Welcome to the SharperIron Blogroll.
The Blogroll is a collection of blogs that are often of interest and help to SI readers. SharperIron does not create the content of these blogs and the views expressed in them are those of their respective writers.
Pastor Richard A. Harris (1934–2021) was the pastor of my youth. By God’s grace and through his efforts the Bethel Baptist Church of Sellersville, PA, was chartered in 1962 in an unlikely patch of Bucks County that, despite the otherwise booming growth of that county, has remained delightfully undeveloped. Despite what would be considered by...
The post “Remember Those Who Taught You the Word of God.” appeared first on Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
I recently read Finding the Right Hills to Die On: The Case for Theological Triage by Gavin Ortlund. The concept of theological triage (coined by Albert Mohler, as far as I know) concerns categorizing doctrinal matters such that some are recognized as more vital than others. For instance, on all orthodox accounts, the divinity of...
The post Review: Finding the Right Hills to Die on appeared first on Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
In my last blog post I addressed the irrational distrust that is increasingly plaguing religious and political conservatives. Specifically, I suggested that we ask of our theories about, say, mask mandates, social distancing, and vaccines, “Why would all these people be doing what I have convinced myself that they’re doing?” Specifically, For what logical reason would...
The post Another Question of Discernment appeared first on Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary.
Here are some of my thoughts on the last two lines of the Apostles’ Creed:
“Death Is Not the End: What We Still and Will Believe.” Desiring God, 11 January 2021.
In this new 44-page article, I support eight propositions about ethnicity:
Naselli, Andrew David. “What the Bible Teaches about Ethnic Harmony.†Midwestern Journal of Theology 19.2 (2020): 14–57.
Here are 12 books I recently endorsed (nine for 2020, three for 2021):
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Keith & Sarah Fleming
Their daughters Kate & Anna
Praise God, the IBL team is growing again!
In 2020, God led Dave Deets to join our team, and he has been a great addition as we expand our side-by-side work with God’s Leaders. Now, in 2021, we anticipate additional blessings as God is leading Keith and Sarah Fleming to join with us.
Keith Fleming currently serves as the Executive and Missions Pastor of Brookside Baptist Church in Brookfield WI. Lord willing, the Flemings will transition mid-year, joining us in the Carolinas. Keith’s background in executive ministry leadership, missions oversight, and business administration will be a great asset to IBL.
Keith will initially...
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The Tyranny of Merit: What’s Become of the Common Good? by Michael J. Sandel
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved Sandel’s book Justice: What’s the Right Thing to Do? His power is incisive analysis: he cuts to the Augustinian heart of divisive issues using classic philosophical tools. He also explains all this slowly and clearly. He is the single most gifted guide of classroom discussion that I have ever seen (I not only read Justice; I watched the WBUR Boston recordings of his class; they were sterling).
This book wasn’t quite as lean and refined as Justice; it also didn’t deal with quite as important a topic (that would have been a tall order). It was a bit long and a bit repetitive (though because I listened to the audio, read patiently and engagingly by the author, that actually...
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution by Carl R. Trueman.
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I’m hoping to publish in a journal a more extensive review of this excellent—though long and at times tedious—book. I’ll say here: Trueman asks an intriguing question that builds a narrative expectation and structure into his book: How is it that so many average people in the West fail to see “I’m a woman trapped in a man’s body” as a self-evidence absurdity?
Trueman sets out to answer this question by following the work of Rieff, MacIntyre, and Taylor—but adding a lot of studious book reports of his own as he guides the (evangelical) reader through Western intellectual history.
I think Trueman delivered. He helped me see how we got here. Evil ideas don’t come from nowhere, or even just “from Satan...
This video on “white supremacy” in Western music theory recently got some attention from intelligent friends and acquaintances. It claims that Western music theory is racist—white supremacist, to be precise—for teaching only the musical style of 18th century European males. But don’t roll your eyes: the guys making these claims are not hacks; they both know far more about Western music theory than I will ever know. They’re brilliant, and it’s fun to listen to them display their brilliance. They really know Western music.
But I don’t think I have to know music theory as well as they do to argue that they are wrong to call the Western music education system racist merely for perpetuating itself as a tradition.
I think the viewpoint I and the BJU Press team I was part of for our book, Biblical Worldview: Creation, Fall, Redemption, answers the explosive charge of “white supremacy” in Western music theory quite well: different cultures see different elements of—have different angles on—the one beauty of God, a beauty he invested in his creation. It isn’t white supremacy to...
There’s a young man I know from Christian circles somewhere in the U.S.—I’ll call him Kyle or Gerald or Edward, or maybe something a little more derogatory—who posted what I can only call an anti-girls-going-to-college meme on Facebook. It argued that Christian colleges were not teaching biblical womanhood. I wrote this in response, because I have a pastoral concern for the many Christians I know who may be tempted toward this kind of isolationism. I’m tempted toward it, too, at times. But I think my Bible tells me not to be.
Kyle/Gerald/Edward, I really enjoyed meeting some wonderful young people at the two homeschool conventions I attended with you, kids who come from a culture which is generally opposed to college attendance even for young men. They were polite and clean-cut; I liked that. And I will never say that all Christian young men or women must attend college. But my own wife, who has a B.S. and M.S. in Biblical Counseling from a Christian college, was taught nothing if not biblical womanhood—from godly older women whom I respect and admire. One of the main female teachers there has raised three Christian women herself, all of whom have met the...
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