The Bible Thumper in MmmmmeeeeeeEEEE

Published on by D. G. Hart

So it turns out that Tim Keller has recommended to his pastors in the Big Apple that they use a Canadian Roman Catholic philosopher as part of their preparation for reaching Manhattanites:

Dr. Keller of Redeemer Presbyterian has built his ministry very much on confronting the challenge. His books include “The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism.” He periodically teaches an adult-ed class titled “Questioning Christianity” and sometimes holds question-and-answer sessions with attendees after Redeemer’s Sunday worship services.

His decision to open a branch of Redeemer on West 83rd Street in 2012 — the first new church built in the neighborhood in decades — was a brick-and-mortar way of meeting nonbelievers where they live. And he prepared his young ministers and staff members for the Upper West Side by studying together such books as the philosopher Charles Taylor’s “A Secular Age.”

Imagine how hard it would have been to plant a church in Ephesus. Imagine also if Paul had recommended Lucretius to Timothy:

Teach and urge these things. If anyone teaches a different doctrine and does not agree with the sound words of our Lord Jesus Christ and the teaching that accords with godliness, he is puffed up with conceit and understands nothing. He has an unhealthy craving for controversy and for quarrels about words, which produce envy, dissension, slander, evil suspicions, and constant friction among people who are depraved in mind and deprived of the truth, imagining that godliness is a means of gain. (1 Timothy 6:2-5 ESV)

As wise as 700-page tomes may be, sometimes you need to dance with the date that brought you. That goes double for Protestants who minister God’s word.

7 thoughts on “The Bible Thumper in MmmmmeeeeeeEEEE”

  2. Turbs, no doubt DGH is immensely gratified and strangely warmed by your tepid approval (only one exclamation point and no bold). As are we all.

    Liked by 1 person

  3. You just don’t get it, do you? The Ol’ Timey ways of preaching the Ol’ Timey Religion just won’t work in The City. Appealing to secular urban sophisticates with a taste for gourmet food and exotic coffee takes evangelism to a whole new dimension. If you’re not familiar with Annie Dillard AND Anne Lamott, and you can’t tell the difference between a Cantata and a Sonata then you’re just not ready for the cultural engagement required to reach this market. The Bible can only take you so far with these skeptical tech savy foodies. I suggest you Start watching The Daily Show to pick up on some cultural cues. Meanwhile focus your efforts on cultural wastelands like Council Bluffs and Chillicothe. Peace.

    Like

  5. Charles Taylor is way way way overrated. Of course so is Maritain. To say nada of Benedict XVI. These guys don’t convince, they just tell us what we want to hear. Just saying….

    Like

  6. In memory of a no longer needed “reformation”, Leithart and Carl Truman get together at a para-church conference, along with a southern baptist who led the ECT effort.

    Leithart—.Double predestination says that human beings are predestined by God’s decree to either salvation or reprobation, but if human beings are what they are at the end, then it seems God created two different sorts of human beings .One sector of the human race is eternally considered in Christ, the other is by decretal definition Christless and Spiritless…. The problem underlying the problem of reprobation is a failure to understand creation and a reflects persistent nature/grace dualism in Reformed theology. If creation exists only by the continuous work of the Father’s Word and Spirit, then there is no one anywhere, reprobate or elect, who is not the recipient of God’s gift and the object of His care.

    https://www.uu.edu/events/ref500/speakers.cfm

    Like

Leave a comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.