Tag Archives: Reading
Apparently, fewer people than we were led to believe.
Remember in school when the entire class would lose recess privileges because of a couple of irresponsible kids; then the entire class looked irresponsible? That is how I feel about marriage statistics.
Mainly, an irresponsible minority are bloating divorce statistics to make it look like marriage in general is in crisis. This is simply not the case. Though many responsible people do get divorced, they do not constitute the majority of divorces. Tim Keller spells this out in his new book The Meaning of Marriage:
“While it is true that some 45 percent of marriages end in divorce, by far the greatest percentage of divorces happen to those who marry before the age of eighteen, who have dropped out of high school, and who have had a baby together before marrying. So if you are a reasonably well-educated person with a decent income, come from an intact family and are religious, and marry after twenty-five without having a baby first, your chances of divorce are low indeed.” -p. 23
Not only that, but the majority of marriages are happy ones:
“All surveys tell us that the number of married people who say they are “very happy” in their marriages is high-about 61-62 percent-and there has been little decrease in this figure during the last decade.” -p. 26
“But,” you say, “my marriage is going very badly right now. I’m miserable. I feel like we’re in a free-fall toward divorce.” Tim Keller has something encouraging to say to you as well:
“Most striking of all, longitudinal studies demonstrate that two-thirds of those unhappy marriages out there will become happy within five years if people stay married and do not get divorced.” -p. 26
What can I take away from this?
- Practical strategies that increase the chances of having a “very happy” marriage really do exist (though no guarantees).
- There is much reason for hope even in currently “unhappy” marriages.
God bless you and your (current or future) marriage on this Valentines Day!
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Leave a comment | tags: Divorce, Family, happy marriage, Marriage, marriage statistics, meaning of marriage, Reading, The Meaning of Marriage, Tim Keller, unhappy marriages, Valentines Day | posted in Family, Marriage, Reading, Reflection
Just got Triumph of the City by Edward Glaeser (an Economist at Harvard). Can’t wait to read it.
Diana Silver has some good things to say in the New York Times about this book.
Here’s a blurb:
America is an urban nation. More than two thirds of us live on the 3 percent of land that contains our cities. Yet cities get a bad rap: they’re dirty, poor, unhealthy, crime ridden, expensive, environmentally unfriendly… Or are they?
As Edward Glaeser proves in this myth-shattering book, cities are actually the healthiest, greenest, and richest (in cultural and economic terms) places to live. New Yorkers, for instance, live longer than other Americans; heart disease and cancer rates are lower in Gotham than in the nation as a whole. More than half of America’s income is earned in twenty-two metropolitan areas. And city dwellers use, on average, 40 percent less energy than suburbanites.
Glaeser travels through history and around the globe to reveal the hidden workings of cities and how they bring out the best in humankind. Even the worst cities-Kinshasa, Kolkata, Lagos- confer surprising benefits on the people who flock to them, including better health and more jobs than the rural areas that surround them. Glaeser visits Bangalore and Silicon Valley, whose strangely similar histories prove how essential education is to urban success and how new technology actually encourages people to gather together physically. He discovers why Detroit is dying while other old industrial cities-Chicago, Boston, New York-thrive. He investigates why a new house costs 350 percent more in Los Angeles than in Houston, even though building costs are only 25 percent higher in L.A. He pinpoints the single factor that most influences urban growth-January temperatures-and explains how certain chilly cities manage to defy that link. He explains how West Coast environmentalists have harmed the environment, and how struggling cities from Youngstown to New Orleans can “shrink to greatness.” And he exposes the dangerous anti-urban political bias that is harming both cities and the entire country.
Using intrepid reportage, keen analysis, and eloquent argument, Glaeser makes an impassioned case for the city’s import and splendor. He reminds us forcefully why we should nurture our cities or suffer consequences that will hurt us all, no matter where we live.
Looking forward to our urban church planting event in downtown Montréal (more on that later)…
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Leave a comment | tags: Edward Glaeser, Reading, Triumph of the City, Urban, Urbanization | posted in Reading
Here are the thirteen bound volumes of manuscripts found buried in an earthenware jar at Nag Hammadi in Egypt in 1945. Their discovery has produced endless controversy over what books should have become part of the New Testament.
“…when the many manuscripts and movements usually categorized as Gnosticism are examined closely, various clusters of characteristics can be identified, but the only element common to all is that each is remarkably heretical, which is how they were quite properly judged by their contemporaries–not just “one heresy but a swarming ant-heap of heresies,” as the distinguished Simone Pétrement explained.
Purely as a matter of faith, one is free to prefer Gnostic interpretations and to avow that they give us access to secret knowledge concerning a more authentic Christianity, as several popular authors recently have done. But one is not free to claim that the early church fathers rejected these writings for nefarious reasons. The conflicts between many of these manuscripts and the New Testament are so monumental that no thinking person could embrace both.
Consider that some Gnostic ‘scriptures’ equate the Jewish God with Satan! Should those who defended conventional Christian teachings stand condemned of bigotry for not siding with such views? In addition, many of the Gnostic scriptures are obvious forgeries, easily recognized as such by the early church fathers, just as they ought to be today, in that whoever wrote them tried to deceive readers into believing they were the work of famous figures of first-generation Christianity-Peter, James, Mary Magdalene, Pilate, or Thomas, for example–or someone claiming extraordinary status, such as being the twin brother of Christ.
Whether the Gnostic teachers were ‘right’ or ‘wrong’, that they were heretics vis-à-vis conventional Christianity cannot be disputed.”
-pp. 141-142 “Cities of God,” by Rodney Stark
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1 comment | tags: Cities of God, Gnosticism, Nag Hammadi, Reading, Reflection, Rodney Stark | posted in Reading, Reflection, Theology
Blessed is the one who finds wisdom, and the one who gets understanding. -Proverbs 3:13
A few books I’m currently working my way through (or recently finished):
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As our church planting movement looks to one day impact French-speaking countries radically different than ours (like Haiti or the Congo), we’re seeking wisdom
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In a sexually confused world like ours, there are a plethora Christians struggling homosexuality. How do we be honest with this reality, and love and walk beside them?
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A couple of later chapters explain the roots of Christianity’s explosion in East-Africa. We pray for la francophonie as well!
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Why don’t modern Jews believe the O.T. points to Christ? Rydelnik explains the monumental shifts in Jewish theology a thousand years ago that continue to inform Jewish thought today.
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Seeking to solidify my comprehension of Jesus throughout the O.T…. a truly eye-opening book; but simple to read.
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The Pentateuch can be rather complex and, for many christians, arid. My desire is to understand it from a 1500BC Jewish point of view… which is anything but arid.
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Okay Richie, you bombastically extol the “wonders” of macro-evolution. But really, is this the best defense you can muster? I’m halfway through the book and even less convinced (fascinating read though).
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A magnificent walk through the main themes of the Bible. I read it with my Bible open on one side, and a pen and pad on the other (and Don was born and raised in Québec!)
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Mark walks through biblical text after text after text on spiritual warfare. This year I plan to teach a short series on the subject and desire to deepen my understanding on all that the Bible has to say about it.
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I’ve heard that this is a heart-exposing book… honest and transparent to become a best-seller. As a missionary, I constantly need God to expose my heart.
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I’d really like to last… wouldn’t you? Dave is a 70+ year-old guy who has lasted.
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Seeking to understand why Christianity was originally an urban movement, and how to apply what I learn to our small movement here in Québec.
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Everybody around me is reading it. So yeah, I’m succumbing to peer pressure… want to understand what is affecting them.
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Incredible sections on communicating cross-culturally. Just because I taught a subject 5 times doesn’t mean I communicated it. Communication requires comprehension of the listener… and that is a difficult thing to attain.
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Leave a comment | tags: Anthropology, Church Multiplication, Church Planting, Cities, creation, Darrin Patrick, Dave Kraft, Don Carson, Elisabeth Elliot, Evolution, Glenn Schwartz, Homosexuality, Idolatry, John Sailhamer, Leadership, Mark Bubeck, Mark Noll, Messiah, Michael Rydelnik, Missions, Paul Hiebert, Pentateuch, Reading, Richard Dawkins, Rodney Stark, Spiritual Warfare, Walter Kaiser, Wesley Hill, World | posted in Reading
*”Eisogesis”: subjectivism. Reading into text something that isn’t there at all. Greek. Same root as exegesis with different prefix. “eis” means “into.”
This question is ably answered by Michael Rydelnik in his book The Messianic Hope. It’s a quick read (190 pages) with hundreds of footnotes (pointing to a plethora of resources for extended study).
His treatment of Rashi’s influence on the interpretation of messianic prophecy is eye-opening… if not shocking. Here are a few slices of chapter 8:
If the messianic hope is so evident using a literary reading of the Hebrew Bible, why is it that so many contemporary exegetes fail to recognize it? (p. 112)
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Perhaps one answer to this question can be found in the work and influence of the great Jewish biblical commentator, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzkhaki (1040-1105), most commonly known by his acronym, Rashi. His interpretive methods along with the approaches of the medieval Jewish commentators whom he influenced, ultimately found their way into Christian commentaries. Is it possible that Rashi’s more historical approach ultimately affected the way Christians interpret messianic prophecy? That is the question that will be examined in this chapter. (p. 113)
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Rashi was unique as an interpreter. He became beloved and revered for his unique ability to combine traditional derash with innovative peshat. Moreover, he wrote for the common person, making the Bible accessible to the entire Jewish community. Beyond making the Scriptures understandable, Rashi included an occasional application or homily, showing a pastoral concern for his readers. But as will be evident, Rashi’s greatest impact would be to transform both Jewish and Christian interpretation of the Bible, particularly in the realm of messianic prophecy. (p. 117)
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The central effect of Rashi and other medieval Jewish interpreters on post-Reformation Christian interpretation was a less messianic understanding of the Old Testament. Rashi and the other medieval Jewish interpreters, arguing from a historical understanding of peshat, advanced a nonmessianic understanding of a number of key messianic texts. Afterwards, Christian interpreters adopted their views as the true peshat of those passages as well, leading to a demessianized understanding of the Old Testament, as is evident even in contemporary Christian interpretations of the Hebrew Bible. (pp. 122-123)
I’d recommend this book to anyone serious about understanding the Old Testament. It is well worth the $13.00 on Amazon
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1 comment | tags: messianic prophecy, Michael Rydelnik, Old Testament, Rashi, Reading, The Messianic Hope, Theology | posted in Reading, Reflection, Theology
(Notice I said “as” and not “is”)
Guy Muse, an Ecuadorian missionary, talks about idols common to missionaries and christians as a whole. (He would know.)
Anything that becomes an end greater that God Himself becomes an idol, or “replacement” god, no matter how good the thing is in and of itself. Tim Keller calls it a “counterfeit god“.
Elisabeth Elliot was on to this concept decades ago in her book “No Graven Image” (referring to Exodus 20:4-5).
Unexpectedly, the graven images in this story are the ones that exist in the heart of the Christian, not the pagan. The book’s message is this: as Christians, we engrave in our minds, images of what we think it means to serve God – a picture of ourselves doing a good thing – and that is idolatry. We need God’s grace to help us see ourselves as we truly are and worship the God who calls us. As Margaret says in the book, The Indians had become people to me – the were no longer my “field”. While I had once declared them to be my equals, I now regarded myself as theirs. Instead of saying, “Oh, you are as good as I – let me help you,” I now said, “I am as poor as you. God help us all.”
Guy Muse continues with some convicting thoughts over at the M Blog.
Here is Tim Keller’s take:
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Leave a comment | tags: Counterfeit gods, Elisabeth Elliot, Guy Muse, M Blog, Missions, No Graven Image, Reading, Tim Keller | posted in Missions, Reading, Reflection
“The best argument for Christianity is Christians: their joy, their certainty, their completeness. But the strongest argument against Christianity is also Christians—when they are sombre and joyless, when they are self-righteous and smug in complacent consecration, when they are narrow and repressive, then Christianity dies a thousand deaths.
But, though it is just to condemn some Christians for these things, perhaps, after all, it is not just, though very easy, to condemn Christianity itself for them. Indeed, there are impressive indications that the positive quality of joy is in Christianity—and possibly nowhere else. If that were certain, it would be proof of a very high order.”
–p. 84 “A Severe Mercy“
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Leave a comment | tags: A Severe Mercy, Apologetics, Christianity, Conversion, Reading, Sheldon Vanauken, Theology | posted in Reading, Theology
Evangelicalism is a motley crew that is pretty difficult to nail down. Some who claim the word I love, others who claim the word make me cringe. There are a plethora of stereotypes… some funny, some crazy, some I like, some are horrifying. Just check out flickr. I entered the word “evangelicalism” and look at the photos that turned up on the first page:
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The Jesus Saves trucker
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The 1837-esque church building
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The passionate street evangelist
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The massive praying hands
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The Jesus van
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Evolution & Evangelicalism in the same sentence… no comment
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Not sure what the connection is… but according to flickr, a connection exists
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A praying monk that looks like a demon
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The crazy traveling evangelist (à-la the “O Brother Where Art Thou” Bible salesman?)
So what in the world is an evangelical? Here’s a definition from Operation world:
Evangelicals:* all who emphasize and adhere to all four of the following:
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- The Lord Jesus Christ as the sole source of salvation through faith in Him as validated by His crucifixion and resurrection.
- personal faith and conversion with regeneration by the Holy Spirit.
- Recognition of the inspired Word of God as the ultimate basis and authority for faith and Christian living.
- Commitment to biblical witness, evangelism and mission that brings others to faith in Christ.
Evangelicals are largely Protestant, Independent or Anglican, but some are Catholic or Orthodox. It is one of the Transbloc movements in this book.
This definition is very close but not identical to the definition introduced in David Bebbington’s Evangelicalism in Modern Britain: A History from the 1730′s to the 1980′s as the Bebbington Quadrilateral, which offered crucicentrism, conversionism, biblicism and activism as the four qualities of evangelicalism.
The definition of evangelicals and the statistics relating ot them are so fundamental to the contents of this book that it is important for the reader to understand the implications. It enables a measurement of the size and spectacular numerical growth of evangelical Christians over the past few decades.
Evangelicals are enumerated in Operation World as:
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- All affiliated Christians (church members, their children, other participants of the faith community) of denominations that are definitively evangelical in theology as explained above.
- The proportion of the affiliated Christians in other denominations (that are not wholly evangelical in theology) who would hold evangelical views, whether WEstern in origin or otherwise.
This is a theological and not an experiential definition. It does not mean that all evangelicals as defined above are actually born-again. In many nations 10-40% of evangelicals so defined may have had a valid conversion and regularly attend church services. However, it does show how many people align themselves with churches where the gospel is being proclaimed as such.
(From Appendix 6, p. 958 in Operation World)
Your welcome
*(this is clarification #1 from Operation World‘s section on Québec, cited inmy last post)
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Leave a comment | tags: operation world, Reading, Reflexion, Theology | posted in Reading, Reflection, Theology
A church a day… every day… for the next eight years.
Montreal Crowd waiting for a ColdPlay concert (Photo by Anirudh Koul)
(from page 196 of Operation World):
Québec is a unique region that has experienced in one or two generations the secularization and modernization that took France centuries to accomplish. While mostly French in language and culture, it is increasingly multicultural, with an Anglophone minority and growing immigrant communities. Pray for:
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- Political currents that swirl around the issue of separation from Canada. Although such sentiment has waned of late, it is never far from becoming prominent. Pray that Quebec might make a valuable contribution to the redemptive history of Canada.
The Catholic church dominates Québecois identity and culture (more than 80% self-identify as Catholic), but not in attendance. Québec’s church attendance rate is Canada’s lowest. There is a demonstrably low commitment to community activities; in particular, church and faith are highly personal and privatized.- Evangelicals* in Québec. Protestants are decidedly low in number and evangelical churches regarded as nearly cults. While Protestants are very mixed among French, English and immigrant cultures, there are also a significant number of practicing Catholics with evangelical beliefs.** Pray for unity, fellowship and even collaboration.
- Church planting needs to occur in much greater measure. To bring Québec up to par with the rest of Canada in the numbers of evangelical congregations, 3,000 more churches must be planted.
- Ministry vision to Québec and beyond. Christian Direction/Urbanus partners with all denominations in the vision to have a spiritual impact on the whole Francophone world, starting in Québec. French-Canadian evangelicals usually feel more affinity with other Francophone evangelicals globally than with Anglophone Canadian evangelicals.
* **Clarifications in following posts
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Leave a comment | tags: Church Multiplication, Church Planting, culture, Great Commission, Missions, montréal, Prayer, Québec, Reading, vision | posted in Church Planting, Missions, Prayer, Québec
CHRISTIANITY:
The Chinese still regard the militantly atheist Mao Zedong as a national hero. Mao put religion second only to capitalism in his list of reactionary evils: he killed clergy, expelled foreign missionaries and destroyed temples and churches. Now China is rethinking. -p. 5 (God is Back)
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The Chinese government’s own figures show the number of Christians rising from fourteen million in 1997 to twenty-one million in 2006, with an estimated fifty-five thousand official Protestant churches and forty-six hundred Catholic churches. -p. 5 (God is Back)
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But these figures exclude both house churches and the underground Catholic Church, which is bigger than the official one. A conservative guess is that there are at least sixty-five million Protestants in China and twelve million Catholics-more believers than there are members of the Communist Party. Some local Christians think the flock well over one hundred million. -p. 5 (God is Back)
ISLAM:
Meanwhile, Islam is also surging, especially among the Hui and Uighur peoples in Ningxia and Xinjiang Provinces. Official numbers indicate that there are about twenty million Muslims. Again, that is probably an under-estimate, but the Pew researchers point out that even using that number, China has almost as many Muslims as Saudi Arabia and nearly twice as many as the European Union’s twenty-seven countries. -p. 6 (God is Back)
By 2050, China could well be the world’s biggest Muslim nation as well as its biggest Christian one. -p. 6 (God is Back)
(And yes, I’ve read more than the first six pages)
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Leave a comment | tags: China, Christianity, Islam, Missions, Reading, World | posted in Missions, Reading, World
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