When I was a young scholar, I was given some excellent advice. “Choose one or two great thinkers,” I was told, “and make them your specialties. Live with them, reading them regularly, and you will become a better thinker for it.” I chose Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, and I have no regrets. No matter who […]
Monday, 16 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
The Scriptures declare that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 4:16) and that he is “kind toward all he has made” (Ps. 145:17). But is this all that needs to be said about God and his posture towards creation? Recently, some evangelicals have been trying to revise some long-standing Christian convictions about God’s nature and […]
Monday, 16 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
As Jaroslav Pelikan observes in his foreword to this very fine volume, "[T]here are certain figures in the history of thought who are themselves an encyclopedia … and whose writings, therefore, both by their profundity and by their total mass, seem to require encyclopedic treatment" and, "[m]easured by any criterion, whether volume of literary output […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
From 1952 to 1955, the great London preacher Dr. Martyn Lloyd-Jones delivered a series of lectures on biblical doctrines every Friday evening in Westminster Chapel. The tapes of these lectures are still by far the most requested of all those distributed through the Martyn Lloyd-Jones Recordings Trust. This series of volumes, now complete, are edited […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
In conjunction with Southern Baptist Theological Seminary's recent launch of the Carl F. H. Henry Institute for Evangelical Engagement, Henry's magnum opus has been republished. This six-volume series began to appear in 1976 and was completed in 1983. As Henry states in a new preface, God, Revelation and Authority represents his effort "to challenge the […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
This massive work, written entirely by Norman Geisler, president of Southern Evangelical Seminary, is part of the "Baker Reference Library." This encyclopedia contains articles on general topics in apologetics, such as evaluative surveys of various kinds of apologetics (e.g., presuppositionalism) and the role of the Holy Spirit in apologetics, on philosophical concepts like the Principle […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
The "new homiletics," a recent article in Books and Culture states, "celebrates pilgrimage, not propositions." It "dances on the edge of mystery," maintaining that "the aim of preaching is … primarily … to 'evoke an event' or stimulate an encounter by making 'gestures towards the ineffable.'" In other words, the new homiletics no longer clearly […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
This book is written primarily for college and seminary students, but except for its first chapter it does not read like a textbook and so it should be useful to many. As Paul House observes, it can no longer be assumed that Christians know their Bibles. And so he has tried to write a book […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
Calvin said a true understanding of Romans would open the door to all of the most profound treasures of Scripture. This book, which is part of the Baker Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament, aims at helping its readers to gain such an understanding. This series, under the general editorship of Gordon-Conwell Seminary professor Moiss […]
Thursday, 05 July, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
Christian philosophers and theologians need each other. Christian philosophers who are poorly versed in biblically based systematic theology tend to reinvent old Christian heresies. Christian theologians who lack philosophical training often present the faith's great truths less clearly and cogently than they should. Vigorous orthodoxy benefits when the line between philosophy and theology is blurred. […]
Friday, 22 June, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
The United Kingdom's Paternoster Press often publishes books of interest to our readers. Many of them are not available under any imprint in the United States, but it is easy to log on to Paternoster's Website (www.paternoster-publishing.com) and order them directly. In one sense, this particular work is aimed at the scholars among us. It […]
Friday, 22 June, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot
In comparing notes with others, I have found that my own experience is not uncommon: It was through reading C. S. Lewis's works that I learned to value Christian thinking, but it was through devouring J. I. Packer's writings that I came to love theology. These four volumes capture most of Packer's more significant fugitive […]
Friday, 22 June, 2007 by Mark R. Talbot