Shelf Life

The Golden Compass is this holiday season's uber-expensive (try $180 million) family-friendly fantasy epic. No doubt, the movie is attracting a lot of attention (and has been for the past year leading up to its release) due to what we have been warned is a staunchly anti-Christian message. These...

The dust that can be seen swirling in the distance is the aftereffects of Richard A. Muller's scholarly avalanche. He has marshaled mountains of historical evidence to bury the various twentieth century agenda-driven "Calvin against the Calvinist" schemes devised to drive a wedge between the great...

Perhaps it is merely a question of monomania, like Captain Ahab's singular pursuit of the albino whale. Bishop N. T. Wright seems to have an incurable proclivity for all things new. His new perspective on Paul was greeted largely with disdain by orthodox Christians for his unusual treatment of the...

In the forward to Dr. Richard Pratt's first book, Every Thought Captive , John Frame asserts that Reformed people are often strong in setting forth Biblical theories for apologetics but are "generally weak in training one another to do apologetics." Frame is right I believe, and though Dr. Pratt's...

C.S. Lewis once wrote that "it is a good rule, after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between." This quote from Lewis is no off-handed ditty that evokes nostalgia for all things ancient. At the root of his sage advice is a principle that...

It might sound strange to suggest that we need a dictionary devoted to the theological interpretation of the Bible, but Kevin J. Vanhoozer wagers that we do with the publication of Dictionary for Theological Interpretation of the Bible (DTIB). A little familiarity with the history of biblical...

I cannot begin to express how many sympathetic back pats, mildly shaken heads and ever so slightly rolled eyes I have gotten at the news that I was reviewing a book on the apologetics of Francis Schaeffer. I must say that I have understood, at least partially, those reactions by Godly and loving...

Calvin's sermons were delivered extempore, taken down by the remarkable Denis Raguenier, published by the diaconate of Geneva, and the proceeds used to support refugees. Initially, Calvin was not keen on them being published, but when he saw the level of competence of Raguenier and the copyists,...

"Come beloved, listen for a moment to this!" preached Charles Spurgeon. "You have the milk of faith, but God wills that you should have this cream of assurance! He would increase your faith." [1] The proven pastors and teachers who have contributed to Assured by God: Living in the Fullness of God's...

J. I. Packer's endorsement of John Owen's treatment of sin in an introduction to the 1983, Multnomah Press edition of Owen's writings on sin, Sin and Temptation, contained the following effusive words: He told me how to understand myself as a Christian and live before God in a morally and...