The videos of all speaker addresses and panel discussions from this year's T4G conference are available online for free at Ligonier.org (for a limited time).  These conferences are amazing, encouraging (and often humorous) and it would be well worth your time to watch the videos (if you don't have a lot of time, just watch the panel discussions!)

Check them out here. 

Unfortunately this will not be a book review.  I haven’t had the opportunity yet to read the book, though I plan to in the near future.  I did however read the Christianity Today article bearing the same title two years ago, and I’ve seen, heard or read several interviews with the author (here's a good one).  Here I simply wish to make a few comments in light of a recent study done by ChurchRelevence.com (more on that in a moment).

Basically, a good chunk o’ Christian youth (roughly 18 – 25) are moving away from the Arminian, mainstream evangelicalism of their childhood toward (to differing degrees) classical Reformed theology (the primary motive being, at least according to the CT article, a desire for deeper theology grounded in historic creeds and confessions).  The majority of the credit for this Renaissance of Reformed thought is given to John Piper.  Because of his passionate preaching and evident concern for world missions, Piper has managed to break into circles (such as the annual Passion Conference) that were previously closed, sometimes even hostile, to Reformed theology.   Thus, Let The Nations Be Glad became a “gateway drug” to Piper’s deeply Reformed emphasis on the radical sinfulness of man, the radical holiness of God, and His absolute sovereignty in all things. 

All this makes sense to me (and I have no doubt that it’s true), but as a blogger, I can’t help but wonder if the recent advent of New Media has contributed to this exodus into the Reformed promised land.  R. C. Sproul was on the cutting edge in the late 80’s and 90’s.  Ligonier made use of every available medium of communication, from radio to cassette tapes, to videos.  Now Dr. Sproul’s teaching series are available daily on the internet and satellite TV.  So, you might ask, why wasn’t there a Reformed Renaissance in the 90’s?  I think it has been slowly building.  Many today who are in the 18 – 25 bracket could have grown up with Dr. Piper’s or Dr. Sproul’s ministries, or their parents could have been first introduced to it.  The use of so many different forms of media mean that some folk who would not have otherwise been exposed to Reformed teaching had the opportunity to see loving, Christ-like pastors and teachers arguing passionately for the clear teaching of Scripture as expressed by historic Reformation theology.  Both Piper and Sproul (and others), it must be admitted, break the mold of what most non-Reformed people tend to think of Reformed people (or worse…Calvinists!).  The point being, there have probably been 1,000 John Pipers preaching faithfully to their small Reformed congregations over the last 100 years, but no one outside their limited communities knew them.  And no one would actually pick up the writings of Calvin or Edwards because of the stigma surrounding “Calvinism.”  Godly men like John Piper, in most cases, remove that stigma.

Now fast forward to 2009.  ChurchRelevance.com has posted a list of the “Top 60 Church Blogs.”  As I looked at the list I was suddenly struck by how many of these blogs are Reformed (some of them are even “confessional”!).  Not only are the top 2 blogs Reformed, which really says something all by itself, but of the 60, a total of 10 are definitely Reformed, at least 1 (the Evangelical Outpost, formerly of Joe Carter) was Calvinist, though Joe didn’t wear it on his sleeve, and perhaps 2 or 3 others as well, but I’m not confident enough to say for sure.  Now 10 – 12 isn’t a LOT out of 60, but consider that no other single theological strain or movement has nearly so many (the Emergent movement had 3 or 4 by my count). 

Now, the correlation-causation relationship is always tricky.  Are there so many popular Reformed blogs because of the movement, or has the movement grown, at least in part, because of so many average Reformed Joes and more-than-average Reformed mega-stars getting into New Media and using it more effectively than the other guys?  I can’t really say for sure, but given what I’ve seen happen with New Media in other arenas over the past decade, I’m inclined to think the latter. 

Has anyone read Hansen’s book?  Does he address this issue at all, and if so, what does he have to say? 

The gap that exists between the different schools of Apologetics (Classical, Evidential, Presuppositional) is becoming increasingly narrow.  After reading Zondervan's 5 Views On Apologetics, you'll come away wondering what the differences between these views actually are. 

In my term paper for my "Christian Mind" class this past Fall, I attempted to narrow the gap even more.  Specifically, I decided to look into the relationship between Presuppositionalism and Alvin Plantinga's "Reformed Epistemology."  In the paper, I argue that neither of these two "schools" is really a unique method of doing Apologetics.  Presuppositionalism is actually a critique of theological rationalism and Reformed Epistemology is, well, an epistemology!  I beleive that both of these schools  of thought can learn from each other and both have strong points that ought to inform our Apologetic method.  Lastly, because so many people do think of Presuppositionalism as a unique method of doing apologetics (and indeed those who consider themselves "Presuppositonal" claim that it is), I also offer an argument against Presuppositionalism as an apologetic system which I have labled the "Transcendental Argument against Presuppositionalism." 

Read the paper here. 

Casper the Friendly Ghost.  The title seems a bit like an oxymoron.  Ghosts, after all, are not friendly.  The same is often said of John Calvin.  He was the "tyrant of Geneva."  He was the father of the "frozen chosen."  However, according to Dr. Robert Godfrey, President of Westminster Seminary California, Calvin was a lot more like Casper than we think. 

In his address at the "Calvin's Legacy" Conference this past weekend, Dr. Godfrey shows us how Calvin was actually quite warm and friendly toward his friends and those whom he ministered to in Geneva.  Theodore Beza, Calvin's student and successor, said of the Reformer, "In the common course of life, there was no man more pleasant.  In him all men may see a beautiful example of Christian character."  This side of Calvin comes out most strikingly in his letters, especially as he tried to ease tensions and solve disputes between the Lutheran and Reformed churches of Europe.  When launching polemics against Rome, Calvin could be quite harsh.  But when dealing with the struggling churches of the Reformation, even when Calvin disagreed with them, he was a shining example of moderation and flexibility, and showed a great passion for the unity of the body of Christ.

Read the live blog notes from Dr. Godfrey's lecture here. 

In honor of John Calvin's 500th birthday, Westminster Seminary California's 2008 Conference is on the lasting legacy of John Calvin's life and work for the contemporary church.  The conference is tonight from 6 - 9pm and tomorrow from 8am - 2:45pm.  Unfortunately it is sold out, but for those of you interested in following the conference online, Dr. Scott Clark (Professor of Systematic and Historical Theology at WSC) will be live blogging here.  The live blogging will begin right at 6pm tonight and run through the whole length of the conference (minus Dr. Clark's session, if he can't find someone to fill in for him). 

You can subscribe via RSS feed here. 

Also, here is the conference schedule.  And here are the speaker bios. 

My friend and fellow grad student Nathaniel Taylor has written an argument for the existence of Hell using Anselmian "Perfect Being" philosophy.  It is interesting (and sure to be controversial) and worth a read for anyone interested in a defense of the traditional Evangelical doctrine of Hell.

You can read his argument at the blog Reason From Scripture (to which I am also a contributor). 

Molly Worthen has written an interesting article for The New York Times Magazine on Mark Driscoll and his "hip" Mars Hill Church entitled Who Would Jesus Smack Down? 

The point of her article seems to be to highlight the "paradoxes" that surround Mars Hill.  Not only is it an Evangelical church where the pastor swears and talks explicitly about sex and the members are pierced and tatooed.  Not only is it a thriving megachurch in the Country's most secular and unchurched city.  But Driscoll preaches a hard-edged, no-holding-back Complementarianism and Calvinism.  The paradoxes here being that Complementarianism, which teaches that women ought to be functionally subordinate to men in the church, is helping men in the congregation to treat women better than in their non-Christian days, and Calvinism, which teaches the total depravity and moral inability of all people, is creating a church of passionate activists and evangelists. 

I'd only like to make 2 comments and then I'll just let you read the article for yourself.  First, Worthen doesn't really seem to know any actual history of Calvin or his work in Geneva.  At one point she comments on Driscoll's unwillingness to compromise and how quick he is to "shun" church elders or revoke a congregant's member privaleges when they voice disagreement with him, suggesting that Driscoll is just like Calvin in this respect.  She then goes on to say, "John Calvin had heretics burned at the stake and made a man who casually criticized him at a dinner party march through the streets of Geneva, kneeling at every intersection to beg forgiveness."  As far as I know Calvin only oversaw the burning of one person in Geneva, and from several sources I've read the general consensus seems to be that he was reluctant (perhaps even unwilling).  As to the other charge, I'd really like to know where she gets this story from.  Dr. Scott Clark comments,


In any case, my point is that her assessment of Driscoll's Calvinism would be far less paradoxical if she better understood the theology, the history, even the man himself (I noticed that most of her quotes come from random members of the congregation, rather than elders or Drsicoll himself.  I wonder why that is).

Lastly, some of the things she says about Drsicoll's disciplining practices are a bit alarming.  In traditional Reformed churches, it could take years to officailly excommunicate someone, and in my denomination (URC) the final step cannot be taken until a regional assembly of elders is called.  Again, as Dr. Clark (half jokingly) comments, "shunning is an Anabaptist practice." 

I'd like to give Driscoll the benefit of the doubt for now.  I really hope he isn't practicing a dangerous kind of authoritarianism that could backfire. 

Read Worthen's article here.