There's of course Peter Leithart. And Mark Horne. And the whole Federal Vision gang. On the FV deal...I've fallen quite heavily on one side of it (at least when people start forcing there to be sides), and am staying there for a while. It's been immensely helpful to me, drawing together and giving viable, livable solutions to many many nagging questions and concerns.
On to books...there's Leithart's Against Christianity. It's most certainly biased, one-sided "theological haiku." But, like Chesterton, he at least knows he's exaggerating. And of course I rather like his emphasis on the church as a counter-polis, "salvation" being saved INTO something, and theology as something other than systematic philosophy. :)
You can find the article it was based off of here...but the book definitely presents it a bit better. Or at least a bit more beautifully.
I have a love-hate thing going with Doug Wilson. But he hits the nail dead center with this.
This was pretty cool, as well.
And of course I'm partial to everything in this book -- so much so that I'm not reading any more of it until I can think a bit more objectively about the whole matter, and endure solid disagreement to some of the things I'm so knee-jerkedly attracted to.
And then there's Deuteronomy. God reveals himself and his character through his actions and promises. Israel was a foothold of a sweeping redemption stretching from Abraham to the eschaton. And we're supposed to anthropomorphise. Among other things. :)
There's James Jordan's Through New Eyes. He certainly seems to go a bit off the deep end in places. But for every one of those, there's something like this:
To help us understand the nature and purpose of the world as God created it, let us imagine an alternate world. Let us imagine an infinite, or at least nearly infinite, flat plain. This flat plain is inhabited by people. These people exist to glorify God. They do this by praising Him, and by developing in their social relationships with one another. These people never need to sleep, and so there is no alternating of night and day. These people get their energy directly from the Holy Spirit, so there is no need for food. There are no animals, plants, or gemstones in this world. There are only people, interacting with God and with other people, on a nearly infinite flat plain.
He reads the Bible like a poet, and it is beautiful. Read it even if you think Jordan is pretty much utterly whacked -- he's probably still got some very good and useful and helpful counterbalances. (Shucks -- read it even if you could care less about the Bible, but want to see some darn good worldbuilding and poetic material. :))
Apparently, Leithart considers his own Old Testament survey -- A House For My Name as "Through New Eyes for Dummies."
Steve Wilkins preached the two of the most amazing sermons I've ever heard. A good bit of the material seems replicated in this book.
I've no link for this...but "allegiance" is a freaking awesome conceptualization of the Christian life. So is "union with Christ."
There's also this piece, which summarizes some of my own re-conceptions of many OT passages pretty well. Or at least gets across what I mean when I say, "fighting sovereignty."
And, yeah...N.T. Wright is amazing. Not perfect -- who is?, but still one of the best apologist-theologians out there. Here's him on Easter, and on the Christian imagination, and on the virgin birth. I've included the last one as an example of his basic apologetical method, which is miles ahead of that of most Christian writers out there. At least in terms of persuasiveness to those "outside the tent"...take my word for it on that one. ;)
Leaving off theology for a second...Lim is back (YAY!!!), and is sounding like Dr. Stewart. :) Also, I finally read her Hounds of Spring novella (continued here). ::jawdrop:: Ignore the karma mumbo jumbo (and the lack of decent red herrings). It's a story about sin and evil and justice and grace, and differing responses to the bentness of a fallen world. (Or maybe I was just tired and reading WAY too much into it. :)) If nothing else, the worldbuilding is unique (as always).
Favorite movie review read this summer: this one, on A. I. It talks about love, and I needed a good whap upside the head about that. Also, I was one of the stupid people who thought the weird things at the end were aliens. :)
This was just plain funny. So is this.
And, still having in the back of my mind Laura C.'s comment -- "all the writers we admire seem to be Catholic or high church!" -- here's one of the better analyses I've seen to date of why evangelicals "can't write".
If I remember anything else, I'll tack it up later. But that should be enough for now. :)
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