Worth Reading - 8/30/24
Here are some links worth following this week.
1. Rebecca McLaughlin reviews a new book, which claims that the Bible clearly prohibits same-sex sex, but God changed his mind.
“We have no evidence that God has “changed his mind” when it comes to same-sex sexual relationships, and we don’t have “Spirit-led freedom to set aside biblical laws and teachings [we] deem unjust, irrelevant, or inconsistent with the broader divine will” (212–13). But we do have God’s grace abounding to repentant sinners and the Spirit’s power to “flee from sexual immorality” (v. 18). To experience the wideness of God’s mercy, we must enter through the narrow gate of Christ, who shed his blood to pay for all our sin (Matt. 7:13–14).”
2. New Testament scholar, Tom Schreiner, reviewed the same book and offers a complementary perspective:
“Sometimes when people change their mind it is occasion for joy and celebration, for there is no virtue in adhering to past opinions for the sake of tradition or fear of criticism. In this case, however, Richard Hays’s change of mind is a cause of grief and sadness instead of joy, especially for those like me who have learned so much from his outstanding scholarship over the years.1 The father (Richard — a New Testament professor for many years at Duke) and son (Chris — an Old Testament professor at Fuller) rightly emphasize God’s mercy as a central theme of the biblical storyline, and many observations (especially in the New Testament portion of the book) are helpful and true, but their understanding of mercy when it comes to same-sex relationships deviates radically from Scripture.”
3. This review by Alan Jacobs of two annotated copies of The Wind in the Willows is a joy to read and a reminder of the wonder within that book.
“And now, for me, it’s back to a reading of the story that I wish I had known in my childhood. (And yet would I have loved it then?) The river holds more than enough excitement, after all, and so does The Wind in the Willows. When Mole asks Ratty about the Wild Wood, he receives just a few broken, reluctant, uninformative sentences. And when he asks about what might be found on the other side of the Wild Wood, he gets only this quite proper rebuke: “‘Beyond the Wild Wood comes the Wide World,’ said the Rat. ‘And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all. Don’t ever refer to it again, please.’””
4. Gavin Ortlund explores the shift in the use of terms like “liberal” and “fundamentalist” over the past century.
5. Videographer Peter Santenello offers a window into the drug problem in a Philadelphia neighborhood. The most encouraging aspect of this video is the work of The Rock ministry and their open proclamation of the gospel.
If you’re looking for a devotional guide for Advent, consider this new book I contributed to with other editors from The Gospel Coalition:
Some links worth following this week: 1. Patrick Miller argues against school-provided screens; 2. Alan Jacobs thinks about the pursuit of the enchantment in the world; 3. Matthew Arbo makes a case for more Protestant theological ethicists; 4. An engaging discussion of Robert Caro's biography of Robert Moses; 5. Brett McCracken reviews a forthcoming documentary that riffs on Bowling Alone; 6. An interview with James Davison Hunter.