Is Patriarchy Oppression?

Date March 4, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

This week Albert Mohler published an article on the “Return of Patriarchy.” He points to an article by Phillip Longman that argues patriarchy will inevitably return due to declining birthrates in Western countries. Needless to say, some people aren’t going to be too happy about that.

Bell Hooks is said to have defined Feminism as the struggle to end patriarchy. From her perspective, and many like her, patriarchy is sexist oppression- a power play to limit the rights of women. Following this line of thought, the return of patriarchy is an awful thing.

Is patriarchy oppression? Certainly most of us can point to horrible men who have mistreated their wives and children, and perhaps much worse, based on the idea that they have authority over them. But is this the norm of patriarchy? Not really. This is the image 43 years of radical feminism has left us with. They tell us that when men are in control bad things happen.

Contrary to popular feminist belief, patriarchy is not necessarily abusive. Patriarchy simply means that men are the standardized leaders. Having leaders does not necessitate mistreatment. Sure we can think of bad bosses or supervisors we’ve had, but most of us have had plenty of fine experiences under the leadership of another person.

Christian patriarchy teaches that men (generally) have been gifted by God to be leaders in their families. It also teaches that husbands are to love their wives just as Christ loved the Church (Eph 5:25). So on this view, those men who abuse their wives abuse their callings as men of God. Patriarchy as oppression is an abuse of patriarchy, not the defining picture of it.

We should hope that if Longman’s claim turns out to be true, what comes to pass would be Christian patriarchy and not Islamic patriarchy.

Category Posted in Culture, Gender Issues, Main Page, Roger's Posts, Theology Comments 7 Comments »

The A-Team Blog Book of the Year Award (2005)

Date March 2, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Last week I announced the books that qualify for
The A-Team Blog Book of the Year for 2005. Of the 28 books I read that were
published last year I’ve chosen one that I consider the best, and two that are
also noteworthy. There are, of course, more good ones than only these three.


2005 Book of the Year

 The 2005 Book of the Year is Truth and the New Kind of
Christian by R. Scott Smith. I must admit for full disclosure that I’ve
known Dr. Smith for several years, but I truly believe this book is the most
important from last year. 

Truth and the New Kind of Christian is an analysis of
postmodern philosophy in the works of Stanley Hauerwas, Stanley Grenz, John
Franke, Brad Kallenberg, Brian McLaren, and Tony Jones. Dr. Smith goes to great
lengths to fairly describe the ideas he seeks to critique; so much so that the
first half of the book is dedicated to simply explaining what postmodernism is
and stating what these men have written about it.

Dr. Smith takes these men’s ideas seriously, in context, and
explains what’s at stake in the discussion. Then he offers an uncompromising
critique of Christian postmodernism (as taught by these men) and a defense for
objective truth and our ability to access it. Because of the importance of the issues
addressed, and the quality with which Scott Smith handles them, Truth and
the New Kind of Christian is the Book of the Year for 2005.

Another quality book from 2005 was C.S.
Lewis’s Case for Christ by Art Lindsley. Each chapter of the book is placed in the context
of a story about a bookstore study group made up of people from various
backgrounds. After a chapter is introduced through the group’s discussion, it
transitions to a non-fiction text addressing different obstacles C.S. Lewis
faced in coming to faith and how he overcame them.

Lindsley analyzes twelve obstacles Lewis confronted
including “chronological snobbery,” whether Christianity is mythology, whether
faith is rational, if morals are relative, and if only one religion can be
considered true. His study is great on its own, but the narrative context he
places it in makes C.S. Lewis’s Case for Christ a one of a kind book.*

*My full review will be published in Areopagus Journal
later this year

2005 Runner-Up

2005 Runner-Up

 From my review: “Bruce Ware’s Father, Son, &
Holy Spirit: Relationships, Roles, & Relevance, seeks to provide us
with the robust understanding we lack [about the Trinity]. The brief 158 page
book is an adaptation from a series of lectures Dr. Ware gave at a conference
in 2004 and is broken down into six chapters… The book is a very easy read,
though it is far from simple. I still think James R. White’s The Forgotten
Trinity is the best book available in regards to the Biblical basis of the
doctrine. However, Dr. Ware’s is the best I’ve seen that explains the roles of
each person and how the doctrine should apply to how we live…. If you are
seeking a deeper understanding of the Trinity and the relevance the nature of
God has in your life, Father, Son & Holy Spirit is a must read.”

Category Posted in Book Reviews, Main Page, Roger's Posts Comments 1 Comment »

Book Review: Not a Tame Lion by Bruce Edwards

Date February 28, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

           

           

           

       

   

The vision of Not a Tame Lion is rooted in this thesis: “We most accurately discern the spiritual worlds of Narnia in the biography of Aslan.”(xvii) Author Bruce Edwards notes the dangers of becoming occupied with secondary sources, yet he also points to the need C.S. Lewis saw “to consult a map before we set out.” In this book Dr. Edwards seeks to provide a map of spiritual and moral qualities in Narnia as seen through the eyes of its characters.

Not a Tame Lion begins, after a brief prologue, with a biography of C.S. Lewis, the Inklings and the origins of Narnia. Chapter two dives into the tension between Aslan not being safe, but still being good. Aslan is met as savior and protector in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (LWW) and as creator in The Magician’s Nephew (MN).

Subsequently, Dr. Edwards explores numerous spiritual traits found in the Narnian chronicles. First is valor, in Chapter 3, in the Pevensie children, Prince Caspian, Jill Pole and Puddleglum in The Silver Chair (SC), and Digory Kirke and Polly Plummer in MN. Next, in Chapter 4, “victory over vanity” explores the transformations of Eustace, Caspian, and Lucy in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader,” as well as Shasta and Aravis in The Horse and His Boy.

Continue reading at Never Enough Tea…

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Chariots of Links

Date February 27, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Systematic Theology is about knowing God more deeply. To find out more, read Melinda's post. Also see her post about meeting with Dan Kimball.

Smart Christian Andrew Jackson has been studying up on the work of Francis Schaeffer. He notes a few themes of Schaeffer's ministry and explains why Schaeffer saw himself primarily as an evangelist.

We have very few recordings of C.S. Lewis. Fortunately, some of them can be found on the BBC's website, including the last war-time radio address that would later become Mere Christianity. (HT: Victory Reppert)

Do not ask what you can do for global warming, ask what global warming can do for you. TenNapel explains…

John Mark Reynolds posted some nice reflections on the life of Dr. Henry Morris (he passed away Saturday evening). Unfortunately his new blog with the great Fred Sanders and Paul Spears does not offer permalinks, so you'll have to scroll down to find it. Scroll down even further to find an amusing picture of JMR courtesy of Sanders.

Portico, a great emerging church in Orange, CA, also has a good blog: The Pub.

Category Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts Comments No Comments »

For Such a Time as This

Date February 26, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Today I attended a conference for Christian academics put
together by InterVarsity Christian Fellowship. I haven’t had any interaction
with the organization before, but I was very impressed. The conference centered
upon three plenary lectures by James Emery White (first picture).


Unfortunately, I showed up late and missed most of the first
lecture (anyone who’s tried to find anything at the Claremont Colleges knows
why). Dr. White apparently talked about three spheres of cultural influence.
All I found out was that politics wasn’t one of them. I did hear him talk about
what he calls “metrospirituals:” beliefs don’t matter anymore, only symbols.

The second lecture was “Deepening our Souls, Developing Our
Minds.” Dr. White talked about the devastating consequences of
compartmentalizing our faith from our intellectual pursuits. He said that
without the foundation of Revelation, our intellectual agenda will be set by
the world. In deepening our souls, Dr. White stressed that in proclaiming
Christ we must have a relationship with Christ to offer. Leadership, especially
academic, is dangerous because people afford leaders with spirituality and
knowledge they may not have. In order to form the spiritual life necessary to
bear fruit, we must practice four disciplines: Listening to the voice of Christ
in Scripture with reflection and prayer, Prayer, Silence & Solitude, and
Following a rule (a pattern for spiritual living).

The final lecture was “Answering the Call.” Dr. White
suggested Christians have two calls: when God called our hearts by the gospel,
and vocation. The question we need to answer is not what to do with our lives,
but, “Who am I?” Our vocation should be determined by how God has gifted us,
not what will make us the most money (even if we’re just thinking of
sustenance) or what is considered honorable by society.

Through the day, a few professors shared their testimonies
and thoughts on Christians in the academy. My favorite was philosopher Stephen
T. Davis (second picture). Even after my experiences with the great faculty at
Talbot, I’m still in shock whenever I meet a highly regarded Christian academic
whose faith goes beyond academics. I had a couple of opportunities to speak
personally with Dr. Davis and was impressed with his warm personality and depth
of passion for serving Christ.

The third picture is of Stan Mattson, founder and president
of the C.S. Lewis Foundation. More about that at my Lewis blog, Never Enough
Tea.

Category Posted in Main Page, Miscellaneous, Roger's Posts Comments 3 Comments »

Chilling with Emergent-US

Date February 25, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Last night Amy and I traveled down to beautiful San Diego
with Greg Koukl and Brett Kunkle of Stand to Reason to meet some of the
Emergent people we’ve been talking about. Our friend Scott Smith (Biola
apologetics prof and author of Truth and the New Kind of Christian) was
there as well.

(From left to right) Tony Jones set up the evening so we
could “chew the epistemological fat.” We’re grateful to him for taking the
initiative and the time to personally meet with us. I didn’t get much
one-on-one time with him, but we had some good conversations as a group.

Mark Oestreicher was a bonus. We had no idea he was going to
be there, but I’m thankful he was. I got to chat with him over dinner and he
even hugged me afterward! Turns out we know some of the same people and he’s a
24 fan, so I think we’re almost best friends.

Doug Pagitt hobbled in on crutches due to his Jones Fracture
(does that mean Tony or Andrew is responsible?). I didn’t really get to talk
with him, but he did tell about an amusing elevator podcast. If only I could
get it to work…

Scot McKnight was present at the beginning of the evening,
but quickly vanished due to his flight schedule. It was nice to see him though.

During dinner a few guys came in behind us and I overheard
that one of them was Steve Chalke. I was thinking it would be great if I could
meet him, but Chalke was talking with Marko so I introduced myself to one of
the other guys. Then I saw Amy across the table giving me weird looks. Turns
out I’d just shook hands with Tony Campolo and had no idea. Then they left and
I never got to meet Chalk. Funny how those things happen…

So basically we “broke bread together” at a decent,
but not great restaurant (my food was great, but Marko hates the place), then
retired to the Zondervan penthouse where I took advantage of free Skittles. It
was a great opportunity to meet these guys face-to-face and converse about some
of the problems we’ve had between us. Our conversations helped to further
clarify for me the whole emerging-Emergent spectrum and as Tony put it-
humanize the people we’re talking about. Hopefully we can do more of this sort
of thing in the future.

Tonight I'm taking the evening off from running around, but tomorrow will be a long day at Claremont for a conference with James Emery White.

Category Posted in Emerging / Emergent Church, Main Page, Roger's Posts Comments 5 Comments »

Ravi Zacharias Live

Date February 23, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

Last night my friend Todd and I took a trip down to Mariners
Church for an exciting evening with Ravi Zacharias, LT Jeyachandran, and Stuart
McAllister (and some other cool people we met there). We got seats a few feet
from the stage, which made the experience even more memorable. Ravi Zacharias
is one of those contemporary heroes of the faith whose sharp intellect and
endearing personality have impacted people of every continent and faith.

Zacharias spoke on “Defending the Faith in the 21st
Century.” Toward the beginning of his talk, he took a jab at the emerging
church. In its questioning of propositional truth and meaning, he suggested it
(along with postmodern philosophy in general) is similar to the snake in the
garden who asked, “Did God really say…?” In the 21st century, we are
defined as not knowing where we are in history and not knowing who we are as
humans. He believed this is because of six changes that have taken place:

1)     
The popularization of the “Death of God,” and the willingness
to live with the ramifications.

2)     
Religious pluralism

3)     
The power to inform through visual means at the expense of
textual.

4)     
Loss center of cultural molding

5)     
Loss concept of humanity

6)     
World power is shifting to a younger generation

In response to these changes, Zacharias believes we must
respond with

1)     
An apologetic that is not only heard but also seen.

2)     
An apologetic that is not just argued but also felt.

3)     
An apologetic that rescues not only the ends but also the
means. The proper place of word must be restored in our worship.

If I were to explain for you each of these three points, it
would boil down to the same thing- we must not only have good intellectual
responses, but we must live in a way that reflects Christ in our hearts. This
is a necessary point, but I was disappointed that it was basically his only
point for our response to the challenges of our culture.

The largest disappointment of the evening was the Q & A.
Zacharias is known for his Q & A segments and they built it up over the
course of the evening. But instead of taking audience questions the “20’s
pastor” sat on stage with the speakers and asked a few basic, broad apologetic
questions, like “How do you respond to someone who says all religions are
basically the same?” They offered good responses, but I (and I suspect most of
the audience) wanted to ask questions. I wanted to ask if Zacharias would
elaborate on what his specific concerns are with the emerging church. Audience
questions would have been far more interesting than what actually took place.

For those interested, on May 21st Mariners
will host an event with Lee Strobel to deal with the Da Vinci Code.
Details should be on their website soon.

Category Posted in Apologetics, Culture, Main Page, Roger's Posts Comments 9 Comments »

Interview with Bruce Edwards, Part II

Date February 22, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

           

       

“We most accurately discern the spiritual world of Narnia in the biography of Aslan.” (xvii, Not a Tame Lion) Why is Aslan so central to the Narnian chronicles?

“He’s the King, I tell you.” That statement from Mr. Beaver really says it all. Aslan is the creator, savior, sustainer, convener, adjourner of Narnian history and destiny, the end and the goal of its existence. To try to read Narnia as “just” a children’s adventure tale is to miss the grander vision at work in Narnia, and to read it as a tale of smart, savvy wanderers who experience an initiation into adulthood—this is to trivialize it. It is quite necessary to see it a “canonical” set of seven tales, and thus crucial to see each story and cast of characters in the context of the whole . . . What happens to Susan is just as dear to Aslan as what happens to Reepicheep. Digory’s story as poignant as it is, is no more so than Eustace’s—and what ties everyone, every theme, every incident together is Aslan and his active presence and nurture. So we must start with him.  And end with him.

Why is it important to understand Aslan as being untamed; as being “not safe, but good?”

If Aslan is the King who lays down his life for his friends and then takes it up again—he must be free and untethered, must be able to obey his own rules, even if it means his own demise. He must seen as wild and untamed precisely for his willingness to witness to the truth under any and all circumstances. Only then can the cost of goodness, and the risk of obedience, be calculated. And also, only then, is it possible to see its reward: pleasing the Emperor-Beyond-Sea, His father. Aslan’s goodness—and ours—rules out safety as a virtue, just as Jesus rebukes the young ruler in Mark’s Gospel for calling him “good” without a clear sense of what it is he is really saying or implying, “There is one who is good, and that is God.” If he had known what he was saying, he would realize that he was confessing Jesus is the Son of God, and Jesus cautions that that kind of faith inevitably requires him to lay down all his possessions and to follow him. Likewise, Aslan is, reversing Mr. Beaver, “GOOD, but not SAFE,” and thereby challenges our concept of goodness, and redeems our fears of insecurity. Aslan will not leave his beloved alone—they will be changed if they seek and stay in his presence. Good thing He’s good!

In Not a Tame Lion you explore many of the spiritual and moral qualities of Narnia as experienced by its characters. Can you give us a taste of one of these qualities?

Continue reading at Never Enough Tea…

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The A-Team Blog Book of the Year Award (2005): Contestants

Date February 22, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

It's time for the first award The A-Team Blog has ever handed out! The objective is to highlight and recognize the best of the best from the past year so you don't waste money buying every book that hits the shelves (like I do). In order to qualify the book must a) be published in 2005, b) have been read by me. Below are the books that qualify for this prestigious honor. The winner and two runner-ups will be announced next week.
The Out of Bounds Church? by Steve Taylor
Escaping the Matrix by Gregory Boyd & Al Larson
The Feminist Mistake by Mary Kassian
A Different Jesus? by Robert Millet
Sex and the Supremacy of Christ ed. John Piper & Justin Taylor
Father, Son, & Holy Spirit by Bruce Ware
Choosing a Bible by Leland Ryken
What is Reformed Theology? by R.C. Sproul
Head, Heart & Hands by Dennis Hollinger
Beyond the Shadowlands by Wayne Martindale
Rick Warren and the Purpose that Drives Him by Richard Abanes
Into the Wardrobe by David Downing
A Reader's Guide Through the Wardrobe by Leland Ryken & Marjorie Lamp Mead
5 Paths to the Love of Your Life ed. Alex Chediak
Jack's Life by Douglas Gresham
Blog by Hugh Hewitt
Further Up & Further In by Bruce Edwards
Earthboy Jacobus by Doug TenNapel
Truth and the New Kind of Christian by R. Scott Smith
I Love Mormons by David Rowe
Whatever Happened to Truth? ed. Andreas Köstenberger
C.S. Lewis's Case for Christ by Art Lindsley
God's Blogs by Lanny Donoho
Inside Narnia by Devin Brown
Running Against the Wind by Brian Flynn
Philosophy Made Slightly Less Difficult by J.P. Moreland & Garrett DeWeese
God is the Gospel by John Piper
Not a Tame Lion by Bruce Edwards

Category Posted in Book Reviews, Main Page, Roger's Posts Comments 2 Comments »

Interview with Bruce Edwards, Part I

Date February 21, 2006 Posted by Roger Overton

       

   

Of all the people throughout history whose works and personality you could have studied, why have you spent so much time with C.S. Lewis?           

Clearly, because of the impact his work and life have had on me personally and professionally. I grew up in a very fundamentalist, sectarian environment, and attended a very conservative Bible college. . . Ironically, it was there I was introduced to Lewis’s work in an apologetics class.  To paraphrase Lewis, “a young fundamentalist cannot be too careful of his reading. . .” He pulled me out of my “true church” sect, and led me to “mere Christianity”: a welcome rescue. After a period of local church ministry, then I went on to further graduate studies, and eventually the PhD, where Lewis was a natural topic for me, but not, at the time, especially his fiction or fantasy, but rather his “hermeneutics,” his literary critical principles. I wrote a dissertation on his principles for sound literary encounter, and in return got quite a salutary discipleship experience.

In Not a Tame Lion you claim that what makes Lewis effective for readers today “is not his formidable skill of philosophical argumentation, the considerable lucidity of his prose, or the legendary perspicacity of his reading and scholarship.” (190) In your opinion, what is it that makes him effective?

As I say in the book, it’s his identification with the lost, his understanding of what it means, in Walker Percy’s terms, to be a “wayfarer” in this world. His empathy and grace in dealing with the homelessness and homesickness attendant to living in a fallen world is what extends his audience into the 21st century and beyond. Lewis’s narrative voice reveals a winsome memoirist who comforts, challenges, counsels, and cajoles readers who share his sense of “being made for another world.”

Continue reading at Never Enough Tea…

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