Monday, April 6, 2009

In Store Now - Tough-Minded Christianity

Tough-Minded Christianity is a formidable work of over 700 pages dedicated to honor the legacy of lawyer/apologist John Warwick Montgomery. J.P. Moreland says Montgomery's name "deserves to be mentioned alongside of C. S. Lewis and Francis Schaeffer as one of the 20th century's most articulate defenders of historic Christianity." I would certainly agree with Moreland's assessment but unfortunately Montgomery is not as popular as he was in the 70s, 80s and 90s. This should in no way diminish his contribution to the church. Among his many achievements Montgomery was the founder of the Simon Greenleaf School of Law in 1980 (now Simon Greenleaf University). "He is a U.S. and U.K. citizen, the author of some fifty books in five languages, and is included in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in France, the European Biographical Directory, Who's Who in the World, and Contemporary Authors." (from his website) While I never had the pleasure of studying with Montgomery I did study under some who did and I have met him on a couple of occasions. He has a pleasant personality and an encyclopedic mind. The sheer breadth of this volume shows he is in the truest sense a renaissance man. The book is divided into six sections 1) The Christian Worldview, 2) The Nature of Nature, 3) Doctrinal Integrity, 4) Defending the Faith, 5) Law, Ethics, Society, and 6) Tribute. The contributors include J. I. Packer, Vernon Grounds, Harold O. J. Brown, I. Howard Marshall, Roger Nicole, Erwin Lutzer, Edwin M. Yamauchi, Michael Horton, Gary Habermas, William Dembski and others. As soon as I get started on this tome I will give you some thoughts. But I can tell you already that my initial impressions are this is an excellent work.

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