A Review of David Bentley Hart, Atheist Delusions: The Christian Revolution and Its Fashionable Enemies, Yale University Press, xiv + 253 pages, 2009. To recommend a book by an Eastern Orthodox theologian I would have to be thoroughly impressed by its content and its long-term worth. Since both of these personal criteria are well met by the title under review I am happy to declare my full endorsement of its main thesis. The author is one of the best polemicists …
Category: Book Reviews
The Devil’s Delusion: Atheism and its Scientific Pretensions, by David Berlinski, New York: Crown Forum, 2008. For those who have not read anything by David Berlinski, I should say right off the bat that he is one of the wittiest yet incisive writers on contemporary science I know. This provocative book is a well aimed critique of those atheist scientists and their followers whose egos have prompted them to step over into philosophical questions about ultimate issues without much forethought …
Lord willing, I shall be posting a number of reviews in the coming weeks and months. A number of these will appear here soon: 1. The Bible Among the Myths – John N. Oswalt 2. Atheist Delusions – David Bentley Hart 3. Presuppositional Apologetics: Stated & Defended – Greg L. Bahnsen 4. Why There Almost Certainly Is a God – Keith Ward 5. The Shepherd Leader – Timothy Z. Witmer 6. The Historical Jesus of the Gospels – Craig Keener …
Since I plan on writing more on Systematics this year (we’ll see!) I decided to repost this lengthy review of Reymond’s book. It is deliberately written from a Dispensational perspective. A Review of Robert L. Reymond, A New Systematic Theology of the Christian Faith, Second Edition – Revised and Updated, (Nashville: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 2002), 1210 + xxxvi pages, hardback, $44.99. Whether one is a friend or foe of the brand of Reformed Presbyterian theology treated in Dr Robert L. …
The final change in vocabulary, that of exchanging inerrancy for infallibility is the most controversial in McGowan’s book, not least because McGowan wants to do away with the concept of inerrancy altogether. However, before we examine this last point – which is the central premise of the book – it would be unwise for us not to mention something about how the author gets us there. For this we will need to survey chapter 4, “Fundamentalism and Inerrancy.” One will …
A Review of A. T. B. McGowan, The Divine Authenticity of Scripture, Downers Grove: IVP Academic, 2007, 229 pages. There are precious few good books on the doctrine of Scripture or on theological method. This book by the Principal of Highland Theological Seminary in Scotland, and a Visiting Professor at both Westminster and Reformed Seminaries, which speaks to both of these areas, is naturally of interest to evangelicals. The book has already caused ripples in certain circles since its release, …
I have just finished reading an interesting autobiography by a major Bible teacher of the first part of the 20th Century named Arno C. Gaebelein. The book is titled A Half Century: The Autobiography of a Servant. The book is beautifully bound and signed by the author, August 10th 1944. Gaebelein died a year later. I found several items of interest in the book that I thought I would like to share. I should first say something about the subject. …
The Letters of Geerhardus Vos, edited with an Introduction by James T. Dennison, Jr., Phillipsburg, NJ, P&R, 2005, 274 pages. Geerhardus Vos, first Professor of Biblical Theology at Princeton Theological Seminary (1892-1932), was one of the most important Reformed scholars of the Twentieth Century. His works, including, Biblical Theology of the Old and New Testaments and The Self-Disclosure of Jesus are classics on their respective subjects. Indeed, Vos has been rightly dubbed “the Father of Reformed Biblical Theology.” He was …
Wonderful Counselor: A Return to Truth, by Ab Abercrombie and Kerry L. Skinner I think this is one of the very best introductions to Biblical Counseling one can buy. This book by two experienced biblical counselors seeks to provide believers with a reliable guide dealing with life’s problems. In ten chapters the authors skillfully explain the rudiments of a Christ-centered approach to counseling. The first chapter, “Foundations for Biblical Counseling” lays down a solid theological underpinning for the method which …
Cornelius Van Til: Reformed Apologist and Churchman, by John R. Muether, Phillipsburg, PA: P&R, 2008. Any biographer of a man like Cornelius Van Til needs to assume certain things. First, Van Til’s thought, though brilliant, is not always easy to divine. Second, that this is made more problematical by the coming together of at least two different obstacles: a. Van Til’s sometimes awkward way of putting things, and, b. the difficulty many of us have with obeying the injunction to …
