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Showing posts from April, 2021

Book Review: The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self

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Carl Trueman’s book is interesting to say the least. As I was reading through the first couple chapters I was slightly disappointed. I found the concepts of Tayler’s culture dynamics discussed therein quite theoretical and not immediately practical to life.  I had borrowed the book from my pastor, and he challenged me to crank through and finish it. There are times in life, particularly if you’re interested in ministry and theology, that you may have to read books that do not immediately relate to your specific congregants’ needs or your own preferences and spiritual needs. Will my life drastically change after reading this book? No, not particularly. Have I ran across a massive treasure that I couldn’t live without? Nope. Many mature Christians exist having never read a book of this sort, a tome examining the western historical factors leading to a massive shift in life ethic and purpose.   It is important to remember this work is addressing culture shift within the western s...

A Book Reading Methodology

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I’m in a bit of a situation. I have been fortunate enough to get quite a few books for free from my church, while they were getting rid of stuff they didn’t need. I have also bought a bit of books too, but I didn’t really read through the books I got.  From what I can tell, this is a relatively common problem among book lovers in the Christian community. We run across a title, or are recommended a book by a pastor or Christian teacher. We then buy the book, knowing we’ll read it eventually. We start the book, get 30 pages, love it, and then the next book is in immediately in our shopping cart.  It’s a problem. I doubt I have the end all solution, but I have a few points to consider. We don’t want to be in the place where we have 500 plus books having read only ten of them.  Some committed to reading will choose to read for 2 hours a day. They’ll stick to that plan and read through books like that. If that works for you, great. Love it. And I fully support you.  But f...

Book Review: Always Ready by Greg Bahnsen

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Always Ready is a relatively advanced book, in that tracing his philosophical arguments can be quite challenging.  If you’re familiar with Presuppositional Apologetics, the first third of the book will seem a bit redundant, in that information presented is information you’re quite familiar with already. The rest of the book is a good read.  Bahnsen presents the pressupositional methodology of Apologetics, which basically says that the Triune God of Scripture is the foundation of our Ethics, logic, and epistemology. Without the Christian God, unbelievers can not account for their standard of ethics, logic and knowledge.  God is the ultimate foundation on our moral standard. We say that murder and rape is evil, but ultimately how is that moral statement even significant. In a purely naturalistic worldview, does not survival of the fittest reign? God is the foundation on what is right and wrong, because He is the all powerful God. God is also the foundation of our reasoning...