end of an era

Peter Enns and Westminster Theological Seminary have posted a joint statement in which they announce that mutual terms have been reached and, as of 01 August 2008, Pete will “discontinue his service to Westminster Theological Seminary after 14 years.”

While his service at WTS, as in being on faculty, will be over, I know that his service to the church is not over. While it goes without saying that I am extremely disappointed, I look forward to reading everything that Pete is sure to produce in the future.

You can read the official joint statement at Pete’s site or WTS’s site.

that batman film

I’m probably the only one who has seen it, so I don’t want to ruin the ending or include any spoilers.

A few of my reactions:

—I hate seeing movies after they have been hyped. It can only lead to disappointment. You go into a movie hearing things like, “Probably better than The Godfather” and you start expecting great things. Anything short of A Clockwork Orange or Howard the Duck is going to leave you disappointed.

—Ok, Howard the Duck was a bad example. But you get my point.

—Heath Ledger’s character was good. But it was too underdeveloped to live up to all the hype of it being “the greatest villain of all time.” Two words: Hannibal Lecter.

—I don’t want to be Johnny Raincloud: it was a good movie. But I think it’s being blown out of proportion. Batman was the only developed character in the whole movie. Everyone else’s backstory is muddled at best, completely underdeveloped at worst.

—I think this movie serves to prove just how corrupt and evil “Gotham City” (aka New York) is…and, by extension, all their sports teams.

—Two words: Hannibal Lecter.

That’s about all I got. Anyone else’s reactions?

altar calls, summer camps, and making disciples

This week I am at a youth camp with 22 kids from my youth group (without a good internet connection…which explains the lack of blogging). When I was growing up I went to this camp and many similar camps. You probably know the type: crazy games, awful food, late nights, practical jokes, a morning and evening service, and the inevitable end-of-the-week campfire where the speaker usually gives a Gospel message (most of the time focusing on hell and how we shouldn’t want to go there if we were to die tonight) and calls the kids forward to make a “public profession of faith” or to throw a stick in the campfire (where the stick represents some area of your life you will give to Christ).

One thing I’ve been attempting to make clear to my kids is that camp will end and they will be back to their normal routine next week. Camp is a bubble where the kids are saturated with morning and evening Bible lessons, doing quite times, talking about their spiritual life, and singing loud worship songs with all their friends. It can lead to the kids making decisions that have not been well thought through, but, instead, made because of emotions at the time. But the fact of the matter is that they will have to live with whatever decisions they make while they are in the “camp bubble” long after they are outside of it.

When thinking about this, and how to set the goal for my kids at life-long discipleship and not a one-and-done decision, I have been thinking about the function

red sox nation rap

Brilliant!

response to my critics 2

The following is the second part of an essay written by Dr. Bruce McCormack. I am posting it here at his request. The first installment can be found here.

An All Too Brief History of the Reception of Chalcedon with Particular Focus on Representative Figures in the Reformed Tradition and their Antecedents

A. Leontius of Byzantium and John of Damascus

I am not going to devote much space to Leontius. His importance in the history of theology lies in coining the terminological anyhpostasia-enhypostasia distinction. In truth, he was not really an innovator and what he meant by the terms is subject to debate - a debate which I will not seek to resolve here. Suffice it here to note the conclusions drawn by Aloys Grillmeier where Leontius’ understanding of the “person of the union” was concerned. “For Cyril and Severus the determination of the subject of the incarnation was already given with John 1, 14; the Logos is present in the flesh. A remnant of Antiochene schooling seems in contrast to have remained in Leontius. As B. E. Daley concedes, in a series of texts the monk begins his theological analysis not with the eternal Logos and the history of his works among human beings, but with the divine fait accompli ‘Jesus Christ’, who is for him both God as well as a human being. How would he respond to the question: who is the real personal ‘you’ in Jesus of Nazareth, whom you confess as God and human being? It is as if Leontius would have answered: the hypostasis, the concrete person ‘Jesus Christ’ is neither simply divine nor simply human, although his Christ exists and acts wholly as God and wholly as human being; to be human and divine is the business of the natures and not of the person or hypostasis. In fact Leontius never identifies explicitly and virtue of logical deduction the ‘one hypostasis with the Logos as Logos” (Grillmeier, II/2, p.187). In making the “person” to be the whole Christ,

response to my critics 1

The following is the first part of an essay written by Dr. Bruce McCormack. I am posting it here at his request. The second installment can be found here.

Readers of this blog will undoubtedly be wondering what became of my challenge to Dr. Lane Tipton to debate me on questions arising from my earlier post “Reformed Christology and the Westminster HTFC Report.” Dr. Tipton contacted me by phone the same day I issued my challenge.  He wanted, he said, to debate me in a more scholarly venue, and offered the Westminster Theological Journal for that purpose.  His proposal was that I should write a scholarly essay covering all of the issues I thought relevant.  He would then respond - and that would bring an end to the debate.  There followed a reiteration of this invitation from Scott Oliphint as well as from Carl Trueman (in a formal letter).  My answer to all of them was and is that I will not engage in a debate in the pages of the WTJ under the conditions imposed by the editors - for two reasons.

First, it strikes me as inappropriate - in terms of normal rules of civility - for a (relatively unpublished) junior professor to have the final word in a debate with a senior professor.

But second, and more importantly, those responding to my brief analysis of the Christology presupposed in the HTFC report have shown an uncanny ability thus far to shift the ground of the debate from the topics I placed on the table for discussion, changing subjects abruptly, passing by in silence the questions which I posed to them, etc.  Dr. Tipton’s “response” to my response to the HTFC report was no different in this regard.  In his footnote 4, he shifts the ground from the question of the lived relation of the natures to each other (which is where it ought to be, given the debate over the so-called Christological analogy between the relation of the “natures” of Christ on the one hand to the cooperation of divine agency and human agency in the production of Holy Scripture on the other) to a discussion of the anhypostasia - a subject on which we have scant disagreement.  Under the condition that Dr. Tipton be given the final word

update

Most of you already know that I am working with the youth group at Heritage Baptist Church this summer. Heritage is where my father is the senior pastor and where I went to youth group during high school (I apologize to all my youth group leaders…I was an idiot…probably still am…I digress). Thus far it is going really well. I am doing two series with the youth: Wednesday nights is “Lessons in Genesis” and Sunday mornings is “Heroes of the Old Testament.” Apparently doing a series on midrash was out of the question! I have a nice office and they even have a computer set up for me. However, I am still using my MacBook because not only do I not like Windows, I also realized that I have forgotten how to use it well. For that, I have no regrets.

On top of that, I am also working as a consultant for Accordance Bible Software doing some work in the OT Historical Books for a new module they will be releasing shortly. I love it because I can keep up with my Hebrew and make a contribution to scholarship at the same time (and it’s easy, which is why they chose me!).

So I’m keeping busy, but am missing all my friends back in Philly…especially Liz. I just wanted to drop a line to let everyone know why its been so slow around here the past few weeks. Now that I have things planned out for the rest of the summer, I will be posting

the observant and the anawim—preson phillips

I met Tommy Preson Phillips during my time at Word of Life Bible Institute. I got to see him perform numerous times and still listen to his first album. I was very excited to be able to get a hold of his newest album entitled “The Observant and the Anawim,” which you can get from his website here.

This album has continuity and discontinuity with his older album, both in a positive direction. The continuity lies in why I appreciate Preson’s music so much: unlike most “Christian” music of today, Preson does not sacrifice musical style or deep lyrics to “play to the Christian crowd.” Instead, what you find when you put Preson’s albums on your iPod is quality music performed by an equally talented song writer.

The discontinuity is just as positive. Preson is the pastor of Watermark Church in Tampa, FL. His pastoral heart and his desire for sincere worship comes to the forefront in this album more so than his past album. The melodies of the songs match the pious and sincere lyrics in such a way that listening to the album serves not only as a time to hear excellent music, but as a time of self-reflection as one considers their own life and the God whom one is called to serve. As Preson states on his website, “These songs were all written for the church that I am the pastor of, Watermark, and were written for our studies in the books of Acts and Galatians.” I would say that Preson hit the mark directly

midrash mondays 19

Every Monday there will be a midrashic fable posted from Louis Ginzberg’s classic collection Legends of the Jews. This week the midrash is about the sacrifices of Cain and Abel and the subsequent fratricide.

The backstory of the fratricide is interesting. According to Jewish legend, it was not only about the sacrifices, but also about Abel’s wife, who Cain desired because of her beauty. It is also interesting that the story of the murder has a moral at the end of the story. Perhaps this legend grew as a heuristic device for younger Jewish people who were learning the backstories of Torah.

The slaying of Abel by Cain did not comes as a wholly unexpected event to his parents. In a dream Eve had seen the blood of Abel flow into the mouth of Cain, who drank it with avidity, though his brother entreated him not to take all. When she told her dream to Adam, he said, lamenting, “O that this may not portend the death of Abel at the hand of Cain!” He separated the two lads, assigning to each an abode of his own, and to each he taught a different occupation. Cain became a tiller of the ground, and Abel a keeper of sheep. It was all in vain. In spite of these precautions, Cain slew his brother.

His hostility toward Abel had more than one reason. It began when God had respect unto the offering of Abel, and accepted it by sending

just to point out…

I have inherited Brandon Withrow’s excellent summary of all the internet and blog chatter surrounding Inspiration and Incarnation. I set up a page, which you can see at the top of your screen, that has been, and will continue to be, updated as documents are released, articles are written, etc.

You can find it all here.

Make sure to check out the new critiques by Gaffin and Oliphint, as well as Frame’s critique if you haven’t seen it yet. I’d love to say that I have the time to review each of them, but I don’t. Throughout the next couple weeks I will provide a summary and some questions regarding each critique when I have the time.

If you know of anything that is missing on that page, please email me and I will update it as soon as possible.