Even after weighing the benefits, it’s hard to know when to make the switch and how fast.  Should all of our purchases be digital from now on?  Micah J. Jelinek, Library Administrator at Moody Theological Seminary-Michigan, helped weigh in on this issue as it relates to theology and biblical studies:

If it were me, I would weigh my costs. If I can get a full commentary set through Logos for $500 or a hard copy for $1500, I’d get the copy with Logos. They provide full sets of commentaries at a significantly reduced cost (ex. Logos has the Word Biblical Commentary Series and many others available as add-ons). So, if you get the right package you can search a number of your commentaries/lexicons/etc. all at once through Logos, plus everything is backed up online and it’s also available on your iPhone. Logos doesn’t have every commentary, so that’s where I’d invest money into hard copies. It’s a major transition, but I think having everything searchable and right at your fingertips is a major time saver.

On the future of theological libraries and texts: I don’t think that theological texts will be going all digital for at least 10-15 (or more) years. Even then, because our field of study is (1) under funded, and (2) dependent on older texts, I don’t believe theological libraries will go completely digital or rely completely on a digital database with access to full text books. I think there will always be a place for hard copies of books in academia. Libraries may move to have more online and digital access to books, but hard copies will likely be necessary for reference at the very least.

I would also be hesitant to move to a completely digital collection right now, because Google, Amazon and others are currently competing to claim supremacy in the eBook domain. So, in the same way that there have been transitional periods for video format in VHS vs Betamax or VHS to DVD, I think that we’re in a transitional time for digital literature. The Kindle will likely be obsolete in a couple of years anyway and there is no guarantee that the formatting will remain the same. So for now I’m waiting to see what happens and I’m backing up the eBooks I do have with PDF copies.

After saying all of that, I’m still a purist. For me nothing will ever replace a hard bound book, so I’ll continue to collect hard copies, but to keep up with technology I will also be investing in software like Logos and adding some commentary series’ to my collection that way.

At this time, it seems that buying used books is still profitable, especially if you haven’t invested in a device like Kindle or iPad. And let’s not forget that you can borrow out or give away hardcopies without infringing copyright laws.  Still, purchasing digital volumes through software like Logos seems appropriate at this point in the industry. It will save you time and money.  In conclusion, we are in a time of transition and you will probably have to consider which way to go on an individual basis. Hopefully this helps you make informed decisions.

Read an article from http://boston.com about this phenomenon as it relates to Harvard’s libraries here.

Hansen, Collin. Young, Restless, Reformed: A Journalist’s Journey with the New Calvinists.  Wheaton: Crossway, 2008.

The title reveals that the movement is characterized by a younger generation who has grown restless with the various forms of Christianity that supposedly now lack appeal.  Allow me to say from the beginning that I really enjoyed the read–it helped bring clarity to the growing trend many in the church have already noticed.  Generally, Hansen–an admitted Calvinist–merely sought to report what was happening, so this kind of work shouldn’t upset anyone on the other side of the spectrum (notice the subtitle, “A journalist’s journey with the New Calvinists”).  Still, at some parts in the work it was hard to tell whether the point being made was an objective presentation of a fact or a wonderfully composed paragraph to persuade its readers.  Whatever his intention, in the end the ambiguity may simply further demonstrate his ability as a writer, i.e. very sneaky work!

Some of the points I would like to focus on are the following:

1. Certain characteristics presented as unique to Calvinism which in fact are not, misleading the reader to believe Calvinism/Reformed theology has a monopoly on “sound doctrine.”
2. Provide a very brief critique of some Calvinism’s main points.
3. Emphasize the implications of some of Reformed theology’s points, which will impact how you do ministry.

I won’t cover it all, or offer a full review.  I want to focus on just some of the points that are significant.  Here it goes.

• Pg. 15-17: John Piper’s famous quote “God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in him” is not unique to Calvinism.  Neither is his point that the glory of God is the ultimate theme of preaching and the focus of worship music, nor his point that God’s glory and sovereignty should be the subject of worship songs.  All evangelicals affirm this.  There is simply a different understanding of what God’s sovereignty entails, and how God receives glory.  Worship songs that praise God for what he is doing in the lives of his people is just as much God-glorifying as those which treat the Godhead more directly.  This comports well with the picture we have in the Psalms.
• Pg. 22: He quotes Joshua Harris who talks about how some Christians who discover Reformed theology like to speak of experiencing a type of second rebirth.  Let’s be fair—if this is true about those people, it’s probably because they never understood the Gospel or were never saved to start.
• Pg. 22-24: He speaks of “moralistic therapeutic deism” in American evangelicalism as if its the only alternative to Reformed theology.  This is a terrible false dilemma.  Consider the theology of John Wesley, pentecostalism/charismatics, Free Will Baptists, various Pietist, Holiness, and mainline Protestant denominations and what you’ll discover is that these are no pop-psychology type theologies.
• Pg. 29: J. I. Packer is quoted speaking on John Piper’s ministry saying, “He gives them the sense that passionate thinking is at the essence of real life.”  This would be an unfortunate concession.  I thought the essence of real life is love.  I’m surprised that those in such an anti-humanistic ideology (Reformed theology) would have such high praise for thinking.
• Pg. 35-37: Hansen gets into an exposition of sorts on the doctrine of total depravity.  Unfortunately, his presentation suffers from inconsistencies, jumps in logic, and quotes from Calvinist pastors that might rightfully be considered offensive to non-Calvinists.  His treatment of Ephesians 2:1 doesn’t answer what we’re incapable of doing while dead in our trespasses.  Gen. 6:5, Gen. 8:2, and Rom. 7:18, which describe man’s depravity are pieced together with passages like Isa. 64:6, and then concludes that man is incapable of doing any good.  Even the quote used from Isa. 64:6 states that man can perform righteous acts.  Does Scripture contradict itself then?  This goes to prove that often times we read Scripture very shallowly, ignoring contextual and literary complexities.  Finally, consider the assertion made by Andrew Knight (a minister at Bethleem Baptist Church): “You may never feel the weight, you will never feel the wonder of grace until you finally relinquish your claim to have any part in your salvation.  It has to be unconditional.”  Arminians must be deceived then!  I think it rather presumptuous to make such a statement, as if a person can measure the awe for God another Christian stores in her heart.
• Pg. 42-44: He quotes a young lady, “…Never, ever in the Bible do people initiate a relationship with God.”  To be fair, never, ever in Arminian theology do people initiate a relationship with God either!  ”It was the most freeing thing to realize that their salvation is not dependent on me spending enough time with them or me explaining the gospel in the best way or me being an expert in the language.  It freed me up to love being there even if I wasn’t seeing fruit.”  However you feel about such an approach to evangelism, do realize the implications it has.  Unfortunately, this is a complex issue and we would have to clarify what we mean by “salvation being dependent on,” so we can’t do justice to it here.  But do notice that in the ministry of both Jesus and Paul “salvation was dependent” on how they presented the Gospel message. See Acts 17:2 “As his custom was, Paul went into the synagogue, and on three Sabbath days he reasoned with them from the Scriptures” and 2 Cor. 2:4 “For I wrote you out of great distress and anguish of heart and with many tears, not to grieve you but to let you know the depth of my love for you.”  This doesn’t sound like what the person Hansen quotes is celebrating.  Consider especially the strenuous, persistent, passionate, often tense relationships Paul had with the churches he planted.  To deny this is to fall into a relaxed approach to evangelism and shrug off our moral (spiritual) duty to fulfill the Great Commission.  Granted, the connection between unconditional election and evangelism has long been explored and debated.  I am simply submitting that we should recognize how a theology can affect our approach to evangelism.  In other words, theology matters–the stakes are high.
• Pg. 73: On discussing Albert Mohler’s role in restoring the doctrine of inerrancy to SBTS, one of the ideas inserted back into the seminary’s Abstract of Principles is “God from eternity, decrees or permits all things that come to pass, and perpetually upholds, directs, and governs all creatures and all events.”  The issue here is Determinism.  Calvinists have a hard time avoiding the conclusion of fatalism–which states that God caused/willed everything to happen (including evil, the fall etc.).  Here’s the problem: the way the proposition in the Abstract of Principles is constructed makes it extremely ambiguous and ultimately uncontroversial.  The conditions “or permits” and “perpetually” causes the statement to simply contradict itself at worse, and say nothing that would make it unique from Arminianism or Deism at best.  The New Calvinists want to avoid double predestination (also referred to as supralapsarianism) and fatalism, but find it hard to do so while remaining consistent in their theology.

I realize these are very sensitive and complex issues, so I don’t want the hub of this post to focus on critiquing Calvinism or Reformed theology per se.  I simply wanted to expose how the book does not fairly reflect important details about opposing viewpoints, doesn’t develop some of the logical implications of the people Hansen quotes, and fails to show the connection between theology and praxis, all the while painting New Calvinism in a rather favorable light from a considerably nonobjective perspective.

To be continued.

Witherington, Ben.  The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus.  Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2001.
347 pages.

The Paul Quest: The Renewed Search for the Jew of Tarsus is Ben Witherington III’s most comprehensive treatment of Paul the apostle.  This book is a welcome addition to Pauline literature that attempts to accurately discover the apostle’s identity, and contributes to the scholarly discussion by clear and strong argumentation.  Witherington’s approach is accessible, offering background information that is important for understanding Paul’s world.  In this way, his text is similar to those at the introductory level; detailed discussions are stabilized by the basic information important in keeping perspective healthy.  Still, The Paul Quest has a thesis that is focused and unique enough that it explores various dimensions of his life and character which further the scholarly discussion.  But before the particular ideas of his work are explored, it is worth noting some strengths that are both immediate and easily recognizable.  First, in his introduction Witherington reminds readers why studying the figure of Paul is so important.  The more we know about this influential apostle, the more we will know about the person of Jesus as well.  In other words, a strong connection exists between the historical Jesus and the historical Paul, since Paul’s letters are our earliest sources about Jesus.  Therefore for a Christian, knowing Paul the apostle means drawing closer to the object of their worship—Jesus Christ.  For the skeptic, knowing Paul means historically understanding one of the original forces behind the spread of the Christian faith.  Yet that is not to say that such motivations for embarking on the Paul quest cannot overlap!

Secondly, the structure Witherington chose for organizing his work offers a valuable method for one interested in learning about Paul.  His chapters each begin with several italicized paragraphs that introduce the material that will follow.  The conclusions stated in this section of the text are then supported by evidence in the main text of the chapter.  By providing a brief overview of the contents it creates easy access to crucial information.  The repetition also serves as a valuable learning method when one chooses to read straight through the book.  At the macro level, Witherington chose an interesting way to organize his ideas.  His chapters each describe a particular nuance of Paul’s identity (“Paul the Writer and Rhetor,” “Paul the Apostle and Prophet,” “Paul the Realist and Radical,” “Paul the Anthropologist and advocate,” “Paul the Storyteller and Exegete,” “Paul the Ethicist and Theologian”)  The strength of this approach is that it allows for the author’s particular interests and persuasions to be emphasized.  Sticking to a thematic outline for his book and avoiding the temptation to analyze Paul’s letters on an individual basis provides a sense of freshness and convinces readers that the contributions offered are more important than repeating information that can be found elsewhere.  A weakness of this approach is that nuances and perspectives cannot be exhaustive; they can cause a reader to sense that particular aspects of his identity may not have been treated.

One last remark is due for the book’s structure.  The section on chronology of life is wisely placed in the book’s appendix.  Again, this allows for smoother reading, flow of ideas, and analysis of Paul’s person.  Although important, chronological issues come as secondary in importance.  He even states this in the introduction.  The intent of the book is to examine what type of person Paul was, not what kind of life he lived.[1]

The strongest feature of The Paul Quest is in fact its thesis.  Witherington convincingly argues that understanding Paul’s identity requires familiarity with his context as a first century person living around the Mediterranean Sea.[2] He was a unique individual who lived in a world very different from ours, and ones interpretation might suffer from anachronism if modern Western methods are applied to understanding his identity. Witherington warns of this danger throughout his book, and works to rebut misrepresentations of Paul.[3] At the same time, he offers ways in which we can reconstruct identities of ancient persons living in communities like Paul’s.  A great discussion introduces what actually determined the identity of ancient Mediterranean people.  Generation, gender, geography, wealth, education, and religion are some of the components of ones identity, and individuals were expected to conform to them rather than try to defy or resist them.  Witherington demonstrates that understanding the social norms of Paul’s day helps clarify the struggles, intentions, and meaning of many of his letters.  Roman Citizenship, Jewish Pharisaism, and Christianity are treated as the “trinity” of Paul’s identity.  He does a good job at providing necessary background information to understanding how these influenced Paul’s person.  His treatment of honor, shame, and physiognomy were very clear and helpful.  Still, the section dealing with Paul’s Jewishness suffers a little from focusing too much on his interpretation of the Law.  Some more information on how Pharisees were trained and how they lived might have been useful.  This section may have benefited from some of the points from the discussion on p. 97.  Also, Witherington’s conclusions about Paul’s view of the interplay between the law of Moses and the law of Christ on p. 68 could use some more attention and expansion.

Chapter 3—Paul the Writer and Rhetor—provided a clear and thorough discussion of ancient rhetoric. Witherington did a better job at introducing the matter than other texts out there, and successfully showed how recognizing Paul’s use of rhetoric helps us better understand his person and ideas.  Galatians and 2 Corinthians were used as case studies to demonstrate Paul’s handle on rhetoric.  Also helpful was Witherington’s treatment of ancient letter-writing.  Included in this section were comparisons and contrasts with other Graeco-Roman letters.  This helps readers of Paul gain some perspective, and by comparing Paul’s letter-style to other letter writers from his time, conclusions can be made about what emphases Paul wanted to make when writing his church audiences.

After developing Paul’s use of rhetoric, one conclusion that the author repeatedly points out is that the apostle “prefers to persuade” rather than command his communities of believers.[4] This idea would have benefited from some qualification, because it seems that often times Paul had no other choice than to persuade.  It is difficult to imagine a person whose authority is being challenged still being able to command people (2 Corinthians, Galatians).

Finally in this chapter, Witherington states that his argumentation of Paul’s identity as an ancient person will only be done from those letters whose authenticity have received approval from the majority of scholars.  In doing so, Witherington leaves out the Pastorals.  Though he wants to have his thesis accepted by the scholarly community, he does not hesitate to provide a brief (but strong) case for their authenticity, pointing out the weaknesses in other hypotheses.

In the chapter “Paul the Realist and Radical,” an attempt is made to create a distinction between “submitting” and “obeying.”  The discussion centers on what level of adherence to government authorities is proper for Christians.  Although the Greek “hypotasso” and “hypakuo” are offered to show that the two words are not identical, Witherington’s point suffers slightly from not defining the terms and not actually pointing out what the difference between the two words is.  In his discussion of household codes that follows soon after, the same problem surfaces again.[5] In this case, the author is trying to enunciate the difference between the commands given to wives vs. those given to children.

What may be considered the meat of Paul’s identity by some people—Paul the exegete, ethicist, storyteller, and theologian—is included in the last part of The Paul Quest.  While some scholars contest the idea of a Pauline theology, given the occasional nature of his letters, Witherington submits that at the center of Paul’s thought were stories (narratives).  The theology found in his letters flow from his narrative thought world, which Witherington divides into 5 main series of stories (the story of God; the story of the world gone wrong in Adam; the story of God’s people in that world, from Abraham to Moses and beyond; the story of the Jewish Messiah, Christ; the story of Christians, which arises out of stories 2-4).[6] Within this section he offers a strong apologetic for Paul’s typological interpretation of scripture, against many modern scholars who accuse Paul of “exegetical legerdemain.”

Also found in this section is an interpretation of Romans 7:7-13, which the author suggests is a presentation of all fallen humanity, told primarily from the perspective of a Jewish person.[7] He offers good evidence for such a reading, although it seems much of it clinches on the fact that verses 7-8 make mention of only one commandment, which Witherington argues is referring to the commandment Adam received about the tree of knowledge.  But this seems to ignore the fact that earlier in the context Paul is referring to the struggle with the single commandment of covetousness.  Why can it not be this commandment that verses 7-8 are referring to?  Furthermore, the defense of Paul’s use of the singular “seed” in Romans 9 could be honed and strengthened; his argument was a little less than satisfying.

Conclusion

The Paul Quest consistently provided strong argumentation for the points it made.  Ben Witherington convincingly presented the apostle Paul as an ancient Mediterranean person whose identity needs to be reconstructed very differently from ours.  The different aspects of Paul’s identity were carefully argued and they help modern readers get a sense of what type of person Paul was.  Some of his arguments could use stronger support, but the majority of his work was sound and well written.

While Witherington successfully proved the uniqueness of Paul’s identity, one of the most helpful aspects of his work were his conclusions drawn from the interaction between Paul and his culture(s).  The apostle seemed to have well understood which cultural norms could be harmonized with the law of Christ and which could not.  Ironically, he occasionally used some of the unacceptable ones to prove his point (2 Cor. 11), but in doing so, dismantled the very game of honor and boasting that he was using.  Witherington did a wonderful job at showing how, though Paul lived and ministered in a world that thrived off of honor codes, he managed to turn that which was shameful—a crucified Messiah—into the object of faith for the empire.

[2] Ibid., p. 17.

[3] See p. 87 for good examples of modern classifications that do not suit the social context of Paul’s day.

[4] Ibid., p. 90, 127.

[5] Ibid., p. 189.

[6] Ibid., p. 230.

[7] Ibid., p. 241.

About the Author

J.P. Moreland is a professor at Talbot School of Theology, a division of Bioala University in California.  He is renown for his work in Christian apologetics and philosophy.  Among his other influential works that I particularly enjoyed and found helpful are Scaling the Secular City, Love Your God With All Your Mind, Does God Exist?, and the monumental reference work Philosophical Foundations For A Christian Worldview.  He has founded, co-founded, and pastored many churches and has engaged in numerous apologetic debates.

Moreland, J.P.  Kingdom Triangle: Recover the Christian Mind, Renovate the Soul, Restore the Spirit’s Power.  Grand Rapids, MI:  Zondervan, 2007.
225 pages including bibliography & end notes.

This work is important because he is writing specifically to the church with a call to do what the subtitle directs.  In other words, Moreland feels what he has to say is important, in fact, vital for the church to restore its impact on Western civilization.  The text is written primarily to the Western church because in the third world, as of yet, the church is growing in numbers and influence (he has many statistics throughout).  So the Western church has been losing ground to Secular Humanism, Religious Pluralism, Islam, Eastern thought etc. because following the Enlightenment Christians have withdrawn from academia (“Recover the Christian Mind”), have not been progressing in holiness & discipleship (“Renovate the Soul”), and stopped believing in the supernatural miracles of God as normative in the life of the church (“Restore the Spirit’s Power”).

Let’s acknowledge from the beginning that this 3-pronged packaging is not found explicitly in the Bible.  Nowhere does one passage speak on knowledge, virtue, and miraculous signs & wonders as the necessary compontents for a conquering church.  But to hold this against the book is to beg the question; the case for this is made throughout.  Also, just in case the term “kingdom” somehow seems foreign or unrelevant to you, I encourage you to reread the Gospels and note what it is that Jesus was preaching.  Moreland returns to the use of this term in the spirit of Dallas Willard in The Divine Conspiracy.

Moreland appropriately divided the book into two sections: “Assessing the Crisis of Our Age” & “Charting A Way Out: The Kingdom Triangle.”  He first offers a diagnosis of our current state, making the case that our culture is moving toward a point of crisis (i.e. cannot continue on the way it is) and that the damage is a direct result of naturalistic & postmodern worldviews that have permeated our culture.  His treatments of these worldviews are not new, but that does not matter.  They are weighty, must be followed carefully, and serve as important premises to his thesis.  He ends Part 1 with five steps that facilitated this regression; we have shifted our focus…

1. From knowledge to faith
2. From human flourishing to satisfaction and desire
3. From duty and virtue to minimalistic ethics
4. From classic freedom to contemporary freedom
5. From classic tolerance to contemporary tolerance

Part 2 offers the solution to the problem.  Here he rightly argues for the important role that knowledge plays in the life of the believer, demonstrating this through scripture (he quotes 6 straight pages of passages that reveal the importance of knowledge in the Christian faith experience!).  Part of the problem lies in Christian leaders’ creation of a false dichotomy between faith & knowledge, and the theology of liberal Protestantism which attempted to do away with the historical accessibility of scripture’s accounts (especially the resurrection).  Next Moreland discusses the superiority of Christian virtues as opposed to those of atheism and other ideologies, and guides the Christian into ways he/she can grow in obedience to God.  Part of his strategy was demonstrating how denying the self is in fact more satisfactory than the moral theory known as hedonism.  Lastly, the book gets into the subject that is more touchy for evangelicals: the charismatic gifts.  He approaches the issue with grace and sensitivity, but does not back away from his convictions.  An argument is made for the charismatic gifts by insisting they are part of the nature of God’s kingdom & by using personal stories as testimonies.

The book is concluded with a chapter restating his thesis and offers an exhortation for the church.

Strengths

• Discussion/reflection questions are offered at the end of each chapter
• Great annotated bibliography divided into beginner, intermediate, & advanced which points the reader to great works on the topics covered (I’ve already book-listed some of them!)
• Moreland continues to write with a graceful, but shrewd “to-the-point” style
• Useful discussion of our human craving for “drama,” which can be satisfied in living a virtue of duty and self-denial (p. 26)
• Good treatment/overview of worldviews & ideologies such as naturalism, postmodernism, and utilitarianism (p. 50)
• Great tracing of universities slipping into epistemological subjectivity in the chapter on postmodernism
• Good treatment on knowledge & certainty and how to respond to the skeptic (p. 121)
• Offers examples of miraculous gifts in operation today that move the heart to glorify God

Weaknesses

• Does not offer the expected (none, actually) counterexamples in his treatment of minimalistic ethics (p. 52)
• States that the word “happiness” used in the Declaration of Independence refers to virtue and character, not pleasure, while not presenting a complete argument for this (p. 94)
• Does not satisfactorily refute minimalist ethics in his second treatment (p. 96)
• Argues for the physical heart as a center for intellectual reflection (like the brain) with little support besides one end-note reference
• Uses what I consider to be a weak interpretation of Philippians 4:6-7.  My understanding: the distinction of “heart” and “mind” can be a literary device known as parallelism, which draws emphasis to a term, or Paul may simply be further nuancing the heart (being) with mind
• Proposes Christians practice a physical heart meditation exercise similar to eastern meditation techniques which might just scare many evangelicals.  Like Mark Driscoll, many may rant “If it’s not biblical, it’s demonic!”  I can see the usefulness of such an exercise, but honestly, I’d rather be doing other things (p. 160)
• Does little in the way of biblical exegesis when arguing for the existence of the charismatic gifts

If that seemed like a super rigid review it’s because that’s what the book is like!  And the author warns us of that: his writing is heavy, and that’s because we must exercise the use of our mind if we are to regain our footing in this battle for truth (see how that makes sense?)!  Don’t stop reading because it’s hard to understand; press on, investigate its claims, and see how you can apply the teaching he advises to your Christian development.  It’s well worth it.  The most valuable things in life are fashioned by much time, energy, & effort.  Love your God with all your mind! (Mark 12:30)

Moreland successfully showed how the Western church has slipped into an unhealthy comfort zone when it comes to knowledge, virtue, and the miraculous.  He then equips the Christian to be able to join the rest of the church in regaining its influence & impact for the kingdom of God.  Well worth the read.