Books I Can't Wait to Read
August 4, 2007 Posted by Roger Overton
Some fellow bloggers have been posting lists of book titles they'd like to see published. The Reformed Baptist Thinker has my favorites, but also check out Pyromaniacs ( I think they started it) and Triablogue. I decided to join in on the fun… so here's what we might see if these people changed their minds about things they're passionate about:
[Please note: These are jokes. If I wanted to accuse anyone on anything, I would provide a well laid out argument.]
Believers Under Water:
The True Reformed View of Baptism by Kim Riddlebarger & R. Scott Clark
Wasting Ages: Why You
Shouldn't Spend Any of Your Time Worrying About the Age of the Earth by Hugh
Ross & Ken Ham
The Unchanging Truths
About Prophecy Throughout the Bible by Wayne Grudem
In, With, and Over It:
Why Lutherans Should Give Up Their Confusing View of the Lord’s Supper by
Rod Rosenbladt
Philobiblion Christi:
How God’s Word Trumps Man’s Philosophies by William Lane Craig & J.P.
Moreland
He Isn’t Perfect: 10
Things I Don’t Like about George W. Bush by Hugh Hewitt
Our Prophetic God: God’s
Sovereign Knowledge of All Things Past, Present and Future by Greg A. Boyd
Oops! A Dozen or So
Centuries of Ecclesiastical & Theological Mistakes by Pope Benedict XVI
A Postmodern Creed:
What I Truly Believe in Plain English by Brian D. McLaren
God’s Glory Now: How
to Stop Living For Yourself & Give Everything to God by Joel Olsteen
Discovering Biblical
Hierarchy: Examining the Plethora of Verses We Twisted in Order to Advance Our
Feminist Agenda by CBE (Christians for Biblical Equality)
Related posts:
- What Publishers are Learning about Books & Blogging
- "Will Blog for Books"
- Buy my books!
- Logos Books Galore!
- "Will Blog for Books"
- Where Have the Good Books Gone?
Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts
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August 4th, 2007 at 5:30 pm
Maybe Rosenbladt could offer as an appendix Gregory of Nazianzus' famous tract, “Hypostasis, Schmypostasis: Confessing Only What We Can Understand.”
August 4th, 2007 at 5:33 pm
While some of these are mildly amusing, overall I think lists of this sort are counterproductive, as they so often reflect a lack of charity. An example would be that last one. The folks at CBE may very well have skipped lots of verses (as your subtitle alleges), but that's a charge that needs support. How would you like it if they used this for a comeback–”Recovering Biblical Misogyny: A Plethora of Verses Taken Out of Context to Maintain a Legacy of Abuse and Oppression of Women”? Nothing in either reflects any charity toward the other, which is what makes these lists an exercise in unChristlikeness.
August 4th, 2007 at 10:45 pm
I deleted my previous reply to Timbo since I don't think I was very gracious to him.
I don't agree with your overall assessment of the list, and especially the CBE title. No charges have been made here, only jokes about theological debates and stereotypes. That said, there is a line and after careful reconsideration I believe the title I listed involving Joseph Smith may have crossed it, so I have deleted it from the list.
Sometimes those of us involved in these debates take ourselves too seriously. This is one of my attempts to lighten things up a bit. I believe we will be better united in Christ if we can make occasional jovial jabs instead of constantly criticizing and trashing each other. Maybe at best my attempt is only “mildly amusing,” but I believe the Body of Christ is in a miserable state if we can't even tease each other a bit about our differences.
August 8th, 2007 at 11:17 am
Roger, I think it's fine and beneficial to make attempts to lighten things up. Where I disagree is where to draw the line. The problem I still have with the CBE one is that it's very similar to critiques offered by complementarians, of which you are one. Twisting verses, feminist agenda, etc. Those are charges, not jokes. Perhaps an example would help. Discovering Biblical Hierarchy: Embracing the Joy of Domestic Work While Your Husband Watches the Game by [insert egalitarian author]. This one is silly yet avoids any implicit statement that egalitarians are twisting verses and have a feminist agenda. And I should note that my worry is not so much with you doing this Roger, as I respect you and your willingness to remove the Joseph Smith joke as you reconsidered it, but with what this will likely inspire in others, which is the cheap ridicule into which these things so easily descend. Many comments on the examples you linked to were implicitly (and unfairly) critiquing positions with which they disagree. There were some that were in fact hilarious, yet there is so much entropy in this sort of humor that whatever short-term benefits gained by it will be outweighed by long-term derision in the body of Christ.