In his hour of agony on the cross, Christ cried out to his Father, “my God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Matt 27:46). What did he mean? Did the Father reject the Son in such a way that the Triune God was temporarily broken? Does the Son suffer the rejection of his Father as the Son or is Christ forsaken in an entirely different way? Tom McCall argues that the forsakenness of Christ does not mean a rupture in the unity of the Trinity, but that the Father forsakes the Son to his death at the hand of sinners for the purpose of our salvation.[1] McCall contends that…
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Book Review: Mumford’s Metaphysics
This is an excellent little book. Metaphysics can be opaque and this book takes the veil off some of the mystery without degrading the discipline. If you are married to a philosopher and think that talking about tables and chairs the way your spouse does is insane and irrelevant, then this book is for you. If you are a freshman who just got yourself an introduction to metaphysics but wished it was more introductory then this book is for you. If you are a highly decorated metaphysician but have forgotten how to explain what you do to the uninitiated this book will help. Stephen Mumford’s skill lies in navigating a…
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Notes on J.P. Moreland’s The Recalcitrant Imago Dei
J.P. Moreland argues that certain features that we take to be part of what it means to be human are incompatible with naturalism but are every bit accounted for by Biblical Theism. Naturalistic views usually have three components – a commitment to an empirical epistemology, a historical account (“Grand Story”) reliant upon causal theory and emergenitism, and a constitutive account restricted to an ideal physics explainable with reference to causal theory. Moreland argues that consciousness, free will, rationality, an enduring soul, objective morality and human intrinsic value are all incompatible with naturalism. Moreland concludes by suggesting that the best the naturalist can offer is a dismissive strategy that takes human…
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Notes on Olson’s What Are We?
Eric Olson’s main contention is that when we refer to “I” we should be referring to one thing or perhaps no thing, but not multiple things. For any theory of identity one must avoid the thinking animal problem – positing more than one entity answering to the reference “I.” Olsen’s suggestion is that we are animals. Animalism is the view that each human being is numerically identical with an animal. An animal is a biological organism that lives by virtue of being a self-organizing “biological event” that maintains a complex internal structure. According to Olson, common theories fail to avoid falling fowl of the problem. Constitution, brain, part, bundle, soul…
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Some Gappy Notes on Michael Rea’s World Without Design
According to Michael Rea, naturalism is a combination of a method and an assumption. Methodologically, naturalism is the attempt to understand the world through the natural sciences. The assumption, which, theoretically at least, can be overturned at any moment, is that everything that exists is material. The assumption can, in principle, be overturned at any moment because natural sciences don’t claim to have all data at their fingertips. Fairies could be found at the bottom of an English garden and God might appear from behind a far off planet, but neither of these events seems plausible given only the data that the natural sciences have produced so far. Rea defines…
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Nine of the Most Influential Books I Have Read
Here are nine of the books that have influenced me most in my life (apart from the Bible): 1. Tintin by Herge My parents used to tell people that if I sounded like I knew anything I got it from Tintin. Despite being a little colonial in its perspective (Herge often used unflattering ethical stereotypes) Tintin’s adventures took my young imagination all over the world. 2. The Secret Agent’s Handbook When I was old enough to go to the movies I became obsessed with James Bond. My parents bought me this book to put my obsession into practice. Somehow my interest, and this book specifically, became a part of my…
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Review: “The Next Story: Life and Faith After the Digital Explosion” by Tim Challies
Do we own tech or does it own us? A cliche perhaps, but Challies’ book, The Next Story, does a great job of helping the reader have technological discernment. Technology is not inherently bad nor is it neutral. Challies argues that technology is inherently good. In fact, technology is a result of the God given mandate to “be fruitful and multiply,” it is, according to Challies, “the creative activity of using tools to shape God’s creation for practical purposes.” What goes wrong is the human application of technology. And that is because technology is subject to the fall, the curse and sin. Challies writes in order to bring technology into…
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Review: “Can You Believe It’s True?” by John Feinberg
Can You Believe It’s True? Christian Apologetics in a Modern and Postmodern Era is really a book about truth: “even though this is a book is usable as a general text in apologetics, the greatest burden and passion of the book is to defend the notions that there is truth, humans can find it, and we can “know that we know” what is true” (p.11). Feinberg’s interlocutors for his discussion are skeptics, those who resist Christian claims to truth. In our contemporary setting, such skeptics come in two flavors – modern and postmodern. Modern skeptics regard the claims of the Christian to be unsupported by the evidence. Postmodern skeptics, on…