"Charles Cotherman’s new book, To Think Christianly, is the first comprehensive history of the Christian study center movement and its many roots in postwar evangelicalism." - CT
"If our identity is riding on our differences with other believers, we will tend to major in the study of differences. We may even find ourselves looking for faults in others in order to define ourselves." - TGC
"So along the lines of Aimee’s recent blog posts, I have listed some questions and concerns regarding her book. I did not formulate these entirely on my own. Some are from readers who did not feel comfortable raising these concerns publicly." - Ref21
"Most of my remarks here will be directed toward Scot McKnight’s article, since it makes a more substantive argument, though I’ll mention Matthew Bates’s as well here and there. There are three main areas I’d like to address. First, has my view of the gospel shifted from 'soterian' to 'a King Jesus Gospel?'" - Greg Gilbert
(Related: https://sharperiron.org/filings/041620/37773)
Where Must Faith Always Look? I’m sure we all know that the answer is Christ – at least we ought to! I know, but I’m afraid I don’t always live it. I need constant reminders. So this isn’t me sermonizing (I’m unqualified); it’s a confession of my failing, and a passing on of a message from someone else…
That someone else is Ian Hamilton. The message comes from his little book The Faith Shaped Life. In the Chapter Where Faith Always Looks, Hamilton tells us that he has never been in the habit of making New Year resolutions. But he then recounts why he broke the habit of not making a resolution.
The reason he broke his habit was that he’d been reading through the Letter to the Hebrews. Hamilton noted that it was a “fascinating,” “sobering,” “and richly encouraging read.” The Hebrew Christians had come under the influence of false teaching and were pressured to “give up on Christ and return to Judaism.”
Hamilton writes that, “They had become ‘dull of hearing’ (Heb. 5:11).” They had slowly become spiritually deaf. They allowed the (significant) pressures of life to “de-centre Jesus in their lives” and “he was no longer the chief object of their faith and the first call upon their love.” The writer admonishes them to consider Christ (Heb 3:1, 12:2-3)!
This is a human condition I must contend with on a daily basis. It’s a daily struggle for me. And I bet I’m not alone.
Hamilton notes:
"...unlike so many other scholars, [author Olivier Roy] emphasizes the difference between Lutheranism (which, with its doctrine of the Two Kingdoms and vocation is 'self-secularizing,' giving religious significance to the secular realm) and Calvinism (which tends to seek Christian rule of the secular order). He also notes the difference between both of these traditions and American Protestantism." - Gene Veith
The book “invites readers around the world to stand on the solid Rock, who is Jesus Christ, in whom our souls can be sustained by the sovereign God who ordains, governs, and reigns over all things to accomplish his wise and good purposes for those who trust in him.” - Crossway
"Mark Sayers has not written another book on the challenges that face the church in the West, though few would be better suited to do so. He’s written instead a handbook for not only surviving but even thriving in our secular age. Sayers is the author of Reappearing Church: The Hope for Renewal in the Rise of Our Post-Christian Culture" - TGC
