• Al Mohler on The Shack (audio) (mostly critical)
  
  
• Greg Boyd on The Shack (mostly favorable)
  
  
• Christianity Today Review: Fiction for the Faith-Starved by Cindy Crosby (mostly favorable)
  

all tim keller, all the time

Just took a look at this great site after learning about it from my friend dj chuang.

Talking with Pete Rollins about Knowing

Peter Rollins and I are talking about knowing on Tony Jones' blog after he critiqued a comment I made in the Ten Years Out article on the history of the emerging church in North America.

Reminds me of the chat Brian McLaren and I had about epistemology 8 years ago (which I mentioned to Peter, as I thought it might be relevant to his critique.

Next-Wave has a New Editor

Next-Wave's new editor is Scott Bane. Many thanks to Bob Hyatt for his two year stint in the same role. Next-Wave's founder and publisher, Charlie Wear, talks about the history of Next-Wave and this transition here.