As Christians we need to cultivate an appreciation for the wealth accumulated by the Church of Jesus Christ through the centuries. Calvinists have enriched the church with their theological labors, their spiritual fortitude, and their scholarly Christian pursuits. But we have not been alone. The Church of England, that great body that gave us "Amazing Grace" and "Rock of Ages," that produced Cranmer, Whitefield, the Wesleys, Ryle, and Packer, and that nurtured C.S. Lewis, drew in T.S. Eliot, and uplifted Robert E. Lee, has a splendid heritage which we all as Christians should share. Consider the following selection, regularly found in the Book of Common Prayer:
Te Deum Laudamus:
We praise thee, O God: we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee: the Father everlasting.
To thee all Angels cry aloud: the heavens, and all the Powers therein.
To thee Cherubim and Seraphim: continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy: Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and Earth are full of the Majesty of thy Glory.
The glorious company of the Apostles: praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the Prophets: praise thee.
The noble army of Martyrs: praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world: doth acknowledge thee;
The Father: of an infinite Majesty;
Thine honourable, true, and only Son;
Also the Holy Ghost: the Comforter. Amen
The Book of Common Prayer
The preacher of Ecclesiastes tells us, "Of the making of many books, there is no end." To which we add, "Of the buying and reading of many books, there is no end."
Friday, September 29, 2006
Monday, September 18, 2006
Way to Go Pastor Joe!
I know the Reformation isn't quite over. Still, I am once again doing that which I vowed once never to do and that is, I am praising a Pope. A preliminary glance at Pope Benedict's speech at the University of Regensburg impresses me quite a bit. Without subscribing to every single point he makes--without understanding every point he makes--I have to admit that the man is quite a scholar, in the tradition of great Christian thinkers like Christopher Dawson and Herman Dooyeweerd or those best buddies in heaven Cornelius Van Til and Gordon Clark.
Of course, if it were really a poor speech I would still like it because it roused the Islamers. Somehow or other, they really get hacked and respond with rioting, beheadings, and violence when someone implies that Islam has certain irrational, violent, and perverted tendencies.
I don't even want to bother with reading the Vatican's apology. I hope the intent is "We are sorry that the truth offends you. Please accept our apologies...and the Gospel."
Click here for the text of Pastor Joseph Ratzinger's lecture.
Of course, if it were really a poor speech I would still like it because it roused the Islamers. Somehow or other, they really get hacked and respond with rioting, beheadings, and violence when someone implies that Islam has certain irrational, violent, and perverted tendencies.
I don't even want to bother with reading the Vatican's apology. I hope the intent is "We are sorry that the truth offends you. Please accept our apologies...and the Gospel."
Click here for the text of Pastor Joseph Ratzinger's lecture.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Ralph Smith and Shakespeare
When I first heard of Ralph Smith, I was excited. I thought he was likely the leader of a bluegrass music band and I expected something like a CD titled "Ralph Smith and the Green Mountain Boys Sing the Greatest Hits of the Stanley Brothers." I could not have resisted such a musical experience.
Instead, to my disappointment, I found out that Ralph Smith was a brilliant Reformed theological thinker. Why? And how with a name like Ralph Smith? I like my brilliant theological thinkers to have stately sounding, preferably Dutch names. What about Adolphus Heidelberg Van Der Schmidt? Doesn't that sound more Reformed, more theological than merely Ralph Smith?
My next disappointment was in learning that Ralph Smith was a missionary to Japan. Granted, I love to hear of missionaries. But I expect to hear stories of missionaries being eaten by cannibals, dodging spears, and living off rats and bugs in the darkest jungles of the world. Ralph Smith is in Japan, preaching and teaching, and lecturing on Shakespeare.
If I were Henry Livingston, I could hardly imagine myself being sent on a mission to search throughout all Japan and finally to stumble across a village, like Tokyo, and walk up to this man and say, "Smith, I presume."
I learned to live with these disappointments. I learned this from reading a book by Ralph titled Trinity and Reality: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. The first time I read the book, my thought was, "Nice work. Good book." (I am, as you see, a deep and critical thinker.) Then I decided to teach through the book in our adult Sunday School class, which I did. From January through August I worked through the book, reading and rereading each chapter. This book is quite marvelous and amazingly profound. This book (published by Canon Press) presents the Trinity as the foundation for all areas of Christian life and thought. We are in the image of God not just as individuals, but as the community or body of Christ. God is a society of love and harmony and not just a lone monad. Likewise, we are not just isolated lone Christian monads, but are united in covenantal love, albeit most imperfect, with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Trinity and Reality has come to be ranked as one of my favorite books.
As stated above, Ralph has produced a series of lectures on Shakespeare. His key point is that Shakespeare was a Christian writer and his language and plays evidence his rather extensive Christian worldview. Secularists are blind; brilliant often, but even more often blind. They read Milton, Dante, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Shakespeare and remain oblivious to the spiritual dimensions and Christian worldview of the artists and the art. Christians need to take back the field of literature; there are a few writers that the secularists can keep; but overall, we want to take the whole field back. Peter Leithart has done some great work that has shown Christian themes in Jane Austen and Christian truths in the great Ancient pagans, like Homer. And Leithart has written about Shakespeare as well. Dr. Louise Cowan has specifically highlighted the influence Shakespeare had on her in her early days of teaching Hamlet. And now, add Ralph Smith's lectures to the growing body of Christian materials on Shakespeare.
You need to buy Ralph Smith's lectures on Shakespeare. Avert your eyes slightly to the left and notice the link to Covenant Media Foundation: Click there or click here and buy the lectures.
But there is a catch to all of this: Pastor Smith is using the proceeds from the Shakespeare lectures for a building fund for his congregation, the Mitaka Evangelical Church in Tokyo, Japan. So you are helping more than one good cause. Also, buy Trinity and Reality. And if Ralph Smith ever produces a bluegrass CD, buy that also.
The Website for Ralph Smith is www.Berith.org.
Instead, to my disappointment, I found out that Ralph Smith was a brilliant Reformed theological thinker. Why? And how with a name like Ralph Smith? I like my brilliant theological thinkers to have stately sounding, preferably Dutch names. What about Adolphus Heidelberg Van Der Schmidt? Doesn't that sound more Reformed, more theological than merely Ralph Smith?
My next disappointment was in learning that Ralph Smith was a missionary to Japan. Granted, I love to hear of missionaries. But I expect to hear stories of missionaries being eaten by cannibals, dodging spears, and living off rats and bugs in the darkest jungles of the world. Ralph Smith is in Japan, preaching and teaching, and lecturing on Shakespeare.
If I were Henry Livingston, I could hardly imagine myself being sent on a mission to search throughout all Japan and finally to stumble across a village, like Tokyo, and walk up to this man and say, "Smith, I presume."
I learned to live with these disappointments. I learned this from reading a book by Ralph titled Trinity and Reality: An Introduction to the Christian Faith. The first time I read the book, my thought was, "Nice work. Good book." (I am, as you see, a deep and critical thinker.) Then I decided to teach through the book in our adult Sunday School class, which I did. From January through August I worked through the book, reading and rereading each chapter. This book is quite marvelous and amazingly profound. This book (published by Canon Press) presents the Trinity as the foundation for all areas of Christian life and thought. We are in the image of God not just as individuals, but as the community or body of Christ. God is a society of love and harmony and not just a lone monad. Likewise, we are not just isolated lone Christian monads, but are united in covenantal love, albeit most imperfect, with God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
Trinity and Reality has come to be ranked as one of my favorite books.
As stated above, Ralph has produced a series of lectures on Shakespeare. His key point is that Shakespeare was a Christian writer and his language and plays evidence his rather extensive Christian worldview. Secularists are blind; brilliant often, but even more often blind. They read Milton, Dante, Flannery O'Connor, J.R.R. Tolkien, and Shakespeare and remain oblivious to the spiritual dimensions and Christian worldview of the artists and the art. Christians need to take back the field of literature; there are a few writers that the secularists can keep; but overall, we want to take the whole field back. Peter Leithart has done some great work that has shown Christian themes in Jane Austen and Christian truths in the great Ancient pagans, like Homer. And Leithart has written about Shakespeare as well. Dr. Louise Cowan has specifically highlighted the influence Shakespeare had on her in her early days of teaching Hamlet. And now, add Ralph Smith's lectures to the growing body of Christian materials on Shakespeare.
You need to buy Ralph Smith's lectures on Shakespeare. Avert your eyes slightly to the left and notice the link to Covenant Media Foundation: Click there or click here and buy the lectures.
But there is a catch to all of this: Pastor Smith is using the proceeds from the Shakespeare lectures for a building fund for his congregation, the Mitaka Evangelical Church in Tokyo, Japan. So you are helping more than one good cause. Also, buy Trinity and Reality. And if Ralph Smith ever produces a bluegrass CD, buy that also.
The Website for Ralph Smith is www.Berith.org.
Monday, September 11, 2006
Book Man of Constant Sorrow
All I ask is a little sympathy. It's my job and it's my life, but it sure is not easy. Let me outline some of my problems.
1. I have a junior high American history class. We always begin with reading Stephen Mansfield's More Than Dates and Dead People. This book is a wonderful introduction to history from a Christian perspective. It is fun, witty, short, and insightful. Thankfully, I have already finished reading the book and will be completing my lectures/discussions soon. Whatever happened to the good ole days with textbooks filled with dates and dead people? Stephen Mansfield has so whetted the appetite of my students that now they will expect the rest of our history class to be exciting.
2. That leads me to Gary Demar, otherwise a nice guy, but in this case, the author and co-author of a series of history books. The first one is A New World in View. It covers the age of explorers. In great detail it surveys Columbus's life and mission and Cortes's not so polite dismantling of the Aztec "Eat Your Heart Out" Empire. Somehow my students seem to enjoy seeing Montezuma's poor empire of several million being conquered by a small contingency of Spanish conquistadors. The Spaniards completely disrupted a very efficient human sacrificing religious establishment. The second book in the series, which I have never taught before, is called Building a City on a Hill and is co-authored by Gary L. Todd. The third is called On the Road to Independence and is co-authored by George Grant. This series is a very readable and thoroughly Christian approach to American history. And I guess I have to read and teach this.
3. I also have a Logic class and a Rhetoric class. Right now, we are studying Gordon Clark's book Logic in both classes. For Logic class, the book is an introduction, albeit a "push you off into the deep end of the pool" approach. For Rhetoric class, the book is a refresher course. Why should I have to teach logic? I got by for 50 years without using logic, and look at me? Back to Gordon Clark. Clark was a brilliant man, a key Christian philospher, and according to many student testimonies, a great teacher. He was not necessarily a great writer or communicator of logic skills. His book rambles; he makes statements without support; he raises questions he does not answer; he slips wit in where more details are needed; and he strays off here and there. The book gives me the sense of sitting in the presence of a brilliant man whose years of study, reading, and writing are being displayed for all to delight in. I love the book, and I rejoice that I do not have to use it as my primary logic text. It is a great supplement, a useful introduction, a helpful refresher. For logic texts, consider both the books by James Nance, published by Canon Press, and those of Martin Cothran, published by Memoria.
4. Bible class: Back with the junior high again. In this class, we are reading R.C. Sproul's Knowing Scripture, along with reading the Gospel of Matthew. It has been years since I read this Sproul book. It is a very useful and basic guide to learning how to do more than simply read the Bible.
5. In my Humanities Class, we are studying the Modern World. This covers the world from the late Renaissance through the Reformation and from there up through the Age of Revolution and right up to yesterday. I like to begin my classes with something from the middle of the time we are studying. So we began with Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. I last read that book when I was in the 9th grade in 1970. Right now, I am about 2/3rds through the book. It is far better than what I remember. It is a marvelous picture of the upheaval in France. Dickens' personal life and beliefs were not always reliable, but he certainly writes out of a Christian framework.
6. Later this week, we will start back at the beginning of the Modern Age and read Gene Edward Veith's biography of Martin Luther. It is titled A Place to Stand: The Word of God in the Life of Martin Luther. It is a part of the Cumberland House Leaders in Action series of biographies. After Luther, we will read biographies of Calvin and Knox out of the same series and also begin on Luther's Bondage of the Will.
A man should not have to work this hard.
1. I have a junior high American history class. We always begin with reading Stephen Mansfield's More Than Dates and Dead People. This book is a wonderful introduction to history from a Christian perspective. It is fun, witty, short, and insightful. Thankfully, I have already finished reading the book and will be completing my lectures/discussions soon. Whatever happened to the good ole days with textbooks filled with dates and dead people? Stephen Mansfield has so whetted the appetite of my students that now they will expect the rest of our history class to be exciting.
2. That leads me to Gary Demar, otherwise a nice guy, but in this case, the author and co-author of a series of history books. The first one is A New World in View. It covers the age of explorers. In great detail it surveys Columbus's life and mission and Cortes's not so polite dismantling of the Aztec "Eat Your Heart Out" Empire. Somehow my students seem to enjoy seeing Montezuma's poor empire of several million being conquered by a small contingency of Spanish conquistadors. The Spaniards completely disrupted a very efficient human sacrificing religious establishment. The second book in the series, which I have never taught before, is called Building a City on a Hill and is co-authored by Gary L. Todd. The third is called On the Road to Independence and is co-authored by George Grant. This series is a very readable and thoroughly Christian approach to American history. And I guess I have to read and teach this.
3. I also have a Logic class and a Rhetoric class. Right now, we are studying Gordon Clark's book Logic in both classes. For Logic class, the book is an introduction, albeit a "push you off into the deep end of the pool" approach. For Rhetoric class, the book is a refresher course. Why should I have to teach logic? I got by for 50 years without using logic, and look at me? Back to Gordon Clark. Clark was a brilliant man, a key Christian philospher, and according to many student testimonies, a great teacher. He was not necessarily a great writer or communicator of logic skills. His book rambles; he makes statements without support; he raises questions he does not answer; he slips wit in where more details are needed; and he strays off here and there. The book gives me the sense of sitting in the presence of a brilliant man whose years of study, reading, and writing are being displayed for all to delight in. I love the book, and I rejoice that I do not have to use it as my primary logic text. It is a great supplement, a useful introduction, a helpful refresher. For logic texts, consider both the books by James Nance, published by Canon Press, and those of Martin Cothran, published by Memoria.
4. Bible class: Back with the junior high again. In this class, we are reading R.C. Sproul's Knowing Scripture, along with reading the Gospel of Matthew. It has been years since I read this Sproul book. It is a very useful and basic guide to learning how to do more than simply read the Bible.
5. In my Humanities Class, we are studying the Modern World. This covers the world from the late Renaissance through the Reformation and from there up through the Age of Revolution and right up to yesterday. I like to begin my classes with something from the middle of the time we are studying. So we began with Charles Dickens' Tale of Two Cities. I last read that book when I was in the 9th grade in 1970. Right now, I am about 2/3rds through the book. It is far better than what I remember. It is a marvelous picture of the upheaval in France. Dickens' personal life and beliefs were not always reliable, but he certainly writes out of a Christian framework.
6. Later this week, we will start back at the beginning of the Modern Age and read Gene Edward Veith's biography of Martin Luther. It is titled A Place to Stand: The Word of God in the Life of Martin Luther. It is a part of the Cumberland House Leaders in Action series of biographies. After Luther, we will read biographies of Calvin and Knox out of the same series and also begin on Luther's Bondage of the Will.
A man should not have to work this hard.
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