Turns out Rush Limbaugh agrees with Scott Clark

Published on by D. G. Hart4 Comments

Rush Limbaugh is no fan of prepared remarks or teleprompters either.  In his recent CPAC speech he said:

… for those of you in the Drive-By Media watching, I have not needed a teleprompter for anything I’ve said. [Applause] And nor do any of us need a teleprompter, because our beliefs are not the result of calculations and contrivances. Our beliefs are not the result of a deranged psychology. Our beliefs are our core. Our beliefs are our hearts. We don’t have to make notes about what we believe. We don’t have to write down, ‘oh do I believe it, do I believe that.’ We can tell people what we believe off the top of our heads, and we can do it with passion and we can do it with clarity, and we can do it persuasively.

Conor Friedersdorf, over at The American Scene, wonders if prepared remarks indicate insincerity, a lack of depth or integrity.  He writes:

A couple years ago, I served as best man at the wedding of one of my best friends, Mike, who I’ve known since we were 13 years old. He is someone who commands my loyalty, respect, and admiration, so it may not surprise you that I labored mightily over the remarks I made at his wedding reception. I sought words that did the occasion justice, communicating something special about the bride and groom that grandparents, peers, and little cousins could all appreciate. I’d never given a more important speech, so intense forethought and preparation struck me as the obvious approach, one that signified my respect for the occasion.

Continue reading “Turns out Rush Limbaugh agrees with Scott Clark” →

Front Porch Republic

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When will the blogging end?  Friends over at Front Porch Republic have launched a new site that may not be an obvious resource for confessional Presbyterians.  But it should because the Bible does not tell us directly how to be conservative.  Yes, Scripture provides lots of teaching that adds up to conservatism.  But conservatism’s essential features are by no means obvious when the Bible apparently inspires more “radical” or “red letter” Christians than believers who take situatedness and embodiment seriously.  Continue reading “Front Porch Republic” →

Subscribe to the NTJ

Published on by D. G. Hart7 Comments

The latest edition of the Nicotine Theological Journal is out.  To subscribe, send a letter to:

Nicotine Theological Journal
1167 Kerwood Circle
Oviedo, FL 32765-6194
Subscriptions are $10 per year ($12 Canadian) for the quarterly journal. The price for institutions is $15 per year ($17 Canadian).

P&W and God's Impending Judgment

Published on by D. G. Hart5 Comments

From the NTJ, July 1997 (1.3)

We are not given to providential readings of United States’ history. Our editorial policy vehemently rejects the notion that America has a special place in God’s plan, or even that it was and should be a Christian nation. From our reading of the Bible only one nation ever existed as God’s chosen one, and that was Israel, the Old Testament church.Nor do we think it possible to tell what God is up to in human history. We know the broad outlines of the story, which is the movement from creation, the fall, and redemption (where we now are) to consummation. But how we get there apart from some special revelation to instruct us is anybody’s guess.

Having said all that, if we were to conclude that God was judging the United States through abortion, the AIDS epidemic and general lawlessness, would it be possible to say the cause of such punishment was the American church’s use of praise songs, overheads, hand held mikes and electric guitars in worship? After all, almost every time God punished Israel it was because God’s people was engaging in idolatry. So why is it that the Christians most prone to providential readings of current affairs are also the ones most  comfortable with rock ‘n roll in public worship?

As the punch line has it to a joke observing that there are twenty-four hours in a day and twenty-four bottles in a case of beer: any connection?

I Thought It Was Black History Month

Published on by D. G. Hart9 Comments

Turns out I’m wrong again.  Redeemer NYC is again on the cutting edge, going against the grain by making February Arts Month. 

You can read more about it here (not to mention the female – ahem – Director of Arts Ministry – double ahem).  Just when I was set to watch Spike Lee’s Malcolm X, now I learn I should have rented Pollock. 

Darn, redeeming culture is so tricky.

Why is Your Face Any More Attractive?

Published on by D. G. Hart10 Comments

Our good friend over at Heidelblog, Scott Clark, has some sage words for aspiring preachers.  But on one of his points Scott loses me.  He writes:

Keep your head up (and leave the manuscript at home). No one in the congregation, except your mother, cares to see the top of your head. If you bring a ms to the pulpit and begin reading it your head will drop. We will not see your eyes but only the top of your head. No one talks to other people while staring at one’s feet. This is a terrible communication strategy. People are trained by television news readers and presidents and pundits to have someone delivering important information by looking them straight in the eye. You have the most important information in the world to deliver! Why would you do it whilst looking down at a piece of paper? Who will listen to the top of your head. Get your head up young man! Look people in the eye. If what you have to say is so complicated that you can’t say paraphrase it clearly whilst looking people in the face, it’s too complicated for a sermon. . . . Simplify your notes. Simplify your sermon. Keep your head up.

Continue reading “Why is Your Face Any More Attractive?” →

Insufficient Reasons

Published on by D. G. Hart2 Comments

The fanfare among evangelical Presbyterians for Tim Keller’s book was deafening. So we decided to see what someone from the audience for whom Keller wrote – a non-believer – would think of Keller’s arguments. After all, are people who already believe really the best to judge a book designed to persuade those who don’t? As the reviewer, the Nichols Professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania explains, the editors asked for this review. We had no idea what Professor Kuklick would write.

Timothy Keller, The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism. New York: Dutton, 2008. 296 pp.

The editors of the NTJ asked me to review this book. Readers have heralded it, they said, as a sophisticated body blow to secularism, but maybe the author is only talking to the already converted. What did I think? Continue reading “Insufficient Reasons” →

Paleo- and Neo-Reformed

Published on by D. G. Hart21 Comments

We didn’t ask for this but when a respected Protestant scholar invokes the category of Neo-Reformed (which implies a Paleo version), members of the Old Life Theological Society take the bait with relish (tabasco would help).

In a blog that has gotten far more attention than it likely deserves, Scot McKnight complains about the efforts of the Neo-Reformed to capture evangelicalism. He faults them for being traditionalist as opposed to following the Bible, accuses them of displaying fundamentalist belligerency as opposed to evangelical niceness, and fears they aim to take over evangelicalism and exclude the non-Reformed as opposed to just getting along. Continue reading “Paleo- and Neo-Reformed” →

NTJ: October 2006 Vol. 10 No. 4

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Contents

  • Allen E. Rich Growth Without Growing Up
  • Bryan A. Pieters The Reformed Faith & Its Latest Substitute
  • Townsend P. Levitt Big Sky Diarist: Worship Disenchanted
  • 39 Alexander Hall
  • Second Hand Smoke
  • Index of Articles from Volumes 1-10

PDF Download

Sabbath, Psalms and Single Malt: The NTJ

Published on by D. G. Hart16 Comments

Why are you reading yet another venture in Reformed desktop publishing (aside from the fact that we can’t afford a more substantial publication)? After all, confessional Presbyterians do not lack for periodicals that defend sound theology and spot bad imitations. There are many publications that print a steady diet of articles reflecting sound biblical and doctrinal insight, from denominational magazines to theological journals. Yet few, if any of these periodicals, pay close attention to the God-ordained means of grace as well as the habits and sensibilities that articulate, cultivate and reinforce orthodoxy. That is, few publications give proper heed to the embodiment of the Reformed faith, contenting themselves with the propositional and didactic elements of Presbyterian theology while ignoring the visible expression of Presbyterian convictions. Continue reading “Sabbath, Psalms and Single Malt: The NTJ” →