Free book!

Having just added yet another IKEA bookshelf to my living room, I am enthusiastic to obtain books in electronic format. I know it is tougher to read on a computer, but one can print it out, and it does take up a lot less space in my small front room!

Here is a link to a book that takes up a few square inches on one of my bookshelves. Well worth reading.

http://www.reformed.org/books/chr_and_lib/index.html

Any other books online I should note?

Reusing old material

There is occasionally a debate that rages about the propriety of reusing old material. John Richardson shows how profitable it can on occasion be to reuse old material - Here is an article he wrote on evangelicalism in 1993, that still repays careful reading. Check it out:

The Ugley Vicar: McGrath and I: Back to the Future of Evangelical Anglicanism

Converted in lectures

Reading about TF Torrance - the Scottish theology professor. Born to missionary parents, he seems to have never lost his zeal for evangelism. On interview for a post at Princeton University in 1939, Torrance felt that he ought to nail his colours to the mast. He explained that his devotion to what he called 'scientific theology' did not mean his lectures would be dispassionate. Further, he, 'could not guarantee that no students would be converted through his lectures.' He was offered the job, but declined due to war breaking out in Europe.

Both Christian and Muslim?

It is difficult to know where to begin commenting:

She does believe that Jesus died on the cross and was resurrected, and acknowledges those beliefs conflict with the teachings of the Quran. "That's something I'll find a challenge the rest of my life," she said.

She considers Jesus her savior. At times of despair, because she knows Jesus suffered and overcame suffering, "he has connected me with God," she said.

That's not to say she couldn't develop as deep a relationship with Mohammed. "I'm still getting to know him," she said.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003751274_redding17m.html

One could begin by glancing at:

http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=51&chapter=4&verse=12&version=47&context=verse

Spiderman 3: Preaching at a Cinema near you

Theology is so engaging - it even drives the Hollywood box office!

Unfortunately not always good theology. There are a lot of people praising Spiderman 3 saying that it is a great 'example setter' for kids - it teaches them to try to be good. But is that a good thing?



The movie is all about the inner fight of evil and good - Spiderman has to battle the evil that lies within himself; so does his best friend and all the other characters. We see some fail and some succeed. The theological lessen is given in a voice over at the end of the film - at a funeral - suggesting that the meditation is what we should all aspire to at the end of our lives. Spidey preaches:

“Whatever comes our way, whatever battle we have raging inside us, we always have a choice. My friend Harry taught me that. He chose to be the best of himself. It’s the choices that make us who we are, and we can always choose to do what’s right.”


Well done Spidey for working out that the battle rages within - it is indeed in the human heart.

Sadly we cannot always choose to do what is good - to approach life with that motto is deadening, hollow and naive. I recommend pondering Matthew 15:1-20...
Whoever thought Pelagius would be resurrected as a web slinging superhero!

Bored?

I am 44 pages into checking my thesis for typographical errors.

I had no idea that I could bore myself so much with my own writing - it is quite an achievement.
The topic is fascinating, the subject is profound. Humbling then to find that less than half way through my own work I am bored senseless. Once I have finished the 100 pages or so of text, I have the peak of thrills to look forward to - 15 pages of bibliography. Terrific.

Hopefully this soporific effect will be taken to be scholarly....

Liberal Anglicans?

Prof . McGrath's wife has written an article explaining why conservative evangelicals have the problems they are thought to have. The explanation is that it is:

"a symptom of something deep in human psychology and culture...."

As one writer put it, this flows from:

"the human need to impose order on a chaotic and dangerous universe."

I wonder if there is any other analysis?
Is it fair to explain away specific doctrinal questions by reference to broad psychological assessments?

Read the article here http://www.guardian.co.uk/religion/Story/0,,2093753,00.html

War

War is a terrible thing.
However it is not so bad when it is fought on a table top, with miniature soldiers made from lead and painstakingly painted with acrylic paints.

Last weekend my schoolfriend, Franklin, and I competed in a tabletop wargame competition in London. Our little soldiers did well - won two battles, lost one.

For those of you desiring an Augustinian take on this hobby - It may be a problem, for the enjoyment of war and violence is worse than the reality (c. Faust. 22.74)...

Anglican

A lot of changes happen this summer - I hand my thesis in next week, and complete my normal course of ordination training in the Church of England. As I reflect on two years of preparation for leading churches, and a 20,000 word MPhil thesis on philosophical theology- and then survey the sorts of debates going on in the Anglican communion, I cannot help but ponder the words of another Irish Anglican - C. S. Lewis, addressing a clergy conference in Wales, 1945-

"It is not, of course, for me to define what Anglican Christianity is - I am your pupil, not your teacher. But I insist that wherever you draw the lines, bounding lines must exist, beyond which your doctrine will cease to be Anglican or to be Christian: and I suggest also that it is your duty to fix the lines clearly in your own minds: and if you want to go beyond them you must change your profession.
This is your duty not specially as priests but as honest men. There is a danger here of the clergy developing a special professional conscience which obscures the very plain moral issue. Men who have passed beyond boundary lines in either direction are apt to protest that they have come by their unorthodox opinions honestly. In defence of their opinions they are prepared to suffer... Thus they come to feel like martyrs. But this simply misses the point... We never doubted that the unorthodox opinions were honestly held: what we complain of is your continuing your ministry after you have come to hold them. We always knew that a man who makes his living as a paid agent of the Conservative Party may honestly change his views and honestly become a Communist. What we deny is that he can honestly continue to be a Conservative agent and to receive money from one party while he supports the policy of another."

They may be out of fashion (a lot from 1945 is!) but perhaps still pertinent?