Things I found this week…

Posted by Paul | Filed under web sights

A couple of interesting links:

I was pleased to see Marilynne Robinson win the Orange prize. The Guardian have a couple of interviews with her — one more literary and one more, well, Calvanist — and an editorial.

Also — I normally get annoyed with blogs that begin “I haven’t read this book, but I wanted to chime in nonetheless”. However, Kyle Strobel at Theology Forum brings an interesting observation to the Wright/Piper discussion of Justification. Turns out that Tom Wright has some support from Jonathan Edwards…

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Read more | Comments (1) | June 10th, 2009

Justification and football

Posted by Paul | Filed under uncategorised

A sort of informational post:

John Piper’s book ‘The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright’ is available free on-line as a pdf. I’ve only skimmed bits of it and I guess your view will depend on where you start out, but at the very least it is good to see that Piper & Wright had discussions before publication.

In the interests of keeping both sides in mind, remember that some of Tom Wright’s stuff on justification can be found on the ntwrightpage.

In between the two, Michael Bird has some useful perspectives (I was going to say ‘is a voice of reason’, but that would cast aspersions on the others!). He has an interesting paper on Incorporated Righteousness, which attempts for a middle way between new and old perspectives and makes a lot of sense. He also points out how these sort of debates arise in part from the difference between systematic theologians and New Testament scholars.

I also like this quote from Eugene Peterson, which seems appropriate to these exchanges:

Among those for whom scripture is a passion, reading commentaries has always seemed to me analogous to the gathering of football fans in the local bar after the game, replaying in endless detail the game they have just watched, arguing (maybe even fighting) over observations and opinion, and lacing the discourse with gossip about the players. The level of knowledge evident in these boozy colloquies is impressive. These fans have watched the game for years; the players are household names to them; they know the fine print in the rulebook and pick up every nuance on the field. And they care immensely about what happens in the game. Their seemingly endless commentry is evidence of how much they care.

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Read more | Comments (0) | November 18th, 2007