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The Christian Paradigm
James K. A. Smith (Baker Publishing Group: August 2009), 240 pages.
Malls, stadiums, and universities are actually liturgical structures that influence and shape our thoughts and affections. Humans — as Augustine noted — are "desiring agents," full of longings and passions; in brief, we are what we love. James K. A. Smith focuses on the themes of liturgy and desire in Desiring the Kingdom, the first book in what will be a three-volume set on the theology of culture. He redirects our yearnings to focus on the greatest good: God. Ultimately, Smith seeks to re-vision education through the process and practice of worship. Students of philosophy, theology, worldview, and culture will welcome Desiring the Kingdom, as will those involved in ministry and other interested readers. ~ Product Description
Michael W. Goheen and Craig G. Bartholomew (Baker Academic: Nov 1, 2008), 224 pages.
How can Christians live faithfully at the crossroads of the story of
Scripture and postmodern culture? In Living at the Crossroads, authors
Michael Goheen and Craig Bartholomew explore this question as they
provide a general introduction to Christian worldview. Ideal for
both students and lay readers, Living at the Crossroads lays out a
brief summary of the biblical story and the most fundamental beliefs of
Scripture. The book tells the story of Western culture from the
classical period to postmodernity. The authors then provide an analysis
of how Christians live in the tension that exists at the intersection
of the biblical and cultural stories, exploring the important
implications in key areas of life, such as education, scholarship,
economics, politics, and church.
David J. Bagget, Gary R. Habermas, and Jerry L. Walls, eds. (InterVarsity Press: Apr 2008), 280 pages.
What did C. S. Lewis think about truth, goodness and beauty? Fifteen essays explore three major philosophical themes from the writings of Lewis: Truth, Goodness and Beauty. This volume provides a comprehensive overview of Lewis's philosophical reflections on arguments for Christianity, the character of God, theodicy, moral goodness, heaven and hell, a theory of literature, and the place of the imagination. Contributors include Victor Reppert, Dave Horner, Peter Kreeft, Russell Howell, and Michael Peterson. "There are three things that will never die: truth, goodness, and
beauty. These are the three things we all need, and need absolutely.
Our minds want not only some truth and some falsehood, but all truth,
without limit. Our wills want not only some good and some evil, but all
good, without limit. Our desires, imaginations, feelings or hearts want
not just some beauty and some ugliness, but all beauty, without limit."
~ Peter Kreeft, chp. 1
Kenneth Richard Samples (Baker Books: Sep 1, 2007), 320 pages.
Recent Barna research indicates that less than one in ten evangelical Christians hold a biblical worldview. A World of Difference seeks to change this disturbing fact by educating readers on how the Christian perspective is uniquely reasonable, verifiable, and liveable. Author Kenneth Richard Samples faced a profound test of his own belief system during a personal life-and-death crisis. In A World of Difference, he uses nine distinct tests to compare the Christian worldview with current religious and philosophical competitors, including Islam, postmodernism, naturalism, and pantheistic monism. Samples tackles tough issues through this in-depth study of Christianity's history, creed, and philosophical basis. An excellent resource for readers who want their view of life and the world to make sense. ~ Product Description
Dallas Willard on God and Space said...
The Divine Conspiracy (San Francisco: Harper Collins, 1998), p. 74.
Confusing God with his historical manifestations in space may have caused some to think that God is a Wizard-of-Oz or Sistine-Chapel kind of being sitting at a location very remote from us. The universe is then presented as, chiefly, a vast empty space with a humanoid God and a few angels rattling around in it, while several billion human beings crawl through the tiny cosmic interval of human history on an oversized clod of dirt circling an insignificant star. ΒΆ But the response to this mistake has led many to say that God is not in space at all, not that "old man in the sky," but instead is "in" the human heart. And that sounds nice, but it really does not help. In fact, it just makes matters worse. "In my heart" easily becomes "in my imagination." And, in any case, the question of God's relation to space and the physical world remains unresolved. If he is not in space at all, he is not in human life, which is lived in space. Those vast oceans of "empty space" just sit there glowering at the human "heart" realm where God has, supposedly, taken refuge from science and the real world.
G.K. Chesterton (Ignatius: Jul 1, 1995)
If this is, as Chesterton called it, a "slovenly autobiography," then we need more slobs in the world. This quirky, slender book describes how Chesterton came to view orthodox Catholic Christianity as the way to satisfy his personal emotional needs in a way that would also allow him to live happily in society. Chesterton argues that people in western society need a life of "practical romance, the combination of something that is strange with something that is secure. We need so to view the world as to combine an idea of wonder and an idea of welcome." Drawing on such figures as Fra Angelico, George Bernard Shaw, and St. Paul to make his points, Chesterton argues that submission to ecclesiastical authority is the way to achieve a good and balanced life. The whole book is written in a style that is as majestic and down-to-earth as C.S. Lewis at his best. The final chapter, called "Authority and the Adventurer," is especially persuasive. It's hard to imagine a reader who will not close the book believing, at least for the moment, that the Church will make you free. ~ Michael Joseph Gross
G. K. Chesterton (Ignatius Press: Apr 1, 1993)
What, if anything, is it that makes the human uniquely human? This, in part, is the question that G.K. Chesterton starts with in this classic exploration of human history. Responding to the evolutionary materialism of his contemporary (and antagonist) H.G. Wells, Chesterton in this work affirms human uniqueness and the unique message of the Christian faith. He sees in Christianity a rare blending of philosophy and mythology, or reason and story, which satisfies both the mind and the heart. On both levels it rings true. As he puts it, "in answer to the historical query of why it was accepted, and is accepted, I answer for millions of others in my reply; because it fits the lock; because it is like life." Here, as so often in Chesterton, we sense a lived, awakened faith. All that he writes derives from a keen intellect guided by the heart's own knowledge. ~ Doug Thorpe
J. Gresham Machen on False Ideas said...
"Christianity and Culture", in Princeton Theological Review 11 (1913), p.7.
False ideas are the greatest obstacles to the reception of the gospel. We may preach with all the fervor of a reformer and yet succeed only in winning a straggler here and there, if we permit the whole collective thought of a nation or of the world to be contolled by ideas which, by the resistless force of logic, prevent Christianity from being regarded as anything more than a harmless delusion. Under such circumstances, what God desires us to do is to destroy the obstacle at its root.
C.S. Lewis on Wishful Thinking said...
Surprised by Joy (Harcourt Brace Jovanovich: 1955), 170.
The two hemispheres of my mind were in the sharpest contrast. On the
one side a many-sided sea of poetry and myth; on the other a glib and
shallow "rationalism." Nearly all that I loved I believed to be
imaginary; nearly all that I believed to be real I thought grim and
meaningless. The exception were certain people (whom I loved and
believed to be real) and nature herself. That is, nature as she
appeared to the senses. I chewed endlessly on the problem: "How can it
be so beautiful and also so cruel, wasteful and futile?"... I was so
far from wishful thinking that I hardly thought anything true unless it
contradicted my wishes.