Grace Blog
What Theology Is About
Russell Moore has written a very good article entitled, “Will the Devil Be in My Classroom?“ In it, he makes a very important point about the point of doing theology. Those who love the truth must love the application of that truth to everyday life. Truth is not intended to intellectually satisfy but to transform our lives, and should we stop short of a thorough application of what we know and believe, we are in danger of the kind of mental assent found among demons rather than the obedient lives of God’s children. Here’s the quote:
It’s not about quarreling about words, or setting up partisan divisions. Theology is helping a shellshocked widow clean up after a suicide. Theology is about crying with a teenage boy who’s body is shaking with crystal meth. Theology drives you to rock orphans in India, singing “Jesus Loves Me” while you pray they learn what that means. Theology is hugging an animist African’s neck while you tell him Jesus can protect him from the spirits he fears…or hugging a self-righteous Southern Baptist American’s neck while you tell him he doesn’t fear those demonic spirits nearly enough.
Labels: Orthodoxy, Orthopraxy, Theology | posted by TimBrister at 6:48 am | Categories: Theology |
Resources on Union with Christ
In my last post, I mentioned a great little resource on union with Christ from the writings of John Flavel. There are a couple of other books worth checking out, though they are a little more academic in nature (and more costly!). In any case, the place where you can find nearly every resource related to the doctrine of union with Christ is on this blogpost by Phil Gons. There you will find everything from books, articles, essays, chapters, and even conference papers! Be sure to check it out.
A couple of other books that I recently picked up that might be of some interest to you are:
Mark A. Garcia, Life in Christ: Union with Christ and Twofold Grace in Calvin’s Theology (Carlisle, UK: Paternoster Press), 2008.
Maurice Roberts, Union and Communion with Christ (Grand Rapids: Reformation Heritage Books), 2008.
Labels: Resources, Theology, Union with Christ | posted by TimBrister at 1:59 pm | Categories: Jesus, Resources, Theology |
Grudem on Why Theology Is Important in the Local Church
Dr. Wayne Grudem Addresses the Advance 09 Crowd from The Resurgence on Vimeo.
Labels: Resurgence, Theology, Wayne Grudem | posted by TimBrister at 2:10 am | Categories: Theology |
Theology for Kids: Recommended Resources
In the December 2008 edition of Themelios e-journal, Andy and Jennifer Naselli provide 10 helpful annotated theology resources for children. Before they offer their brief reviews, they provide these helpful words:
Many people have an opportunity to teach children about God, including parents, grandparents, older siblings, babysitters, and Sunday school teachers. Teaching theology to children is a joyful yet sober responsibility that many seem to take lightly. It is not as easy as one may suspect. It is challenging to communicate truth about God and his creation to children in an accurate and easily understandable way.
1. Communicating accurately requires a grasp of the Bible’s storyline and how all the little stories contribute to the one big story. It requires a sound biblical hermeneutic that does not promote the trivial, extrapolate illegitimately, read between the lines, miss important nuances, or focus on people rather than God.
2. Communicating in an easily understandable way requires clarity, conciseness, imagination, creativity, excitement, and appropriateness (e.g., in word choices, length of teaching, level of detail, and means of conveying spiritual truth).
This is hard work. Thankfully, some fine theology books for children are available. (And they are edifying for adults, too!) Without pretending to be experts on theological children’s literature, we have sorted through recent theology books for younger children and compiled a short list of outstanding books. Other books are undoubtedly worthy of mention, but these are our favorites. What follows organizes them in three categories and ranks the books in order, beginning with our top recommendations.
You can read all their reviews here.
Labels: Books, Children, Resources, Themelios, Theology | posted by TimBrister at 3:49 pm | Categories: Parenting/Family, Resources |
