Reformed Readers discussion

Have you seen this article from Time Magazine? The New Calvinism is #3 of 10 Ideas Changing the world Right Now...

The New Calvinism, Time Magazine

Saw the following edited transcript on Piper's site: desiringgod.org.
Full length Q&A with John Piper here:
http://www.desiringgod.org/resource-l...

How do you decide which books to read?

1) Largely from other people's recommendations that are within the scope of the kinds of things I want to or have time to read.

If other people I trust tell me that something is astonishing and worth my while, I go for it. They usually read faster than I do, so they read more books than me and know which ones to recommend.

2) Sometimes I just feel very burdened about an issue and very interested in a certain aspect of it.

Take the issue of racial harmony. I'm always thinking about what I should be reading so that I can go deeper and become wiser about ethnic diversity and racial harmony in our country. A woman came up to me after church and said she had just read the autobiography of Clarence Thomas called My Grandfather's Son. She said it was so good, so helpful and that I should consider it. Bang! I bought it. I put it by my bedside and I read it—I devoured it.

So that was for two reasons: a life commitment to grow on that issue and a recommendation from a woman in my church.

3) Another factor is proven time.

I don't think we ought to be reading new books all the time. I think we should read old books. And then the question is whether time and history has proven them. There are some books that have been around forever, and they are, generation after generation, witnessed to as being very shaping to people's lives. So I think we should constantly be exposing ourselves to those classics and not always reading the latest thing.

So I recommend reading 1) things that relate to the passions of your life, 2) recommendations from people that are responsible and that you respect, and 3) time-proven, classic, deep works on various issues.

What are two or three classics that you would recommend to just about anyone?

The Bible, the most proven and most useful book, should be in your reading list every day.

Pilgrim's Progress by John Bunyan. Everybody, I think, who can read English can benefit from working their way through that.

In my own life I put The Religious Affections by Jonathan Edwards very high up the list. And for those with a really strong theological bent, The Freedom of the Will by Jonathan Edwards. Two massively influential books in my life.

Bondage of the Will, by Martin Luther.

Institutes of the Christian Religion by John Calvin.

The Mortification of Sin and Communion with God by John Owen.

I once heard Piper say that he reads about as fast as people talk, which I found very endearing seeing as I read at the same pace or slower.

I hadn't seen the original article in this discussion before even though it's a year old. I think I had heard someone (probably on the radio) say something about calvinism making a comeback. I'm wondering if you (or anyone else in this group), has actually personally sensed/seen it making a comeback so far. Growing up in my area, mostly people in school thought you were stupid for being a Christian and Christians thought you were crazy and all sorts of bad, for believing in predestination.

The Emergence of Legal Christian Publishing in China...and Reformed Writing in particular.
I snagged this from Piper's blog, but originally published in The Banner of Truth.

http://www.desiringgod.org/blog/posts...

Seen this one? Piper interviewing Warren on doctrine and criticism of .

http://www.christianpost.com/news/ric...

Laura wrote: "Seen this one? Piper interviewing Warren on doctrine and criticism of .

http://www.christianpost.com/news/ric......"

Thanks for sharing this. I thought the video was very interesting. I've been avoiding the Purpose Driven Life since it came out, but maybe I'll check it out so I at least know what everyone is talking about.

benebean wrote: Thanks for sharing this. I thought the video was very interesting. I've been avoiding the Purpose Driven Life since it came out, but maybe I'll check it out so I at least know what everyone is talking about.

My review of The Purpose Driven Life: The opening line is powerful! The doctrine ok but somewhat commercialized. (The overall commercialization of The Purpose Driven Movement drives me crazy.) I'm also not a fan of using The Message paraphrase in a book that was hugely read by non-believers. But my main criticism is the amount of new age philosophy it contains. But as one who tinkered with New Ageism before Christ got a hold of me, I'm a bit sensitive to that.

hey, so Reformation Day is October 31st and I came across this interesting article giving Resources for Reformation Day. Really makes me want to rewatch the movie Luther (...just need to find a copy), especially now that I've finally read something he wrote! :) so Happy Reformation Day a bit early...

Thanks for the reminder, Trice! Happy Reformation Day, everyone!

Ha! Scientists can now measure which pages in old texts were most read. They used an old prayer book as reference in this article.

http://phys.org/news/2012-04-dirty-re...

Fun info-graphic. Aimed at high-school students.
http://teach.com/great-educational-re...

Laura wrote: "Fun info-graphic. Aimed at high-school students.
http://teach.com/great-educational-re..."

great link! lots of great stuff on that list... although anyone reading Slaughterhouse-Five for time travel will likely end up very confused :)

An interesting article on American culture and the American church: When Are We Going to Grow Up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity

not sure I entirely agree with it, but definitely some important things to be thinking about

Trice wrote: "An interesting article on American culture and the American church: When Are We Going to Grow Up? The Juvenilization of American Christianity

not sure I entirely agree with it, but definitely some..."

wow, that's a really interesting article. I wonder if the Catholics still teach catechism-- maybe in their confirmation classes? I've often thought that protestants needed to have children learn catechisms in their Sunday school classes-- even something simple memorizing one catechism question and answer along with the weekly Bible verse.

we did that at one point with the Westminster Shorter Catechism. The one question that stuck with me is Question 1: What is the chief end of man?

haha, yeah thats the one question I remember too. I didn't learn any of the catechism from church though. In all the Sunday schools I've been in (some in PCA churches some in Baptist churches), I think almost all questions asked could be answered with "be good" and/or "love Jesus." I don't by any means think introducing kids to catechism would suddenly turn them into mature Christians, but I figured it'd at least be a starting point.

I stumbled on these two websites, recently. Maybe it's just me, but I can't seem to nail down what specifically the argument is, other than "New Calvinsim" is considered a heresy by the authors of these websites. I don't agree with their conclusions, and I think they are just labeling men like Mohler, Keller and Piper without providing solid justification. What do you all think?

http://tcanc.wordpress.com/category/g...

http://www.newcalvinist.com/

Al wrote: "I stumbled on these two websites, recently. Maybe it's just me, but I can't seem to nail down what specifically the argument is, other than "New Calvinsim" is considered a heresy by the authors of..."

You might be referring to the recent dialogue within the Southern Baptist contingent. Heresy fingers are pointing in both directions at the moment. Seems to me the argument is around the old standard disagreement: is salvation the work of God alone (total depravity) or does salvation require a response from man. Here's a link to a Christianity Today article that gives a bit of context.

http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2...

Interesting article, especially the comments below it. I had read Mohler's blog on the topic. I think Tom Nettles makes the case for the traditional SBC understanding of salvation in "By His Grace and For His Glory; Baptists and the Bible" and in "James Petigru Boyce: A Southern Baptist Statesman". Either way, this will be a continuation of the ongoing disagreements between the classical Arminians and Calvinists within the SBC. The Founders Ministries is an outgrowth of these disagreements.

http://www.founders.org/


It will be interesting to see how this plays out in New Orleans, and in the pages of the media.

not really sure where to put this, but as it starts with a blog post, here seems like a possibility :)

Tim Challies has a really really nice Gift Certificate giveaway going from Monergism Books (http://www.challies.com/giveaways/the...), and in the process of checking out their selection, I discovered the site itself is giving away mp3 CD's of Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology class for free to whomever is interested: http://www.monergismbooks.com/Systema...

Thanks, Trice. I just ordered it and I'm looking forward to listening to it.

http://www.conventionalthinking.org/2...

Good summary of the 2012 SBC by Al Mohler.

From a blogger to J.I. Packer to John Owen:
One-Point-Calvinism

http://timmybrister.com/2012/07/the-o...

And here's a twist: BACON - it's the new TULIP.

http://musicfrombrokenchords.wordpres...

Meh, I think that the five points of calvinism are more like a flower(Math. 6:27), BACON makes following calvinism look like your living to the flesh.

I'm for BACON, as long as its turkey bacon. ;)

10 Books (and One Letter) Every New Calvinist Needs to Read


Recommended reading from the Ligonier Blog:


10 Books (and One Letter) Every New Calvinist Needs to Read

http://www.ligonier.org/blog/10-books...

just started reading "On Controversy" (the 1st one on the list) and thinking it should be shouted from the rooftops - looks like a great list

There are some interesting recommends for reading on vocation and calling over on the InterVarsity Press blog.

And Reformation 21 has a review called Much Better Than the Daily Mail for the book of an acquaintance, titled The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert: an english professor's journey into christian faith - haven't had a chance to read it yet, but knowing her, and adding to that what is said in the review, I imagine it's well worth the read.

so I'm behind in my blog controversies, but have just started looking through the "Precious Puritans" posts.
At Gentle Reformation they have posted the song at the center of discussion, in addition to rounding up some of the commentary. I'm reading through Thabiti Anyabwile's post at the moment and really impressed with what he has to say. I'm not a rap fan, but I'm liking Propaganda's sound in addition to the challenges he offers - seeming in the nature of iron sharpening iron, if from a distance.

What think ye all?

EDIT: For once it seems the blog comments really do add to the discussion, at least what I'm reading so far.

Trice wrote: "What think ye all?"

Propaganda: Giving the Puritans a Bad Rap

Rapmusic :')

A brief bit on Dutch Reformed theologians came up on the Resurgence blog. I'm remembering that there was at least a brief discussion of potential reads in that direction a bit ago on one of the threads for this group.