The book “Reformed” is Not Enough created quite a stir a few years back, inspiring Continue reading…
Book review
The book of this title is by Steven Boguslawski (see biblio. info at end of this post). From the title, one might expect a book full of “quotes on jews,” but actually, it is a theological Continue reading…
One Blood, a book by Ken Ham, C. Wieland, and D. Batten (see detail at bottom) is a creationist attack against “racism.” Continue reading…
This book (see biblio info at bottom) is an introduction to “media ecology” by Continue reading…
His book Respectable Sins starts off with a few orientation chapters, the burden of which is to show: You are already a saint Continue reading…
Continuing the brief history of the Slovak people from the narrative begun earlier, through the modern era, we see very clearly illustrated Continue reading…
This is the 65th anniversary of the Allied firebomb-murder of Continue reading…
The topic addressed in this little book is important, asking such questions as what is law? where did it come from? what are the dynamics Continue reading…
The thesis is that the “Easter belief” of the early Christians (a) refers intentionally to a literal, physical (not merely spiritual) raising of Jesus from the dead, and (b) the mode and breadth of this belief can only be explained on the hypothesis that that is what actually happened. The thesis is pursued in specific and detailed interaction with the Leben Jesu literature, most of which denies the resurrection. The characteristic emphasis that we would expect from Wright is Continue reading…
This book (see biblio info at end) is a nice companion to the Wentorf biography of this dear German Reformed pastor who died Continue reading…
This essay by Gottlob Frege (1848-1925) was published in 1892 in the journal Continue reading…
This report is based on a “target of opportunity” — an old beat up book from a co-worker; though held together with masking tape and rubber bands, Continue reading…
An essay by Prof Mark A. Noll of Wheaton College in the collection Religion and the American Civil War (Oxford, 1998) outlines the place of the Bible in the American debate on slavery during the years leading up to the Civil War. Noll identifies the dominant view of the Bible on both side of the debate as “Reformed literalist.” Given that view of the Bible, the proslavery side seemed to have the upper hand. The Abolitionists were willing to move toward a “spirit not letter” type of interpretation, but all the orthodox saw this approach as a trajectory toward liberalism. Noll knows that “proslavery” — his term — is wrong, though a high view of the Bible is right; so he explores what might have gone wrong. He examines four alternative hermeneutical traditions that could have led to a different conclusion on slavery, while still holding to a high view of the Bible:(1) the “African American” way of reading the Bible; (2) the Roman Catholic; (3) High-church Lutheranism or Reformed; (4) the non-Southern Reformed, especially Charles Hodge. Only the last named of these had enough of a foothold in America to temper the discussion, but it fell short because of a root inconsistency in the American outlook which compromised the profession of sola scriptura and led to failure to draw a key distinction that would have unraveled the proslavery argument. Continue reading…
The attached audio (or better: use this 16 kbps compressed version) is our beginning of a close reading of the early Wittgenstein. Continue reading…
Today, for the remembrance of the 63rd anniversary of the annihilation of Dresden, I review David Irving’s Destruction of Dresden (bibliog. info at end). Dresden, the capital of Saxony, an art city, “the Florence of the Elbe,” had almost no military importance, and was not fortified. Because it was believed that no civilized nation would attack it, it had also become a hospital town, and a destination for refugees. By February 1945, news of horrendous atrocities inflicted on German civilians in towns swept by the Red Army impelled a frightened wave of millions of refugees to flee westward, taking whatever item or two of their most precious possession they were able to carry, and leaving all else forever behind. The lucky ones were able to pack into the dwindling trains, but most went on foot. When the bombers came to Dresden, schools had been suspended in order to convert the buildings into hospitals and so that the children and young people could serve to assist the refugees arriving hourly in trains and by foot in flight from the Red Terror which was now only 80 miles to the east of the city (83). “The city which in peacetime had a population of 630,000 citizens was by the eve of the air attacks so crowded with Silesians, East Prussians and Pomeranians from the Eastern front, with Berliners and Rhinelanders from the West, with Allied and Russian prisoners of war, with evacuated children’s settlements, with forced laborers of many nationalities, that the increased population was now between 1,200,000 and 1,400,000 citizens, of whom, not surprisingly, several hundred thousand had no proper home and of whom none could seek the protection of an air-raid shelter.” (98) Continue reading…
