Around the Web

Matthew Lee Anderson from First Thoughts has a humorous post on Playing the (a) Theological Mystery Card.  Here's his list of who plays the "mystery card" and on what subject:

•Calvinists: the existence of human responsibility
•Arminians: the existence of divine sovereignty over salvation
•Roman Catholics: the simultaneous presence of Christ’ body in the Eucharist and in Heaven
•Anglo-Catholics: their relationship to the Reformation
•Naturalists: consciousness and the existence of free will
•Eastern Orthodox: I’m pretty sure this is the only card they play with.
•Lutherans: how (and that!) sanctification happens
•Wesleyans: why sanctification doesn’t happen
•Baptists: the working of the Holy Spirit
•Pentecostals: the working of anything else
•Dispensationalists: the Old Testament

Michael Wittmer is doing a series of posts on Brian McLaren's new book A New Kind of Christianity.  Some have complained that his tone is too harsh.  I disagree.  Considering the seriousness of what is at stake he may not be strong enough.  But I think he's found a good balance.  I have not read McLaren's book yet but plan to.  But if half of what Wittmer says is true I am deeply disturbed.  Here's just a sample from his most recent post:

"Brian begins this section by admitting that he has a big problem. It helped his new kind of Christianity to assert that the Bible is our cultural library rather than authoritative constitution, but he still has to wrestle with the fact that this library contains many bloody books. In Brian’s words, he needs a way to deal with the numerous 'violent images, cruel images, [and] un-Christlike images' of God that are found in the Bible."

"Most troubling is the God who appears in the Noah narrative. Brian complains that 'a god who mandates an intentional supernatural disaster leading to unparalleled genocide is hardly worthy of belief, much less worship. How can you ask your children—or nonchurch colleagues and neighbors—to honor a deity so uncreative, overreactive, and utterly capricious regarding life?'"

Tyndale has a new website and is offering an opportunity to win some free books.

Scot McKnight has resolved the mystery of dinosaur extinction. 

Craig Blomberg has done a review of Philip Payne's book Man and Women, One in Christ to which Payne has responded.  The exchange is very interesting.  Paul Adams continues his own review of Payne's book.

Koinonia is offering another blog tour.  This time it's on the new book Your Church is Too Small by John Armstrong. I've done a few of these already and have really enjoyed them.

Finally, we have Alvin Plantinga providing a modal argument against the current "rage" of viewing human nature in purely materialist terms, that is, that humans are nothing more than their brains or bodies.  Paul Adams featured it on his blog.  I had to watch it a couple of times to clearly understand Plantinga's point.