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” →

Cornelius Van Til

Published on by D. G. Hart1 Comment

John Muether talks with the Christ the Center panel about his book Cornelius Van Til:  Reformed Apologist and Churchman, the latest volume in the American Reformed Biography series published by Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing.  Professor Muether discusses various aspects of the life and thought of Van Til, including his involvement in the so-called Clark/Van Til controversy, his critical analysis of Karl Barth, his interaction with his Christian Reformed Church critics, and his involvement with the founding and first several decades of existence of Westminster Theological Seminary and the OPC.  Like the book, our conversation with Professor Muether will leave the listener longing to hear more.

You can listen to the interview here.

Deconstructing Evangelicalism Interview

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Darryl G. Hart joined the panel on Christ the Center to talk about his book Deconstructing Evangelicalism. Hart points out that Evangelicalism actually is an umbrella term used to unite conservative Christians from different traditions. There never has been a generic Evangelical. The panel discussed the different senses of the word “Evangelical” and noted that the use of the word today in America is more or less governed by the rise of Neo-Evangelicalism in the mid-twentieth century. Perhaps it is best to identify oneself by one’s denominational affiliation. Listener’s will find this discussion timely and fascinating.

J. Gresham Machen

Published on by D. G. Hart2 Comments

Darryl G. Hart discusses J. Gresham Machen on Christ the Center.  Hart explains the historical and continuing contemporary significance of Machen as well as intriguing details of his life and work.  Among highlights of the conversation are Machen’s formation of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions and the discussion of Machen’s literary legacy.

Introducing OldLife.org

Published on by D. G. Hart5 Comments

This is the latest addition to the Reformed Forum network.  We will be offering an historically reformed perspective on issues in reformed theology, politics and other subjects that may be of interest.  We are also planning to bring the Nicotine Theological Journal to the web.  In the near future, back issues will be available as PDFs.