These articles–called ‘Extended Articles’–will typically include more interaction with other resources, may contain footnotes, and will always be longer in length (between 2000-4500 words) than regular blog articles. These articles will vary in range of topics covered, but they will often engage issues in biblical and theological scholarship that are currently or will soon have a significant impact on the church.
_________________________________________________________
Review of God’s Word in Human Words | Kenton Sparks – Kenton Sparks, professor of Biblical Studies at Eastern University—an evangelical school by confession—has recently offered his contribution to an evangelical doctrine of Scripture in God’s Word in Human Words: An Evangelical Appropriation of Critical Biblical Scholarship (GWHW). As the title of the book suggests and as he states clearly in the introduction, Sparks situates himself within the evangelical tradition, so he approaches his work from a “profound appreciation” for evangelicalism’s “doctrinal commitment to the inerrancy of God’s Word” (22)….Read more
Compassionate Engagement: A Brief Survey of the Life of Francis Schaeffer –Francis Schaeffer was one of the first well-known evangelicals in the twentieth century to promote Christian thinking about philosophy, art, culture, and other important areas of modern learning. Prior to Schaeffer, evangelicals, beginning in the early to mid-20th century, had been, in large measure, guilty of shirking these kinds of intellectual pursuits and retreating into pietism, anti-intellecutalism, prophetic fanaticism, and separatism….Read more
Staying the Course: Humility and Christian Leadership – Rarely is humility exalted as a fundamental element of true leadership. Yet, despite what some popular leadership proponents may allege, an honest and discriminating look into contemporary business culture confirms what the Scripture proclaims: God is opposed to the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. Christian leaders, then, must make every effort to cultivate sincere humility for their task of leadership within the church an in other organizations they might oversee. Aiding in this endeavor is the goal of this article….Read more
Review Article: Think Orange by Reggie Joiner – Around the time Reggie Joiner was drafting copies of his second book (his first was a co-authored effort entitled, Seven Practices of Effective Ministry), a noticeable trend was taking shape in evangelical churches. Prior to the late 20th and early 21st century, “Family Ministry” as a distinguishable component of ecclesiastical life was not a topic of conversation among many church leaders and thinkers….Read More
The Pastor-Theologian: Valuable and Necessary – While it may be difficult to believe in our current cultural setting, there was a time when the pastor was viewed as a town’s leading intellectual. Pastors of what seems like a long-lost era were doctrinally grounded and biblically saturated, to be sure; but they were also well-read in other important branches of study—literature, economics, politics, philosophy, and science—and were therefore able to apply biblical truth to these areas of inquiry with keen spiritual and intellectual skill, helping their people think theologically about major trends within the church and the greater society….Read More
A. T. B. McGowan’s The Divine Authenticity of Scripture: Retrieving an Evangelical Heritage contributes to evangelical discussions on the doctrine of Scripture (9). According to McGowan, evangelicals are in need of renewed examination of our theological language so that we might “clarify precisely what we mean when we speak about Scripture as the Word of God” (9). Specifically, “spiration” will now replace “inspiration”; “illumination” will yield to “recognition”; and “infallibility” will take the place of “inerrancy” (38-49). In order to establish the basis for this latter proposal concerning inerrancy, he first traces how liberal theology, fueled as it was by the Enlightenment’s turn to the subject (51), shaped two respective responses concerning the truthfulness of Scripture from neo-orthodox and conservative evangelical theologians (50-83). According to McGowan, the doctrine of inerrancy grew out of the conservative evangelical response, developed and articulated chiefly by Princetonians Charles Hodge and B. B. Warfield….Read More
From the Study 