Worldview & Culture

Factors Contributing to the Resurgence of Calvinism Among Baptists (Leon McBeth)

Kirk E. Miller

65690_w185Mind you, Leon McBeth is publishing this in 1987. Much, much more resurgence of Calvinism among Baptists has occurred since then. …

And overlooking his unfortunately caricaturization (to assume the best: simplifications for ease of understanding) of Calvinism as something like fatalism…

I found McBeth’s comments here, specifically his third and fourth points, rather interesting. And I thought I’d share. These “points” are included in a brief section where McBeth addresses “factors” that have “contributed to the recent resurgence of Calvinism among Baptists. This occurs in famous work The Baptist Heritage (pg. 774-776).

1. “The Calvinists feel they are going back to original Baptists roots.”
2. “The Calvinists react against what they consider shallow evangelism.”
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RECOMMENDED: Tim Keller on the Erosion of the “Middle”

Kirk E. Miller

“Tim Keller on the Disappearing Umbrella over Conservative Christians” by Trevin WaxKeller-219x300 – A great assessment on our shifting culture and evangelicals place within it.

The number of the devout people in the country is increasing, as well as the number of secular people. The big change is the erosion is in the middle. … You don’t so much see secularization as polarization, and what is really disappearing is the middle.

Similarly, see my sermon from around a year ago – Christian Living in a Post-Christendom America.

Goodreads Review of Integrative Psychotherapy: Toward a Comprehensive Christian Approach by Mark R. McMinn

Kirk E. Miller

Integrative Psychotherapy: Toward a Comprehensive Christian ApproachIntegrative Psychotherapy: Toward a Comprehensive Christian Approach by Mark R. McMinn

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The authors claim to present a (not “the”) Christian approach to psychotherapy. They are theologically sensitive. I appreciate this. However, it is less clear to me how their approach is DISTINCTIVELY Christian and not simply SENSITIVE to Christian truth-claims.

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J. Gresham Machen’s “Christianity and Liberalism”–Continued Relevance for a Continued Liberalism

Kirk E. Miller 2 Comments

As contemporary Christian continues its debate over homosexuality and (so-called) same sex marriage, my mind keeps drifting back to one of my favorite books of all time, Christianity and Liberalism (originally published in 1923) by J. Gresham Machen, one of my favorite authors of all time. (See my review of this book here.) This ‘Christian’ position in support of same-sex marriage as Christian is merely one manifestation of an ever present liberalism to which Machen’s words are as relevant as the day he originally wrote them.

If you haven’t yet read this book, please do yourself a favor and do so immediately. But in the meantime, allow me to share with you some snippets that I think exemplify this current relevance.

Machen

On standing for and proclaiming the truth.

The type of religion which … shrinks from “controversial” matters, will never stand amid the shocks of life. In the sphere of religion, as in other spheres, the things which men are agreed are apt to be the things that are least worth holding; the really important things are the things about which men will fight. (1-2)

The things that are sometimes thought to be hardest to defend are also the things that are most worth defending. (8)

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Notes on Jordan Ballor and Stephen Long on Theology and Economics

Kirk E. Miller 1 Comment

Last night I went to a lecture and responding lecture hosted by the Carl F.H. Henry Center for Theological Understanding at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. The lecture, presented by Jordan Ballor, was entitled “Theology and Economics: A Match from Heaven?” The response came from Stephen Long.

Read more about this lecture here.

View video of the lectures here.

The following are some thoughts and notes I wrote down during this discussion.

jordan-ballorJordan Ballor // Thesis – That economics and theology are fundamentally compatible and mutually dependent. A continued separation or divorce between economics and theology would be harmful. We need economically informed theologians and theologically informed economists.
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