Homeward Bound

I am a Marx novice, but wanted to get a proper introduction to a thinker whose work has left such an indelible and bloody mark on history. Marxist thought is also making a sweeping comeback in college campuses and in the new Left movement (particularly among the young)--class warfare, class oppression, elevation of the socio political to the primary, lumping the individual into the collective--all ring familiarly of Marx. For this reason I wanted to read an analysis of Marx from a Christian perspective to see where he, as well as the new movements, fall short.   Dennison gives a brief and academic analysis of the life and works of Karl Marx. He then charts Marx's view of history and followed by (my favorite part) a Christian Presuppositional Analysis of Marx's view of History. Interestingly enough we see that not all (key word all) of Marxist thought is evil. Marx observed vast injustice in his day through the division of labor--where the rich minority were only g...

"You see, it is so hard for these creatures to persevere. The routine of adversity, the gradual decay of youthful loves and youthful hopes, the quiet despair (hardly felt as pain) of ever overcoming the chronic temptations with which we have again and again defeated them, the drabness which we create in their lives, and the inarticulate resentment with which we teach them to respond to it--all this provides admiral opportunities of wearing out a soul by attrition." – Lewis, Screwtape Letters   I used to have this game called "Rise of Nations"--it was a Real Time Strategy PC game--which has always been my favorite kind. You would begin at a very early age in the human timeline with a civilization, with guys with clubs and slings and such. The unique part of this game was you could then advance through the ages of mankind, all the way to our modern day with nuclear IBCMs and stealth aircraft. It was a lot of fun to play; though I think one of my frustrat...

I apologize for the delay in this next installment of our virtual book club. Extenuating circumstances, namely the birth of my son have delayed my writing on here--and perhaps reasonably so! I will continue to provide a short chapter by chapter summary--trying to get the highpoints from Sinclair Ferguson's book The Whole Christ. *** Tincture. A word derived from the Latin Tinctura, which refers to the process of dyeing--in which a piece of cloth is recolored by dipping it into liquid dye. "Both to himself and others, Boston's reaching 'felt' like that. Extending the metaphor, one might say that now the garment of the gospel in which Christ was dressed in Boston's preaching was dyed a shade of 'Christ-in-whom-every-spiritual-blessing-is-found' rather than merely 'I am offering you Spiritual blessings.'" (1106) Once Thomas Boston had understood the truly free nature of the gospel offer, and the centrality of Christ in the Christia...

I read a pretty good post yesterday by Michael Kruger entitled "Would You Take the Red Pill or the Blue Pill?" This of course comes from "The Matrix" movie in which the main character, Neo, is given an opportunity to either embrace reality as it is, cold, dark, and unforgiving; or return to the "fake world" he previously lived in--permanently. The movie is about how truth, even harsh truth, is worth living in over and beyond any alternative reality, no matter how enjoyable or controllable that reality may be. Why? Because the truth is the truth, and as Kruger says in his post: "What matters is not personal pleasure but truth."   Kruger than speculates that the new movie he saw the previews for entitled "Ready Player One" embodies a cultural shift in thinking from embracing truth because it is true--to embracing whatever reality we choose (true or false), provided it suits our fancy. Supposedly "Ready Player One...

This past year I made it a goal to pump out 2 books a month for a minimum of 24 books read in 2017. I posted a "reading list" at the beginning of the year of the 25 or so books that I wanted to read--which I quickly deviated from. No surprise there. But, I still got over my goal of reading at least 24 books for the year, which was surprisingly not too difficult a feat. I know of some readers who can do around 100+ books a year, but that is not my style! As I reflect back on 2017 it is quite clear to me that I read some deeply meaningful titles over the course of the year. I mixed in some classics, some Christian thought and theology, and some of my favorite genre: history. Here are my top ten reads in 2017:   10. Heresy of Orthodoxy. Before reading this book I had virtually no knowledge of "how we got the Bible." And while most of the objections to Biblical Christianity today are due to its "restrictive morality" there is a very real intelle...