In Store Now - Scandalous

This week has been unusually busy at the store in part because we have a major sale this weekend and I have a book table to host at a local Church Ministries Conference.  But I wanted to let you know that we received our copies of D. A. Carson's newest book Scandalous.  I know some of you have been anxiously waiting for this and I told you I would let you know as soon as they were in.  Warning: I did take most of them with me to the book table but there are still copies at the store.  If we do run out I'll have whatever didn't sell at the book table back on Monday but I think we should have enough for everyone.  I did start reading it last night in between the conference sessions and I like it (It's like a big piece of cherry pie!).  I'll give you more information when I have a little more time. 

Brian McLaren - It's Hot in the Kitchen

While I may have stopped reading McLaren others haven't and some of the criticism is white hot.  Consider these words from Tim Challies:

"It wasn't too long ago that I wrote about Brian McLaren and got in trouble. Reflecting on seeing him speak at a nearby church, I suggested that he appears to love Jesus but hate God. Based on immediate and furious reaction, I quickly retracted that statement. I should not have done so. I believed it then and I believe it now. And if it was true then, how much more true is it upon the release of his latest tome A New Kind of Christianity. In this book we finally see where McLaren's journey has taken him; it has taken him into outright, rank, unapologetic apostasy. He hates God. Period."

And again,

"McLaren says he would prefer atheism over belief in the God so many of us see in Scripture. Well, he is not far off. This new kind of Extreme Makeover: God Edition Christianity is no Christianity at all. It is not a faith made in the image of Jesus Christ, but a faith made in the image of a man who despises God and who is hell-bent on dragging others along with him as he becomes his own god."

The responses to Challies are mostly positive (which is to be expected given that they are from like-minded readers) but there are some serious comments which push back.  Much less pejorative but just as insightful is this review from Bill Kinnon.  McLaren did respond to Kinnon which I found interesting.  In the response McLaren says he "enthusiastically affirm[s] the Apostles and Nicene Creeds. Yes, I'm a wholehearted Trinitarian."  He also says on the issue of the physical resurrection of Jesus he sides with N. T. Wright rather than Marcus Borg.  I'm encouraged by these admissions but I can't help but wonder if McLaren will still think this way 5 years from now.  He has already gone so far and more than one person has spoken of the "trajectory" they see working in him.  Is it just a matter of time before he merely wants to start "asking questions" about the Trinity?  Perhaps with a little more prodding he'll start to wonder if the bodily resurrection of Jesus is really all that important.  In his response to Kinnon he says "I repeatedly say that I'm trying to create space for conversation on important questions, not offering the final answers. I say again and again we're on a quest. I also repeatedly affirm that the ten questions I deal with are just a beginning."  Therein lays the problem.  An enthusiastic Trinitarian today can become the enlightened Unitarian tomorrow if that's where the quest leads him.  That's not a quest I care to join.      

Why I Stopped Reading Brian McLaren's A New Kind of Christianity

I've decided to stop reading Brian McLaren's book A New Kind of Christianity.  The reason would be obvious if asked why I stopped eating onions and switched to cherry pie.  My reasons are as follows:

1)  I've read enough of it to see that the reviews I've read of it were substantially correct.  Mike Wittmer, Scot McKnight and Kevin DeYoung are spot on in their critiques.  From what I read I saw no serious misrepresentations. 

2)  I have a growing number of books vying for my attention and some are too tempting to put off any longer.  Among these is the book I'm reading now in preparation for a blog tour next week on Your Church is Too Small.  I'm also happily skimming Peter O'Brien's new commentary on Hebrews.  And with reviews like this of the Pillar series it's even harder to refrain any longer. I'm also well into N. T. Wright's newest book After You Believe.  (So at least HarperOne still has my attention with one of their books.)   

3)  My time is too valuable to continue reading something with which I have such significant disagreements.  With all due respect to McLaren he will have to wait till another time. 

4) There is a tone to McLaren that quickly pushes all the wrong buttons in me.  This causes me to react with more emotion than reason and at that point I know it's time to put it down. 

So for now I'm giving up on the onions and eating some cherry pie.

Favorite Retail Stories - 1 "How Much Did You Say?"

Working in retail can be a lot of fun. That may sound odd to many of you but I really do love my job. I thought I would share some of my favorite experiences with you so you could see what I like about it. I’ll also be asking some of my co-workers for some of their highlights.

One of my favorite stories comes from a few years back. A couple of gentlemen came in and said they wanted to buy a substantial number of books and were interested in what kind of discount I could provide. I said let’s see what you get and we’ll work from there. They spent a few hours shopping and filled up a cart full of books. Since they had to leave they asked if I would tally the total and have it ready for them the next day.

When they arrived the next day I told them that with a generous discount their total came to just under $5,000.00. The gentlemen looked at his friend and said, “This isn’t good.” I said, “I assure you I’ve given you the best discount I can.” He responded, “No, you don’t understand. We have $20,000.00 to spend.” “Oh!” I declared, “I think we can fix that.” He asked for a Baker Academic catalog and after going through it a few minutes said “Just give me one of everything.” He then proceeded to fill up a couple of other carts. By the time we were done the total came to right around $18,000.00. What he didn’t tell me in the beginning was that he was buying for a seminary located in South America. As he wrote the check I thought this is where I find out this is all a scam and the check will bounce. But it didn’t. The check cleared and the books were sent to South America. This wasn’t the first time Baker has had overseas seminaries make purchases but it was my first experience with it. We’ve also had customers bring in a missionary and tell them “Get what you need. It’s on me.” This is such a delight to see. Most missionaries are operating on a shoe string budget and to witness this kind of generosity does the heart good.

Michael Brown on Tyra Banks

I don't watch the Tyra Banks show since I'm usually at work during her show.  Even on the occasional weekday when I'm off (like today) I don't watch it.  But I was alerted to this from Michael Brown's ministry.  Apparently, Brown was asked to be on the Tyra Banks show to discuss the issue of transgendered children.  If you watch the segment from the show you'll see Brown doesn't have much of an opportunity to speak since he is often interrupted.  He did, however, provide a short response later which you'll find below.  I found it interesting that at about 4:50 he mentions a study of London taxi drivers which showed that the spatial reasoning part of their brain was larger than the average person.  This was particularly interesting because N. T. Wright mentions this same study in his new book After You Believe. (38 See here for the link Wright provides.)  Wright isn't talking about transgendered children but both men cite the study as evidence that our brains are changed or re-wired based on our behavior. This reminded me of another book just out called Wired for Intimacy: How Pornography Hijacks the Male Brain which, though I've not read it, I think probably argues along similar lines concerning the effect of pornography on the brain.  I find the whole subject fascinating.  The incident with Brown on the Tyra show only shows once again how even when the media finds an intelligent person of faith to speak they really don't give him any time.

In Store Now - An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit

I've not featured many titles from Baker's Charismatic imprint Chosen.  More often than not this is simply because I've got so much else on my plate I don't have time to read many of their titles and I'm not as familiar with many of the authors.  I did spend a couple of years in the charismatic movement in the late 70's.  At the time my favorite author was Derek Prince who is still enjoying newly published works in spite of his death in 2003.  This is made possible because of his long-running radio broadcast.  Many of those broadcasts are being translated into a print medium.  But today I want to tell you about a new book we just got in last week. 

Vinson Synan is a professor of church history and dean emeritus of the School of Divinity, Regent University. His most recent book, An Eyewitness Remembers the Century of the Holy Spirit, is a combination of history and personal memoir of the Charismatic/Pentecostal movement in America.  Synan starts, as expected, with the Azusa Street revivals.  No, he wasn't an eyewitness to it but it was only proper for him to start with the acknowledged beginning of the contemporary Pentecostal movement and Synan says he's every bit "a child of Azusa Street" (24).  Synan's father preached with Oral Roberts in 1948 and he still has vivid memories of those early days of camp meetings.  In those days he says the churches he attended would be more aptly described as "Wesleyan-Holiness" rather than Pentecostal.  It is fascinating to read of his first-hand account of Oral Roberts in the "Tent Cathedral" in 1949.  As I read through the book names jumped off the page like old friends: Demos Shakarian, Chuck Smith, Dave Wilkerson, David du Plessis, Dennis Bennett, Ralph Wilkerson, J. Rodman Williams, Larry Christenson, Harold Bredesen, Don Basham, Peter Wagner, Bob Mumford, John Wimber and, of course, Derek Prince.  Some of these names were more familiar than others but all of them brought back some kind of memory.

Synan covers a number of issues that have dotted the history of the movement such as the Jesus movement, the "Fort Lauderdale Five," the "Latter Rain," the "Third Wave," the Vinyard movement and the Toronto, Brownsville and Lakeland Revivals.  During the time I was in the charismatics the "Shepherding movement" was the controversy of the day. I remember it well.  Synan does not shy away from the controversies and debates that sometimes fragmented Pentecostals into undesired factions.  He devotes a chapter to the prosperity gospel (chapter 7).  He does acknowledge that some teachers have abused the doctrine (most notably Robert Tilton and Gene Ewing p. 124).  But he says that "as I matured and ministered as a pastor, college professor and national leader, I came to know many of the prosperity teachers and some became close personal friends.  I was torn by what I heard from other friends who strongly opposed the prosperity gospel and what I saw and heard from friends who promoted the prosperity message."  (114)  The chapter goes on to provide a defense/context for the prosperity gospel.  The chapter does not quite reach the level of an apologetic but he does try to show some of the benefits that this message has provided especially in third world countries.  Pentecostals will find much encouragement here.  Synan says the effect of this teaching has had a huge impact in raising families from low level incomes into a healthier middle class and this is a good thing.  He concludes the chapter with "[i]n my opinion, the offer of salvation, holiness, healing and Pentecostal power is still the best cure for both spiritual and material poverty."  (126)  I remain less than convinced. 

I was surprised in his recounting of the Brownsville revivals he didn't mention the interaction between Michael Brown and Hank Hanegraaf (see here for one example).  My guess is since he did not have a personal involvement in the discussion it would be better left untouched.  Speaking of personal involvement, Synan recounts one of his visits to Toronto to see first-hand what the revival was all about.  At one of the services he says he saw "a man laying on his back behind the pulpit.  He was twitching and laughing.  Later, he came and sat beside me.  I looked up and recognized him as Clark Pinnock, the famous evangelical scholar.  This was indeed surprising to me."  (162)  The book is full of anecdotes like these which give it a warm and personal feeling to what could have been a dry history.  I wish there had been some pictures. 

This is a fun book.  Charismatics and Pentecostals will enjoy reading such a first-hand account of much of their history.  Those outside those circles will learn much about their brothers and sisters and, I believe, help them understand them and their history a little better.  It is a hardcover with 224 pages and sells for $17.99.   

Coming Soon from Brazos Press - Good News for Anxious Christians

Are you ready for some good news? Let me tell you about a new book coming from Brazos Press called Good News for Anxious Christians: Ten Practical Things You Don’t Have to Do. Let’s start with the catalog description:

“Like a succession of failed diet regimens, the much-touted techniques that are supposed to bring us closer to God ‘in our hearts’ can instead make us feel anxious, frustrated, and overwhelmed. How can we meet and know God with ongoing joy rather than experiencing the Christian life as a series of guilt-inducing disappointments?”

“Phillip Cary explains that knowing God is a gradual, long-term process that comes through the Bible experienced in Christian community, not a to-do list designed to help us live the Christian life ‘right.’ This clearly written book covers ten things Christians don't have to do to be close to God, such as hear God's voice in their hearts, find God's will for their lives, and believe their intuitions are the Holy Spirit. Cary skillfully unpacks the riches of traditional Christian spirituality, bringing the real good news to Christians of all ages.”

Here are some of the chapter titles:

1. Why You Don’t Have to Hear God’s Voice in Your Heart, Or: How God Really Speaks Today.

2. Why You Don’t Have to Believe Your Intuitions are the Holy Spirit, Or: How the Spirit Shapes Our Hearts

3. Why You Don’t Have to be Sure You Have the Right Motivations, Or: How Love Seeks the Good

4. Why You Don’t Have to Keep Getting Transformed All the Time, Or: How Virtues Make a Lasting Change in Us

5. Why You Don’t Always Have to Experience Joy, Or: How God Vindicates the Afflicted

6. Why ‘Applying It to Your Life’ Is Boring, Or: How the Gospel is Beautiful

7. Why Basing Faith on Experience Leads to a Post-Christian Future, Or: How Christian Faith Needs Christian Teaching

I have read about the first 50 pages and I want to say this is a book you’re going to want to read. Cary is convinced that the Church is burdening people with unhealthy “techniques” which, while well intended, are doing more harm than good. What they are really doing is creating anxious Christians who are constantly worried about whether they're “doing it (whatever “it” may be) right.

Cary says the book got its start after he read one of his student’s papers on the topic of revelation. The student was frustrated with the concept because she said “you can never really tell if it’s the voice of God. For how do you know which voice you’re hearing is really God’s voice? And if you can’t tell if it’s God’s voice, then how can God reveal anything?” He quickly realized her concept of revelation was entirely wrong. She was anxious because she couldn’t be sure she wasn’t mistaking her voice for God’s voice. Here’s what he wrote on her paper, “I have good news for you: the voices in your heart are all your own. So you don’t have to get all anxious about figuring out which one of your voices is God. None of them is. The revelation of God comes in another way, through the word of God in the Bible, and this is something you can find outside your heart.” Now I know you’ve probably got a ton of questions (and maybe a few objections) but Cary says the two questions asked the most at this point are: “Are you saying God doesn’t speak to us today?” and “Are you saying God can’t speak in our hearts?” In reply he says . . . well, I’ll let you read the book.

It is very well written and should be on every pastor’s shelf. Maybe even more importantly it should make its way into every youth pastor’s library.

Look for it this October. It will be a paperback with 208 pages and sell for $14.99.

Phillip Cary (PhD, Yale University) is professor of philosophy and director of the philosophy program at Eastern University in Pennsylvania as well as scholar-in-residence at the Templeton Honors College. He is the author of Jonah in the Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible and of three critically acclaimed books on the life and thought of St. Augustine.

N. T. Wright, John Walton and Genesis

My friend Paul sent me this video of N. T. Wright commenting on Adam and Eve.  In passing Wright says he's "with" John Walton in his understanding of Genesis 1.  I'll come back to that in a minute. 

I find it interesting that Wright says Americans need to realize the "rest of the world" does not bundle issues together the way we do so we need to "lighten up" and "uncouple" those issues.  I think he's thinking of things like if we deny Adam and Eve were real then we have to deny original sin. I realize it's more than that but that's one example.  First, I'm not sure that just knowing others (For Wright to go from the way Britains do it to the "rest of the world" is quite a leap in itself.) don't make the connections we do in itself justifies that we stop making them.  It makes us sound like we are slaves to some "American mental illness" that arbitrarily makes connections with no sound reason for doing so. Secondly, on the other hand, I do believe we have unnecessarily coupled some things together on pretty tenuous grounds but the uncoupling must be proven not simply dismissed because "the rest of the world" doesn't see connections the way we do.

His discussion of myth vs. history is very good and is a common misunderstanding in popular circles.  The last part of the discussion he shows his dependence on Walton's understanding of Genesis.  I've provided Wright's video here and another brief video of Walton on Genesis.  Those who want to know more should read Walton's book The Lost World of Genesis One.  You can see my review of Walton's book here.  You can find these and other helpful videos and articles at The BioLogos Foundation. 


 

Coming Soon from Baker Academic - Constructing Jesus

Dale Allison is an impressive scholar and it is with great pride and excitement that Baker Academic is releasing Constructing Jesus: Memory, Imagination, and History.  The catalog description follows:

"What did Jesus think of himself? How did he face death? What were his expectations of the future? In this volume, internationally renowned Jesus scholar Dale Allison Jr. addresses such perennially fascinating questions about Jesus."

"Representing the fruit of several decades of research, this major work questions standard approaches to Jesus studies and rethinks our knowledge of the historical Jesus in light of recent progress in the scientific study of memory. Allison's groundbreaking alternative strategy calls for applying what we know about the function of human memory to our reading of the Gospels in order to "construct Jesus" more soundly."

I admit I'm a bit hesitant about this work.  Allison did a previous work for Eerdmans called The Historical Christ and the Theological Jesus which left me with a lot of questions.  Craig Blomberg gave a fairly positive review of the book.  He concluded:

"But his book remains so filled to the brim with common sense, lessons from history, profound insights, self-disclosure and self-effacement, refreshing candor and "equal-opportunity" criticism for all scholars that it is one of the few works I can recall reading with which I had fairly significant disagreements in key places but still absolutely loved and couldn't put down."

I responded to Blomberg with this comment:

"Thank you for the thoughtful review. I, too, enjoyed the book in spite of many disagreements. I thought Allison's conclusions were just a bit overly optimistic given the argument of the book. He critiques the traditional methods of criteria as too subjective, yet I found his own method of "repeated patterns" simply a variation of multiple attestation. If, however, the particulars of any given event are so unreliable on what basis can we formulate reliable general impressions just because they are repeated? To say that a "Jesus who sounds like us, makes us comfortable, and commends our opinions is no Jesus at all" is saying a lot given how little confidence Allison places on what we can know for sure what Jesus said or did. Who can say this wasn't the real Jesus? Finally, Allison seems to have a general distrust of much of the gospels as historically credible documents. He noted that the papers written by his students was rarely affected in their exegesis by whether or not something was historical or not (p. 43). Does this make the gospels little more than Aesop's fables? Should the historicity of an event affect our exegesis?"

Blomberg responded with simply "Good points!"  I had hoped for more but I appreciated his response. So with that as a background I'm anxious to see what Allison does in this new volume.  Here's are a couple of paragraphs from his first book which will give you an idea of my concerns:

"The temptation narrative may not be history as it really was, yet it is full of memory.  My judgment is that, taken as a whole, its artistic originator has managed to leave us with a pretty fair impression of Jesus, even if the episode does not contain one word that Jesus spoke or narrate one thing that he did.  Memory and legend are not easily disentangled, so when we try to weed out the fictions, will we not be uprooting much else besides?" (26-27) 

"I remain skeptical that we can very often show that any particular saying or story goes back to Jesus or does not go back to him.  We need to quit pretending to do what we cannot do.  The Gospels are parables.  When we read them, we should think not that Jesus said this or did that but rather: Jesus did things like this, and he said things like that."  (66)

"Do we not know that tradition always exaggerates and that a tendency to mythomania seems to be part of human nature?  How can anyone with a good education wholeheartedly believe that Jesus walked on water, that he fed five thousand with a few food scraps, or that he restored the dead to the land of  the living?  Such incredible things seem opposed to ordinary human experience.  Similar things do, however, often appear in archaic tales that everybody knows to be fictional."  (68-69)

The book will be released in November with 592 pages and sell for $54.99.  Make no mistake about it--agree or disagree Allison will be must reading for serious students of historical Jesus studies.

Dale C. Allison Jr. (PhD, Duke University) is the Errett M. Grable Professor of New Testament Exegesis and Early Christianity at Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.

In Store Now - Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus vol. 5

The long-awaited final volume to an excellent series is here!  I've received several calls from people looking for the fifth and final volume to Michael Brown's series Answering Jewish Objections to Jesus.  The wait is over.  This volume covers traditional Jewish objections.  Michael Brown has done the church a great service in providing these volumes.  Baker Books published the first four volumes and they cover a wide range of objections including General and Historical Objections (vol. 1), Theological Objections (vol. 2), Messianic Prophecy Objections (vol. 3), and New Testament Objections (vol. 4).  In reading the previous four volumes I learned not only a lot about Jewish apologetics but my general understanding of the Old Testament has benefited as well. This last volume answers questions like the following:

"We have an unbroken, authoritative chain of oral tradition going back to Moses.  Who are you to teach us what our Bible says?"

"The Torah (along with the rest of the Hebrew Bible) is unintelligible without rabbinic traditions."

"Modern computer studies have demonstrated that the Torah and the Oral Law are divinely inspired."

"Traditional Jews are the people of the Book.  Read the Hebrew Scriptures and ask yourself, 'Who follows these laws and commandments?' Traditional Jews."

"According to Psalm 19, the Torah is able to save and convert the soul."

An Appendix is included entitled "Unequal Weights and Measures: A Critique of the Methodology of the Antimissionaries." 

Brown has proven himself to be a capable scholar with a heart for the Jewish people.  This volume promises to open us (Gentiles) to an entirely different world.  For example, as I scanned the book I came across a discussion of what a Jew should do if he lives in, or is temporarily lodged in, a high rise building.  Since it is forbidden to operate an elevator on the Sabbath I discovered there is such a thing as a "Sabbath elevator."  "This is a specially programmed elevator that stops on every floor automatically, thus bypassing the need for the Jew to push the button and thereby be guilty of working on the Sabbath."  (128)  

The book is a paperback with 341 pages and sells for $20.00.

Scot McKnight Reviews Brian McLaren's New Kind of Christianity

Scot McKnight has written a review in Christianity Today of Brian McLaren's latest book A New Kind of Christianity.  His final two paragraphs are telling:

"Unfortunately, this book lacks the 'generosity' of genuine orthodoxy and, frankly, I find little space in it for orthodoxy itself. Orthodoxy for too many today means little more than the absence of denying what's in the creeds. But a robust orthodoxy means that orthodoxy itself is the lens through which we see theology. One thing about this book is clear: Orthodoxy is not central."

"Alas, A New Kind of Christianity shows us that Brian, though he is now thinking more systemically, has fallen for an old school of thought. I read this book carefully, and I found nothing new. It may be new for Brian, but it's a rehash of ideas that grew into fruition with Adolf von Harnack and now find iterations in folks like Harvey Cox and Marcus Borg. For me, Brian's new kind of Christianity is quite old. And the problem is that it's not old enough."

A few of us at the store have started reading it but most of us are agreed that McLaren is strong on rhetoric but short on evidence for his new thesis.  I've slowed considerably in my own reading because there is so much more available that is better reading. McKnight observes that McLaren continues to poke (although harder than before) at evangelicals and while some of it may be deserved he says McLaren's "poking is relentless enough to make me say that he needs to write a book that simply states in positive terms what he thinks without using evangelicalism as his foil."  McKnight also observes that the poking is not only directed at evangelicals "he is also calling everything about Christian orthodoxy—from the ecumenical creeds through the Reformation and up to present-day evangelicalism—into question."

See also the responses McKnight has received to his review on his blog.