There are a variety of digital Bible reading apps to stimulate Bible reading. And the New Year is a great time to begin again with a fresh resolve to make your way through the Bible. Tyndale’s One Year Bible is one of the best selling Bibles designed in such a way as to encourage reading the Bible in a year.
For a limited time (through Jan. 8th), Tyndale is offering the One Year Bible app for only $1.99. They also are offering the Life Application Bible App for only $14.99 (a 50% discount). Both apps appear to be for Apple devices only. More details on the sale are available here.
This year, I was happy to find a discounted copy of The Orthodox Study Bible, and am now making my way through the Bible at a slower pace, reading the study notes along the way. I hope you have some plan to make the Most Important Book a key part of your reading in 2013!
The back cover of this handy book explains that The Reformed Journal “set the standard for top-notch, venturesome theological reflection on a broad range of issues.” Unfortunately, the journal was somewhat before my time: its print run spanning 1951 to 1990. This makes the anthology brought together by James D. Bratt and Ronald A. Wells all the more valuable. Wells was an editor of this journal at one point, and both of these men have a long history on the faculty at Calvin College, which published the journal.
The Best of The Reformed Journal collects poignant pieces from the history of the journal in an easy to browse collection, handily contained in a softcover volume. Arranged by topic and time period, the articles run the gamut from theology and politics, art and culture, to race and social concern. Cornelius Plantinga, Richard Mouw, Carl F. H. Henry, Mark Noll, George Marsden, Lewis Smedes, and Nicholas Wolterstorff are just some of the more well-known authors included in the collection.
These pages include reflections on Calvinism and democracy, the legacy of T.S. Eliot, reflections on the atomic bomb, commentary on the civil rights movement and Apartheid, and thoughts on pro-life issues and women’s liberation. Interesting article titles include “On Looking at Paintings”, “Common Grace versus Individualism”, “Navel Theology”, “Humanitarian Snobs?”, “Star Wars in Beulah Land”. The selections are usually abbreviated to be a page or two in length, sometimes more. And occasionally a series of articles that spans several Journal editions is found, such as the back and forth between Lewis Smedes, Carl F. H. Henry and Richard Mouw on “Evangelicalism and the Social Question”.
If you are looking for enlightened yet easy reading, or if you are up for a look back at how leading Christian thinkers were addressing the problems facing the last half of the 20th Century, then you should pick up this book. At the very least, it will stimulate your curiosity, and it may just add some context to the problems of today.
Disclaimer: This book was provided by Eerdmans Publishing Company. I was under no obligation to offer a favorable review.
About Book Briefs: Book Briefs are book notes, or short-form book reviews. They are my informed evaluation of a book, but stop short of being a full-length book review.
First Baptist Church in Troy, MI hosted a new conference this past week. The Preserving the Truth Conference had over 350 in attendance and included the following main speakers: Kevin Bauder (president of Central Baptist Seminary in Minneapolis, MN), Dave Doran (pastor of Inter-City Baptist Church and president of Detroit Baptist Theological Seminary in Allen Park, MI), Mark Minnick (pastor of Mt. Calvary Baptist Church in Greenville, SC) and Chris Anderson (pastor of Tri-County Bible Church in Madison, OH, blogger at My Two Cents). The conference was a “symposium on Biblical separation”.
It seems to be somewhat of a success, with great discussion in the panel session, and hopes that fundamentalism can work through remaining questions on how to implement separation in faithful and careful ways. The concern is how they relate to conservative evangelicals on one hand, and more right-wing fundamentalists on the other. On the one hand, their stated goal is to “[preserve] the truth through careful separation, robust theology, and cultural conservatism”. Yet it seems apparent that the organizers of the conference are hoping to address issues which are problems in the mind of many young fundamentalists who are leaving fundamentalism for greener, conservative evangelical pastures.
Here are some accounts of the conference (which I did not attend).
Here is the link to the audio or written notes from conference workshops and plenary sessions, as well as some additional material contributed for the initiative.
I’m optimistic about this conference, even though I wonder about the defense of “conservatism” as part of the rescue of Fundamentalism. Also the inclusion of multiple peripheral issues as key points related to the preservation of truth and the Fundamentalist movement doesn’t seem to help in stemming the drift of the young people out of fundamentalism. Still questions are being raised and addressed, and some solutions are being offered. Even though I differ with some of their emphases, I’m happy to see things like this happening, and can hope it has a positive impact in the future. I suppose this is happening elsewhere, but I’m happy to report the reformation of fundamentalism continues.
I hope to listen to some of the audio and interact more on this topic in future posts. I’m discussing some of my initial impressions over at Sharper Iron, right now.
Let me know if you were present at the event, or what your take is on it. Was it a success? Or is it the first step toward lasting and positive change?
I know there are discussions here on a couple posts of mine, and I’ve started to wade into some conversations elsewhere too.
But I should let you know I’m gone until Sunday night. We are going to a Wedding. Sorry I can’t interact more. But many times, life interferes with blogging. And it always should take precedence over blogging. Now is one of those times.
