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Links to Think: 06.04.12

June 4, 2012 in Christian Growth, grace, Life, links, reflections, Resources with 1 Comment

NeverSeconds: One primary school pupil’s daily dose of school dinners. - A 9-year-old girl blogs about her daily school lunches, with photos. (I believe she’s from Scotland.) Her blog has attracted attention from worldwide school-lunch-eaters (and foodies), and she also shares pictures sent in by other students around the world.

“Coronation Chicken was invented to celebrate the Queen coming to the throne in 1953 and it’s still here today! It’s a mixture of cold chicken in a cold curry sauce. It tastes a lot better than it sounds. It was on our menu to celebrate the Queen’s diamond jubilee this weekend. We’ve an extra day off school to celebrate and I am going to a street party. We don’t go back until Wednesday next week!”

American Scripture: How David Barton Won the Christian Right - As someone who attended high school history classes watching David Barton videos, I found this article helpful and insightful.

“Barton’s focus on returning to the original text, and his pointed disdain for the scholars whom he accuses of distorting its plain meaning, seems to resonate with his largely evangelical audience. There is a reason for this. It echoes the general doctrine of sola scriptura, the bedrock of the Reformation, that the text of the Bible alone contains the knowledge necessary for salvation. It draws on the tradition of prooftexting, using verses lifted from a larger text to buttress specific points. And in particular, it mirrors the notion of the perspicuity of Scripture — that its essential teachings are sufficiently clear that ”not only the learned, but the unlearned, in a due use of the ordinary means, may attain unto a sufficient understanding of them.”"

“His error, of course, is that the hundred thousand documents he treasures were all written by men, bereft of divine inspiration, muddling through as best they knew how. Their authors were creatures of their time and place, seized by the usual sets of contradictory impulses and passions, changing and evolving with the passage of time. To apply the same exegetical principles to the works of man as to those of God is folly.“

(HT: B.T. Schoolfield)

Violent Men, Working Women, and Evangelical Gender Norms - David Crabb has Paul Matzko write a guest blog post, “writing an immensely helpful article arguing that evangelicals often get their conception of gender roles from cultural norms rather than Scriptural principles.”

“For the evangelical Christian, a series of logical questions follow: If there are so many different expectations of gender, which is right? Does the Bible mandate a particular kind of manhood and womanhood? Should Christians imitate broader cultural standards of masculinity and femininity? Do my gender norms conform to Scripture?

My purpose in writing this essay is to caution our small conservative evangelical subculture from answering those questions too hastily. It is tempting to fit Scripture to our ideas rather than the other way around. All too often, we try to legitimize our beliefs by ignoring contradictory opinions and rationalizing away inconvenient evidence. As harmful as that tendency is in politics, education, and family life, it is devastating when it shapes our interpretation of the Bible.”

Worth the read, though I’ll note in the words of one commenter, “[T]here are some very basic reasons why women (and myself included) often choose to stay at home with young children and it has less to do with Victorian values than it does with simply having certain body parts and the physical demands placed on them through pregnancy and (if you chose) breastfeeding. But for me, this is no tension. I find my place in this world through the intersection of my god-given abilities–my spiritual, mental, emotional, and yes, even physical gifting.”

Reading 2012: The Meaning of Marriage

April 30, 2012 in 2012 Reading, Christian Growth, family, Home, quotes, reading, reflections, Resources with 14 Comments

The front flyleaf of The Meaning of Marriage: Facing the Complexities of Commitment with the Wisdom of God makes a rather bold statement: “There has never been a book on marriage like The Meaning of Marriage.” That seems a rather audacious assertion; but by the time I finished the book, I think I’d concede to read that claim on the back flyleaf, as well.

Many marriage books leave me scratching my head, banging my head, or really, really thankful I’m married to the man I am. This book did leave me doing the latter, but also left me thinking this would have been a very profitable book to have read if it had been available as premarital reading (not to mention less head-banging).

Timothy and Kathy Keller pack a lot of experience and exegesis into this book, packaged into eight chapters:

One: The Secret of Marriage
Two: The Power of Marriage
Three: The Essence of Marriage
Four: The Mission of Marriage
Five: Loving the Stranger
Six: Embracing the Other
Seven: Singleness and Marriage
Eight: Sex and Marriage

(The book also contains an Introduction, Epilogue, Appendix: Decision Making and Gender Roles, Notes)

Although I’ve yet to meet a Tim Keller book I didn’t like, this book pleasantly surprised me in what it had to offer. The style is certainly Kelleresque, yet unique to his other published works. (It is co-authored with his wife Kathy, with Kathy writing the entirety of Chapter Six.) Unlike many marriage books, this book is not written with only married couples or soon-to-be-married singles in mind; it is written to a broad audience, but with particular portions of it specifically addressing singles.

The Essence of Marriage

One aspect of the book that I greatly appreciated was the Kellers’s emphasis on the marriage covenant as the foundation of marriage. And really, this is the essence of marriage and the essence of the book. (Maybe that’s why Chapter Three is entitled, “The Essence of Marriage.” )

While I think most contemporary Christians teaching on marriage would acknowledge the covenantal importance of marriage, there is often a subtle shift to teachings that seem to indicate that “keeping the passion alive” is the way to have a healthy marriage. (This is what Keller includes in his assessment that we most prize “romantic fulfillment” [see quote below] as the key to a happy marriage in our culture.) This is spiritualized and then marketed in numerous ways, coming across in emphases including:”If you practice abstinence before marriage, you’ll immediately have amazing sex on your wedding night and beyond,” “If you have a weekly date night, you’re sure to have a healthy marriage,” “If your marriage has stopped sizzling, your marriage has failed and is doomed,” and can this misplaced emphasis in parenting and marriage books can often make young parents perceive a dichotomy of the family into the couple vs. the children. And even while many of these books/teachings, if Christian in name, will attest that “love is a choice,” it is often portrayed that choosing to love is best displayed by acts of romance. While Keller doesn’t address all of these teachings individually, he clearly notes that this type of misplaced preeminence of romance detracts and confuses the essence of marriage.

Keller speaks of some of the way marriage has come to be perceived in our culture (as well as comparing and contrasting with traditional societies):

“Traditional societies made family the ultimate value in life, and so marriage was a mere transaction that helped your family’s interests. By contrast, contemporary Western societies make the individual’s happiness the ultimate value, and so marriage becomes primarily an experience of romantic fulfillment. But the Bible sees God as the supreme good–not the individual or the family–and that gives usa view of marriage that intimately unites feeling and duty, passion and promise. This is because at the heart of the Biblical idea of marriage is the covenant.” (80-81)

(Keller also quotes C.S. Lewis stating, “People get from books the idea that if you have married the right person you may expect to go on “being in love” for ever. As a result, when they find they are not, they think this proves they have made a mistake and are entitled to a change—not realizing that, when they have changed, the glamour will presently go out of the new love just as it went out of the old one…” (104))

“Sociologists argue that in contemporary Western society the marketplace has become so dominant that the consumer model increasingly characterizes most relationships that historically were covenantal, including marriage. Today we stay connected to people only as long as they are meeting our particular needs at an acceptable cost to us. When we cease to make a profit–that is, when the relationship appears to require more love and affirmation from us than we are getting back–then we “cut our losses” and drop the relationship…Covenant is therefore a concept that is increasingly foreign to us, and yet the Bible says it is the essence of marriage, so we musst take some time to understand it.” (81-82)

Personal Helpfulness

For me personally, I think I had enough of a foundational understanding of marriage to hold the covenantal model of marriage above the consumerist model. Yet, hearing and reading in my pre-marriage preparation, I was often led astray by the syncretization of a covenantal view of marriage and the primacy of romance in marriage.

One harmful message that came out during my pre-marriage reading/counseling classes was, “if you remain abstinent, then sexual relationships in marriage will come naturally, immediately, and amazingly.” This, of course, was very confusing as a newlywed, specifically for someone whose conscience was bound to the point that when I felt we’d “gone too far” by holding hands before we were married, I felt that in order to avoid further “temptation” that my husband [then fiance] and I should no longer drive places in the same vehicle until we were married. Added to that dynamic, my husband and I also grew up in homes were “The Talk” did not take place, and when the discussion of physical intimacy was scheduled in our pre-marital counseling, we were told that we’d figure things out on our own. Although we weren’t completely in the dark, I carried a lot of baggage from some puritanical ultra-purity teachings into our marriage, and carried a lot of guilt into the early years of our marriage when I couldn’t flip the switch mentally to go instantaneously from to “purity/”shame to passion. Of course, neither could Tim and Kathy Keller, and neither can many who enter marriage similarly.

Reading this book helped me in dealing with a lot of the self-imposed guilt and confusion I’ve felt over this area, in particular. Somewhat related, I was reminded in yet another and great way in which my husband’s patience and gentleness has been manifested toward me over the years as I’ve wrestled with some of this baggage. And I more clearly see his faithful commitment to continue to love me in the way that Christ selflessly loves the Church.

It was, as mentioned earlier, also a reminder to me of God’s mercy in giving me the husband I have in Daniel. Though only a few days shy of six years into marriage, there are many aspects of our marriage vows that we lived out much sooner than we had anticipated. My husband has faithfully, selflessly loved and served me through those times, both tragic and triumphant, and this book gave me a deeper depth in the appreciation of his commitment and love.

I remember at a time when we had just come through a painful, difficult season of life (from external sources), I saw an article in Time Magazine called “Who Needs Marriage? A Changing Institution.” I remember specifically thinking, “I do. I needed my vows and I need that covenant.” Though the storm we weathered didn’t originate from our marriage, there were definitely some very deep and low times—times where we were both hurting so deeply we didn’t even know how to help one another, and times when it may have been tempting to say “maybe you [and the world] would be better off without me.” God’s grace brought us through, and our marriage grew and flourished in ways we couldn’t have even anticipated. (And yes, I know, our marriage is still quite young and has many, many more seasons of life to grow through, permitting death do not us part.) And while Time’s article prompted me to think of how deeply we needed our commitment to one another,* I would have loved to have read this book at that time, as well.

There were many additional areas in which the book was helpful, refreshing, encouraging, and challenging. I was glad to be able to read this at the same time as my husband, and it is one we think we will return to through the years.

Final Thoughts

Of course, the emphasis is not merely on physical relationships in marriage, and to draw that out as the bulk of the book really does disservice to what this book is all about. *Due to my personal emphases above (on covenantal commitment and the false importance of romantic fulfillment), I also want to clarify that Keller does not teach that the Bible claims divorce is never an option, nor does he teach that covenant commitment equals passionless, emotionless duty. Contrarily, he takes time to explain both in a way that brings clarity to some of the harmful and hurtful misapplications in both areas.

Like many books by Keller, readers will be challenged to think about more than just the specific theme of the book, and to yearn for a deeper knowledge and walk with God. Some themes I grew from in this book were 1) growing in the Fear of the Lord (and an explanation of the Fear of the Lord), 2) a healthy (but not overzealous) explanation of how “love languages” and family upbringing can affect and/or create and avoid misconceptions and misunderstandings in marriage 3) the depth of the book without depicting opinion as law, 4) the emphases that neither the models of conservative approach nor the secular approach to marriage will lead to a satisfying marriage—only the Christian principle of Spirit-generated selfishness. I really view my first read as an overview/survey, and as I read through again, I know new and different parts of the book will stand out to me.

Beyond a careful handling of Scripture, Keller also draws on the wisdom of theologians, philosophers, and numerous books, past and present. And, of course, not only does this book reflect the imprimatur of C.S. Lewis on Keller’s teaching and writing, but he also shares how C.S. Lewis was a common thread in influencing the early relationship between Tim and Kathy.

Certainly, there are aspects of the book with which I don’t agree, Scriptural connections that I don’t necessarily see, and analogies which I think break down. But, none of these are issues that I believe would detract from the overall message of the book, even in areas in which there are notoriously dichotomized perspectives among Evangelicals.

Reading 2012: Families Where Grace Is in Place

February 29, 2012 in 2012 Reading, child training, Christian Growth, family, grace, Life, quotes, reading, Resources with 1 Comment

In Jeff VanVonderen’s Families Where Grace Is in Place: Building a Home Free of Manipulation, Legalism, and Shame, the author describes family relationships as either Curse-Full relationships or Grace-Full relationships. In his description of curse-full relationships, such relationships are focused on control, external appearances, and getting needs met in a person. Grace-full relationships, on the other hand, are focused on finding identity in Christ, on true spiritual growth regardless of appearances, growing in grace, and loving others.

Part marriage book, part parenting book, Families Where Grace Is in Place is a helpful book for any family who sees the dangers of manipulation, legalism, and shame within familial relationships. VanVonderen divides his book into three main parts, making up fourteen chapters:

Part I: Families Where Grace Is Not in Place
Introduction
1. Our Detour from God’s Plan
2. Curse-Full Relationships
3. Living Under the Curse
4. When a Marriage Doesn’t Work
5. Trying to Escape the Curse
6. Recycling the Curse

Reading 2012: Parenting Is Your Highest Calling

February 29, 2012 in 2012 Reading, child training, Christian Growth, parenting, quotes, reading, Resources with 2 Comments

In Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: And Eight Other Myths That Trap Us in Worry and Guilt, Leslie Leyland Fields addresses nine myths that are common in Christian parenting teachings, books, and ideologies. As a sort of “Lies Parents Believe,” the nine myths that Fields addresses are as follows:

Myth 1: Having Children Makes You Happy and Fulfilled: Discovering God’s Real Purpose in Giving Us Children

Myth 2: Nurturing Your Children Is Natural and Instinctive: Why Biblical Love Is So Difficult to Live Out

Myth 3: Parenting Is Your Highest Calling: How Pursuing God First Frees Us to Love Our Children More

Myth 4: Good Parenting Leads to Happy Children: Exchanging Shallow Hopes for God’s Deeper Purposes

Myth 5: If You Find Parenting Difficult, You Must Not Be Following the Right Plan: Learning to Rely on God Rather Than Formulas

Myth 6: You Represent Jesus to Your Children: How We Trap Ourselves in a Role We Weren’t Meant to Play

Myth 7: You Will Always Feel Unconditional Love for Your Children: How Our False Ideas of Love Burden Us with Guilt

Myth 8: Successful Parents Produce Godly Children: The Danger of Making Too Much of Ourselves and Too Little of God

Myth 9: God Approves of Only One Family Design: Why God Is Not Limited by Imperfect Families.

Reading 2012: The Reason for God

February 29, 2012 in 2012 Reading, Christian Growth, quotes, Resources with 1 Comment

Timothy Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism is written as an apologetic for “people with doubts about Christianity,” specifically, the educated, urban, secularist. Although it is written primarily for nonbelievers, it may actually be just as (or more) helpful for believers to read.

With such an audience in mind, Keller draws on writings from a wealth of theologians, philosophers, and scholars as he first addresses seven common objections to Christianity, and then seven reasons for belief in God.

Reading 2012: The Cross of Christ

February 20, 2012 in 2012 Reading, Christian Growth, grace, quotes, reading, Resources with 0 Comments

Since John R. W. Stott’s death in July 2011, interest in The Cross of Christ has been revived, particularly through the 20th anniversary edition (2006). Although it’s only been around 25 years since first published, The Cross of Christ has already been recognized as a Christian classic. It was on my list of Christian classic to-reads, along with older authors as Athanasius, Augustine, and Luther.

Like a skilled jeweler carefully examining and detailing the many facets of a gem, John Stott goes the cross and carefully inspects, details, and elaborates the many facets of the cross of Christ. Only in this case, he is not merely examining some diamond in the rough, but the crown jewel of Christianity.

Reading 2012: Evil and the Justice of God

January 20, 2012 in 2012 Reading, books, Christian Growth, quotes, reading with 1 Comment

Also on my first 10 to read list for 2012 was N.T. Wright’s Evil and the Justice of God. Although it is just five chapters long and a relatively short book (176 pages), it is one which I needed to work through slowly.

The book is divided into five chapters:

Chapter 1 — Evil Is Still a Four-Letter Word: The New Problem of Evil

Wright addresses what many call “the new problem of evil.” With the innovation, technology, and advancements of Western civilization, it has become easy to think that the problem of evil is behind us (or, at least not on our turf). Yet with the recent terrorist attacks, the large-scale and frequent natural disasters, and the violence seen in America and modern Europe, we’re being frequently reminded that “evil” is still present.

He explains it this way (23):

["I]t seems remarkable that the belief in progress still survives and triumps. The nineteenth century thought it had gotten rid of original sin; of course, it had to find replacements, and Marx and Freud offered some, producing explanatory systems and offering solutions to match: new doctrines of redemption which mirror and parody the Christian one. And somehow, despite the horrific battles of Mons and the Somme during World War I, despite Auschwitz and Buchenwald, despite Dostoyevsky and Barth, people still continue to this day suppose that the world is basically a good place and that its problems are more or less soluble by technology, education, “development” in the sense of “Westernization,” and the application, to more and more regions, of Western democracy–and, according to taste, either Wester social-democratic ideals or Western capitalism, or indeed a mixture of both.”

June 2011 Reading

July 3, 2011 in 2011 Reading, books, Christian Growth, reading with 3 Comments

Note: Titles in title headings are hyperlinked.

It’s hard to believe another summer month has flown by! I do have my April and May reading still to post, but I’m going to post June for now and go back and make sure I have all the books on the other lists (May’s list is incredulously short. Something about vacation?? Beach?? Kids?? I recorded some as I read, but didn’t finish up writing out either month.)

The Lost History of Christianity: The Thousand-Year Golden Age of the Church in the Middle East, Africa, and Asia–and How It Died (John Philip Jenkins) (audio, narrated by Dick Hill)

The Lost History of Christianity covers the history of Christianity (including its heretical offshoots) as it unfolded in Africa, Asia, and the Middle East, correcting a mistaken notion that Christianity has thrived only in European nations and is just now making inroads into these areas. The author also discusses the similarities between Christianity and Islam, and how the two influenced each other as both developed in the Middle Eastern, Asian, and African regions. Additionally, Jenkins also asks his readers to consider what the world and religion would look like today had the Christianity of these regions been more prominent in our minds than our relatively recent history of Christianity. Though somewhat long (but what history isn’t?), I found this history fascinating and helpful in examining how our ethnocentric view of history influences our view of the history of religion.

Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption (Laura Hillenbrand) (audio, narrated by Edward Hermann)

Unbroken is the most up-to-date story of the life of Louie Zamperini, a 93-year-old World War II veteran, prison-camp-survivor, olympian and national hero, who is still living. The book was released in 2010, and has been on many nonofficial and official must-read lists for the last 2 years; it continues to be listed as one of Amazon’s top 10 bestsellers. Although Zamperini had already written an autobiography, Devil at My Heels, this book adds additional details from history that were not included (and some not known or available) at the time Devil at My Heels was written.

Unbroken follows the life of Zamperini from a difficult child (including surrounding family history), his confused and angry teen years, his life as an athlete, military man, prisoner of war, struggling vet, and eventually a believer in Christ. The two things that stood out most upon reading this book were 1) my amazement that Zamperini lived through all this (not to mention the fact that he is still living) and 2) the sovereignty of God in redeeming the paths of Zamperini’s life and in sustaining and preserving his life. Like many of of the books I’ve read this year, I was also once again grieved and shocked at the atrocities people all around the world have experienced. I was also thankful for how the author tied some of the events and atrocities in this book to some of the fields of study I’ve been focusing on lately, particularly our tragic American history of slavery and discrimination. (It was noted that as a troubled teen, Zamperini feared that, as a child of immigrants, he might hav been a likely candidate for sterilization/eugenics.) Andy Naselli shared a quote here from the book on the human need for dignity that Zamperini experienced, a need shared by those in Hitler’s concentration camps and by slaves in America (and many other times and places). If you have a must-read booklist for 2011, I highly recommend putting this book on it.

Sex, Mom, and God: How the Bible’s Strange Take on Sex Led to Crazy Politics – and How I Learned to Love Women (and Jesus) Anyway (Frank Schaeffer) (audio, narrated by Frank Schaeffer)

In this rambling expose of his personal and public life, Frank Schaeffer shares what it was like growing up the youngest child and only son in the Schaeffer household, how his parents public ministry was often different from their private lives (for instance: while his father may have written one of the best books of his time on Christian love, he was at home physically abusing his wife) and how he progressed from the fundamentalism (though a much different form of fundamentalism than what my husband and I grew up in; to some this “label” would mean a conservative (politically and religiously) evangelical) to where he is today. The most valuable portion of this book was Schaeffer’s political analysis, his insight into the way that the Christian right has politicized so much of their rhetoric, and his highlighting the influence that Reconstructionist ideologies and teaching have had on conservative politics at large. At times, Schaeffer’s language is colorful, as is his recalling certain memories and experiences.

Evolving in Monkey Town: How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions (Rachel Held Evans) (audio, narrated by Rachel Held Evans)

Rachel Evans shares part of her spiritual journey (and awakening) as she recounts growing up during her high school year in Dayton, Tennessee, as a daughter of a Bryan College (thus, “growing up in Monkey Town”) professor. During her childhood, teen years, and time at Bryan college she was taught how to refute the atheists, how to refute other religions, why the Democratic Party was always “against God,” and similar. She knew and voiced “all the right answers.” Like many in this type of situation, she was also taught to think critically, but was always discouraged from thinking critically about her own belief system.

I found this book helpful, as I had many things in my own thinking and life-situations that were similar to Rachel’s upbringing. (Some of these things I’ve already started writing about in drafts, and perhaps at some point will finish and post here.) Though I may not come to all the same conclusions she has come to, I can say I found many to be very helpful in leading me back to Scripture and in settling my own unrest about certain issues.

I found this quote insightful: “I am convinced that what drives most people away from Christianity is not the cost of discipleship but rather the cost of false fundamentals. False fundamentals make it impossible for faith to adapt to change. The longer the list of requirements and contingencies and prerequisites, the more vulnerable faith becomes to shifting environments and the more likely it is to fade slowly into extinction. When the gospel gets all entangled with extras, dangerous ultimatums threaten to take it down with them. The yoke gets too heavy and we stumble beneath it…”

Something tells me that although I’m in the middle of a couple of print-books, a Kindle book, and and audio-book, I’m not going to finish them all by the end of July. What is it about the summertime that seems to hold promise of a less busy season, but then reality renders summertime life busier than all the rest!?

For the most part, Daniel and I have been following a similar reading schedule. However, at this point he’s a bit farther ahead in the schedule than me. As long as he reads the books I do…then I can discuss it with him!

What Would It Look Like?

June 28, 2011 in books, Christian Growth, quotes, reading with 0 Comments

What would things look like if Satan really took control of a city? Over a half century ago, Presbyterian minister Donald Grey Barnhouse offered his own scenario in his weekly sermon that was also broadcast nationwide on CBS radio. Barnhouse speculated that if Satan took over Philadelphia, all of the bars would be closed, pornography banished, and pristine streets would be filled with tidy pedestrians who smiled at each other. There would be no swearing. The children would say, “Yes, sir” and “No, ma’am,” and the church would be full every Sunday…where Christ is not preached (15).

Michael Horton, Christless Christianity: The Alternative Gospel of the American Church.

This is the danger of exalting moralism above Gospel (among other things).

Reduced to Nothing But Emphasis

March 3, 2011 in books, Christian Growth, quotes, reading with 0 Comments

“When evangelicalism wanes into an anemic condition, as it sadly has in recent decades, it happens in this way: the points of emphasis (Bible, cross, conversion, heaven) are isolated from the main body of Christian truth and handled as if they are the whole story rather than the key points. Instead of teaching the full counsel of God (incarnation, ministry of healing and teaching, crucifixion, resurrection, ascension, and second coming), anemic evangelicalism simply shouts its own point of emphasis louder and louder (the cross! The cross! The cross!). But in isolation from the total matrix of Christian truth, the cross doesn’t make the right kind of sense. A message about nothing but the cross is not emphatic. It is reductionist. The rest of the matrix matters: the death of Jesus is salvation partly because of the life he lived before it, and certainly because of the new life he lived after it, and above all because of the eternal background in which he is the eternal Son of the eternal Father. You do not need to say all of those things at all times, but you need to have a felt sense of their force behind the things you do say. When that felt sense is not present, or is not somehow communicated to the next generation, emphatic evangelicalism becomes reductionist evangelicalism.

People who grow up under the influence of reductionist evangelicalism suffer, understandably, from some pretty perplexing disorientation. They are raised on “Bible, cross, conversion, and heaven” as the whole Christian message, and they sense that there must be more than that. They catch a glimpse of this ‘more’ in Scripture but aren’t sure where it belongs. They hear it in hymns, but it is drowned out by the repetition of the familiar. They find extended discussions of it in older authors, but those very authors also reinforce what they’ve been surrounded by all along: that the most important things in the Christian message are Bible, cross, conversion, and heaven. Inside of reductionist evangelicalism, everything you hear is right, but somehow it comes out all wrong.

That is because when emphatic evangelicalism degenerates into reductionist evangelicalism, it still has the emphasis right, but has been reduced to nothing but emphasis. When a message is all emphasis, everything is equally important and you are always shouting.”

-Fred Sanders, The Deep Things of God: How the Trinity Changes Everything

HT: Scott Anderson

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Links to Think: 06.04.12

Reading 2012: The Meaning of Marriage