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Watch this SPACE:
In the next few days Ref21 is undergoing a complete transformation. In addition to a brand new design four new bloggers will appear: Iain D, Campbell, Stephen (Steve) Nichols, Sean Lucas and Thabiti Anyabwile. Check back regularly over the next week and find out more (Editor).
Ever wonder who these guys are? Click here.
Hmmm11/30/2007
If intention is the key to Pullman's error, then I guess we should also discourage Christians from reading Milton's polemically anti-Trinitarian, anti-orthodox Paradise Lost.
And Pascal's anti-Protestant Pensees. And Gibbon's anti-Christian Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. And Swift's anti-theological Gulliver's Travels. Etc. etc.etc. And what about the Manicheeism of William Blake? Better scratch The Songs of Innocence and Experience. Come on, guys, face
it -- Lewis was a decent children's novelist with terrible theology; Pullman is
a passable children's novelist with terrible atheology. If you can't read them
without being led astray, don't read them; but a good fantasy story is
a good fantasy story.
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Lewis and Analogy11/30/2007
I have to weigh in on Phil's side regarding Narnia. It certainly is true that C.S. Lewis had some doctrinal problems (I find this is a fairly common thing when a very accomplished person comes to faith later in life). This means that we should thoughtful in making use of his genius. But Lewis's contribution was not mainly through doctrinal exposition but through metaphor and analogy. And metaphor and analogy do not convey truth so much with precision as with power. Just this week I was explaining the holiness of God to a teenager new to the Reformed faith and I remembered Jill's confrontation with Aslan at the stream in one of the Narnia books. "I am not safe, but I'm good," really conveyed the idea of God's holiness with power to her. That is what Lewis does for us.
We seem to be living in a time when everything is backwards. Metaphor and analogy are made dominant in the pulpit, when what is mainly called for is clear, reasoned exposition. But then we criticize novels and movies for lacking the precision of doctrinal exposition, when what they should be doing is metaphor and analogy.
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The Darkness of His Dark Materials11/30/2007
While I believe Carl Trueman is right to caution against an overreaction to Philip Pullman, I still believe that his books, particularly, must be distinguished from Harry Potter, the Arabian Nights, and most other secular literature for children. Here is why: it is clear from Pullman's many public comments on the subject and from the story line of his trilogy that he is seeking to subvert the Christian faith. It is his deliberate intention to deny the sovereignty and goodness of God and to undermine the ministry of the church. This puts his work in a different and more dangerous category than works that simply come from a non-Christian worldview and yet, by common grace, often reflect the truth about things. Perhaps Pullman's trilogy, in various ways, also reflects the truth about things, but there is a malevolent intention at work--one not to be minimized.
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A Category Mistake?11/30/2007
In criticizing The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, I fear that Carl Trueman may be committing a category mistake. It is true, of course, and widely known, that C. S. Lewis did not have a fully Reformed theology of the atonement.
It is a mistake, though, to expect a work of fiction to carry the weight of careful doctrinal distinctions in its story line. Literature has the capacity to draw analogies, and to incarnate aspects of spiritual truth, but not to communicate full theological propositions. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe does a marvelous job of incarnating many central truths of the Christian faith in literary form, including important aspects of the atoning, substitutionary work of Jesus Christ. Perhaps we should be careful not make more of this than it is, but we should not make less of it, either.
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Dark Materials11/30/2007
Justin T just brought this book to my attention. Haven't read it but may be of interest:
http://www.ivpress.com/cgi-ivpress/book.pl/code=3379
Personally, I think I may well boycott the movie after all: apparently it's set in Oxford University which is a simply frightful place and not somewhere to which parents should expose their children.
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And there's more11/28/2007
When I was a child, I read and read the Arabian Nights, and loved the stories
about Scheherezade, Ali Baba, Al-Ahdin, the Djinn in the bottle and others equally fantastic more than anything else which I read; yet, strange to tell, I never once embraced Islam or
was even tempted so to do. That's what makes some of the reactions to Pullman's Golden Compass rather interesting. You'll find a good crop of them at Christianity Today:
http://www.christianitytoday.com/movies/commentaries/leaveourkidsalone.html
I am puzzled by all this hoo-hah: if The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe is a Christian story/movie, it teaches a woefully inadequate, if not unbiblical, doctrine of atonement -- if Aslan is Christ, one might say, then he cannot save on the account given by Lewis; yet Christians were ecstatic about the movie. Pullman writes a piece that, if his critics are to believed, is very clear and direct in its anti-Christian message. So, if you're worried about leading your kids astray, which, I wonder, is more likely to confuse them??? The subtle theological deviancy or the explicit anti-Christian message? Or maybe, just maybe, Narnia and Compass are both fun movies which are subject to a range of interpretations, and our children have the sense to see them as make-believe adventures about make-believe worlds.
My kids have already voted for which movie the family will see at the cinema this Christmas Eve. Send complaints about me to the usual address......
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The Loveliness of Christ11/28/2007
Banner of Truth has republished a nice little book of selections from Samuel Rutherford's marvelous pastoral letters. The book is called The Loveliness of Christ, and it looks to be ideal for devotional use. Here is one of Rutherford's gems:
"If there were ten thousand, thousand millions of worlds, and as many heavens full of men and angels, Christ would not be pinched to supply all our wants, and to fill us all."
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Catholic League and Pullman11/28/2007
Check this out:
http://arts.independent.co.uk/film/news/article3201577.ece
After 500 years, the strategy remains the same: boycott a cultural product to make it the most popular thing since sliced bread. And now we have another example: with the release of Pullman's Golden Compass, the Catholic League has launched a campaign to boycott the movie, led by Bill Donohue, Catholicism's professional pugilist, whose presentation of Christianity on morning TV (two modes: `I'm very angry about this' and `I'm very, very, very angry about this') is by far the best argument for atheism of which I am aware. I find that he's best watched with the mute button on -- no danger of perforated eardrums that way.
Censorship doesn't work; boycotts simply make things attractive and more marketable-- it's why middle class rap artists put the `f' word into their lyrics; it played a significant part in making Protestantism appealing; and, Mr Donohue, it's just a movie. Whatever Pullman's intentions, it's a fantasy that can be understood just as fantasy. Or at least it could, until that helpful Mr Donohue interpreted it all for us.
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The Glory of God 11/27/2007
A disagreement has broken out on whether or not Tom Schreiner is correct when he suggests (in his forthcoming book, New Testament Theology) that the most basic theme of the New Testament is, "God magnifying himself through Jesus Christ by means of the Holy Spirit." Justin Taylor drew attention to the response of made by John Piper to Ben Witherington's remark that Schreiner was guilty of "recreat(ing) God in our own image." Piper's response includes the statement that, "God's exaltation of his own glory is not narcissistic but loving, because it directs our attention away from ourselves to the one glorious reality that can satisfy our souls forever."
For the full response by Piper, go here.
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The Foundation of Sanctification11/26/2007
Writing in Five Views of Sanctification, Sinclair Ferguson explains that in Reformed theology, sanctification is "rooted not in humanity and in their achievement of holiness or sanctification, but in what God has done in Christ, and for us in union with him. Rather than view Christians first and foremost in the microcosmic context of their own progress, the Reformed doctrine first of all sets them in the macrocosm of God's activity in redemptive history. It is seeing oneself in this context that enables the individual Christian to grow in true holiness."
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Giving Thanks, Even in the Church11/24/2007
In his masterful little book The Elder and His Work, David Dickson writes:
"Let people avoid getting into a grudging, grumbling way about church matters, but rather take a hearty, kindly interest in them. Many things in this world, both civil and ecclesiastical, are not what they should be and might be. But let us not be among the grumblers. Thankful for what good there is, let us put to our hand and try to make things better."
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After so many years, Wales finally gets culture!11/24/2007
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/this_britain/article3189239.ece
This article left me all shook up, especially given the rumours that Rev Steve Caprice is the stage name of none other than Wales' finest, Derek Thomas. Is this so? Come on Derek, I think we should be told!
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David Brainerd, Part 611/21/2007
A suitable aspiration for Thanksgiving:
"Lord's Day, April 21.--In the morning, calm and composed, with some outgoings of soul after God in secret duties, and longing desires for His presence in the sanctuary and at His table; that His presence might be in the assembly, and that His children might be entertained with a feast of fat things."
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`Ere we go again11/20/2007
Yes, the Ref21 offices have received news of a book being written on R J Rushdoony, that outstanding historian and scholar, and the aspiring author has requested the editor to call on our beloved friend and occasional blogger, Carl Trueman, to repent of his attitude to the great man and the wonderful Christian movement he inspired. So we asked Carl for his response, and here it is: `A book on Rushdoony??? Well, stone me!'
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David Brainerd, Part 511/19/2007
"Thursday, November 3 -- Spent this day in secret fasting and prayer, from morning till night. Early in the morning, had some assistance in prayer. Afterwards, read the story of Elijah the prophet. My soul was much moved, observing the faith, zeal, and power of that holy man, how he wrestled with God in prayer.
"My soul then cried with Elisha, Where is the Lord God of Elijah? I longed for more faith. My soul breathed after God, and pleaded with Him, that a double portion of that spirit, which was given to Elijah, might rest on me.
"And that which was divinely refreshing and strengthening to my soul, was, I saw that God is the same that He was in the days of Elijah. Was enabled to wrestle with God by prayer, in a more affectionate, fervent, humble, intense, and importunate manner than I have for many months past. Nothing seemed too hard for God to perform; nothing too great for me to expect from Him.
"I had for many months entirely lost all hopes of being made instrumental of doing any special service for God in the world; it has appeared entirely impossible that one so vile should be thus improved for God. But at this time God was pleased to revive this hope."
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