A little while ago, Luke asked for a peak into the secret life of my bookshelf. He particularly asked to know my 'worst purchase'. Well, there are two contenders; I'll tell you about this one:
It's a set text for doctrine this year (and I nearly always like my set texts). I don't like this one. It's not well written. The author doesn't argue his case very well at all. Proof texts galore. Bllerghh!
The Greedy
I recently read Brian Rosner's book, Greed as Idolatry (not to be confused with Beyond Greed) for Ethics. He's commenting on this verse from Colossians:
"Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry"Keep in mind that Paul (the guy who wrote Colossians) was a Jew. So to call anything idolatry is to thoroughly hate on it. (Think the 10 Commandments). So why greed? Rosner reaches this conclusion:
'[A]t the risk of blunting the affective impact of the metaphor, "greed is idolatry" may be paraphrased as teaching that to have a strong desire to acquire and keep for yourself more and more money and material things is an attack on God's exclusive rights to human life and devotion, trust and confidence, and service and obedience.' Greed as Idolatry, Rosner, 173.
The Good
Quickflix have been sending me movies. Just a slow trickle, that's all I need. Blade Runner, The Crow, I'm Not There, and Amazing Grace have made an appearance in my letter box thus far. I'm hoping that Master of the Flying Guillotine might be next :) Oh come on. You knew kung-fu was coming.
Keep an eye on my sidebar for movie updates.
6 comments:
The more I read and hear of Bloesch, the more I get disappointed. For example his book on the "inspiration" of Scripture claimed that Luther didn't believe in inerracy. However when you look up the the part he quotes from Luther's commentary on the Psalms, it's at best a misquote and at worst dodgy scholarship.
Keep the book reviews coming!
I want to disagree with both Luke and Bernard. I found Bloesch to be superb. I really like the way he writes. I like the layout of the series of Christian Foundations. I haven't read his book on Scripture but I'd be disappointed if you, Luke, wrote him off because of a mistake that you have found on one aspect of his work.
His book on God Almighty was one of the most helpful things I've read. Way better than The Doctrine of God by Gerald Bray.
I like the way that he doesn't try to force the text. And he leaves ambiguous things that need leaving ambiguous.
I'd be interested to know who you blokes think is good to read.
Al, I love crossing swords with you, I always learn something. One of Bloesch's main premises in his "inspiration" book was to prove that the Reformers didn't care much for inneraacy. [Given my spelling maybe I don't either!] However it seems contra Bloesch they did.
(Bray was awesome, dense but reliable and full of theological goodness. I'm entirely biased here, I try to only read really theoloigcal reliable stuff or very interesting stuff without any regard for theological reliablity. The centre is either boring or sneaky. Bray also came to Ridley and answered some of my questions over coffee which was nice, so I'm probably biased there as well.)
:)
Good one Luke. I'll have to have a look at it.
I read Bray's book that I mentioned very thoroughly. It is a fine example of conservative evangelical theology. He critically and fairly interacts well with many scholars with whom I agree and his writing is always clear. I have mates at MTC who had him lecture them and said he was awesome. And I know that he is an absolute genius.
But I liked Bloesch's book better.
When i was looking at buying a stock standard ST text i was advised to check a few out and read them to see which style of writing I liked best. I ended up buying Erickson. I don't like Reymond at all (grumpy). I didn't care for Grudem much either (boring). Erickson was the most balanced.
Having said that I've got them all plus others.
Finally, I admit a bias here too. Rob Smith likes bloesch a lot and Rob was my favourite lecturer.
Hey Al,
I can't speak on the rest of Bloesch's Christian Foundations series, 'cause I haven't read it.
And I'm not sure who else to recommend on eschatology. Both Doyle (Eschatology and the Shape of Christian Belief) and Hoekema (The Bible and the future ) have been recommended to me, but I've yet to read either of them.
*keeps searching* :)
Bernard. I can't remember who I liked for eschatology. I read one by Dumbrell and another by Doyle but remember them both being very difficult to follow.
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