It looks like Evan Almighty is sinking. Thought by some to be a sure-thing summer blockbuster, it garnered some glowing reviews in the Christian media but only lukewarm reviews in the mainstream. With other, better family fare now on the big screen (think Ratatouille which has opened to rave reviews), Evan Almighty is going to…
School is out! Yesterday my son finished up his last day of grade one and my daughter had her last day of junior kindergarten on Wednesday, so today marks the official beginning of summer vacation. School ends about a month later in Canada than in the U.S. but also begins a month later (the Tuesday…
Friday June 29, 2007 Interview: Martin Downes has an interview with Mark Dever. Humor: Josh Harris shares an important truth. Books: Trevin shares some good advice on reading and on reading widely. Politics: Following closely behind the environmental movement, expect to read more stories like this one, suggesting that the best and quickest solution to…
The term hyper-Calvinist is often used as a pejorative. Almost any Calvinist who adheres to the doctrines of grace is likely to be considered a hyper-Calvinist by at least someone. Frankly speaking, a hyper-Calvinist can be any Calvinist to a person who doesn’t understand Calvinism. So today, just briefly, and because the term has come…
Thursday June 28, 2007 Video: American Vision has an amusing video dealing with Sam Harris and other atheists. Marriage: An article at Slate discusses the trouble with engagement rings. Sure it’s a kind of silly tradition, but I don’t think it’s a bad one! Theology: Mark Dever has begun a series asking where all these…
This isn’t a book review. Though I often refer to a particular book, I mean this more as a series of statements on intelligent design. The concept of intelligent design has undeniable appeal. Forming a kind of middle ground between creationism and evolution, it claims to reconcile the claims of modern science with what seems…
Wednesday June 27, 2007 Books: As promised, all the books at the Desiring God store are a mere $5 today. Even John Piper thinks this is crazy. So go and lose yourself in a frenzy of consumerism. You won’t be sorry! Photo: Though the text accompanying it is a little over the top, this photo…
Tuesdays are review days at Discerning Reader and this week we’ve added five new ones. Because I am reviewing so many books these days, I will only be posting some of them at my blog. The rest will appear over at Discerning Reader and you can read them there if you’re interested. I’ve written reviews…
I really don’t understand Anne Lamott’s appeal. I’ll grant that she is a talented writer but clearly this, in an of itself, cannot explain it. I suppose a good bit of her appeal probably stems from her gut-honest authenticity, her willingness to say exactly what she’s thinking all the time. She’s profound, she’s profane, she’s…
As mentioned in an earlier post, I read through Lou Priolo’s book Pleasing People last week. This was a book that just showed up in my mailbox. It is not one I would have chosen and even after I pulled it out of the box and set it in my “to read” bookcase I didn’t…
It requires a certain amount of trust to read and to enjoy a biography. Most books are easily-verified, easily fact-checked. A book discussing a particular doctrine can be easily held up to the Scripture and seen immediately to be true or false. Biographies, though, and especially those that rely on secondary sources, are much more…
I’ve always had a bit of a weakness for folk music (as my CD/MP3 collection can attest). So when I heard of the latest DVD from Franklin Springs Family Media, Charlie Zahm: An Evening of Classic Melodies, I knew I couldn’t pass it up. Zahm is a talented musician and an exceptional vocalist with an…
Yesterday the Resurgence blog posted an article by Greg Wright, a writer and film critic. The article was titled “Movies, Morality, and Ratings: A Hard Look at Our Opinion of Films.” He begins like this: Consider this graphic Hollywood plotline: A man travels to Las Vegas to retrieve his cheating wife. On the way back…
I’ve been working my way through Lou Priolo’s new book Pleasing People and it has given me a lot to think about. I don’t know that any of us are readily willing to admit that we are eager to be people pleasers but Priolo shows in this book just how prone we are all to…
Thursday June 21, 2007 Bible: BibleMapper is a really interesting program “that helps you quickly and easily create customized maps of the Holy Lands or study a particular period and aspect of Bible history.” It is available for free. Contest: I have announced the winners of the Discerning Reader contest over at DR. Blogs: 9Marks…
Every year, when summer approaches, we begin to hear about summer reading lists. I am uncertain if this is a throwback to days gone by or if people really do try to set aside a few books to read over the course of a summer. Or perhaps it is only students who do this as…
Years ago I found a beat-up old box that contained a stack of musty books. I suppose they must have belonged to my father or grandfather and that they had long since been forgotten. They were interesting books, clearly targeted at boys of a different age. They had stories of pirates, heroic tales of valor…
Over the weekend a member of a mailing list I subscribe to asked an interesting question. Reflecting both on some of the highly-publicized “defections” of former Protestants to Roman Catholicism and some he has witnessed personally he asked “What is the appeal of Roman Catholicism?” I have sometimes wondered the same. Why is it that…
Today is Father’s Day and I thought I’d share something I posted here before–an article I wrote for my dad three years ago on this day. Like most boys I idolized my father. When I was a child you would have had a difficult time convincing me that there was anyone smarter, faster or stronger…
While not everyone knows the name of John Newton, everyone knows his song and at least a bit of his story. Immortalized in the words of “Amazing Grace,” the most-recorded song in history, everyone knows that John Newton was wretched and miserable until saved by a grace that forever transformed his life. Two centuries ago,…