Baptists Can Use Catechisms, Too

Nathan Finn has a great post on the value of catechisms for Baptist Christians. He speaks of an emphasis on catechesis in Baptist history.

In his post, he lists a number of fantastic resources:

“Thankfully, Baptists have begun to recover an emphasis on catechisms over the past generation or so. Many noteworthy Baptist catechisms have been compiled in edited volumes by authors such as Tom Nettles, Timothy George, Jim Renihan, and Tom Ascol. First Baptist Church Tallassee, Alabama has published a catechism based upon the Baptist Faith and Message 2000. My friend Steve Weaver is working on a new edition of the Orthodox Catechism, a Baptist revision of the Heidelberg Catechism first published in 1680. John Piper published an updated version of the famous Baptist Catechism of 1693. Solid Ground Christian Books has reprinted Benjamin Beddome’s Scriptural Exposition of the Baptist Catechism, first published in 1752. Jim Scott Orrick has recorded an album that puts the 1693 catechism to music. Greg Nichols has edited a Baptist revision to the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1648). No doubt there are others of which I’m not aware. The texts of many Baptist catechisms can also be found on the internet at such websites (let Google be your guide).”

 

Stoney Lake

I was just a scrawny boy
finding my joy in a boat
in the middle of the lake
anchored by a rocky island
tiny and colonized by a few
mist-shrouded pine trees.

I wore a Donald Duck t-shirt
and a yellow coat,
mellowly posing for pictures
sitting in boats and on decks
with stringers filled with fish,
boxed in by majestic
moss-covered rocks.

My life at that time
often seemed like whimsy
but big, fierce things
were being etched
into my bones
there at Stoney Lake.

Take the dark and chilly water,
infinitely deep it seemed,
cooling off the hot air
as it comes to the shore.

Life framed by rocky edges and sedges
littered by pine needles
from the trees lining the horizon,
separating the sunny sky
from the razor sharp eye
of the ancient lake.

MJN

Out And About (2013/04/01)

Theology

  • Tony Reinke has a great post about why defining sanctification merely or primarily in relation to gratitude for justification is wrong.
  • As you might very well of heard, Edith Schaeffer died recently.  Many people have written about this, but here is a message from L’Abri.
  • Justin Taylor posted about Jerram Barrs’ forthcoming book on Christianity and the Arts, East Of Eden. I’ve come to appreciate Jerram’s teaching through L’Abri and this book looks really good!

Liberty

Books Finished in March

(5 paper books, 0 e-books, and 4 audio books)

Out And About (2013/03/28)

Books/Literature

  • Last  week, Chinua Achebe, a prominent African novelist, died. He is among the African authors I would like to read this year.
  • Fans of Edward Lear will be happy to know that Librivox now has a recording of his Laughable Lyrics.
  • The New York Review of Books has featured a translation of Italo Cavino on Why Read the Classics?
  • This is so cool! It’s a table made of books that Canon Press has published!

Theology

Local Interest (Windsor, Essex County, and Detroit)

American Politics: Foreign Policy, Liberty, Security, Privacy

  • Obama is going to close Guantanamo, right? Or so he promised! Here is what is actually happening!
  • Slate has an article about the FBI’s desire to spy on Gmail in 2013. The FBI seems concerned that that the “rise in popularity of email and social networks has stifled its ability to monitor communications as they are being transmitted”.  Alas, “the FBI is not happy with the current arrangement and is on a crusade for more surveillance authority”
  • This article over at the Huffington Post shows some of the effects that drone strikes are having on the people of Afghanistan.

Ayn Rand on C.S. Lewis

In her critical notes on C.S. Lewis’ The Abolition Of Man, Ayn Rand called Lewis:

  • “abysmal caricature who postures as a ‘gentle­man and a scholar’ “
  • “monster”
  • “incredible, medieval monstrosity”
  • “abysmal bastard”
  • “fool”
  • “abys­mal scum”

Source (Nick Steffan)

Review of Ghost Ship by Brian Hicks

A Review of Ghost Ship: The Mysterious True Story of the Mary Celeste and Her Missing Crew by Brian Hicks

I came around to reading this book when my brilliant wife selected it for the book she chose for me to read in March. What a fantastic book!images

The book centers around the perplexing mystery of the Mary Celeste, a ship of Nova Scotian origin. It was found abandoned around the Azores Islands, which are on the way to Portugal. The ship showed no signs of struggle and little to suggest that the weather conditions were heavy enough to drive an experienced captain to lead his wife, young daughter, and crew to risk their lives on a lifeboat.

The author does a great job of building suspense and yet avoiding sensationalism. He skilfully navigates background material, historical data, press reports, and weighs prevailing theories. In general, he deals with these theories fairly, showing their plausibility, but also debunking them, or showing that they have already been debunked.

Eventually, at the end, and only after giving much space to some far-fetched theories, the author presents his theory. It’s quite a simple and yet plausible explanation and certainly satisfied me. I found myself launched back into my early days of reading National Geographic’s World Magazine, which, for a young audience, once in a while discussed things such as lost treasure, ships, and mysteries.

I found myself drawn into the life of the people involved. I felt a lot of sympathy for the Briggs family. Their story is an extremely sad story. And what was public charade and cause for far-fetched tales for some, was a serious, string of sea-born tragedies for others.

I did not find any “dry” spots in this book. It is rather exciting, and even in the rather belabored section covering the salvage trial, the antics of the crown attorney keeps the narrative on its toes.  Another nice touch of this book is the way it connects the story to a broader story. You will find about Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s fictional tale based on the story of the Mary Celeste, which was often taken as a true account. There is also a discussion about how this story connects into a broader tradition of lore that includes the Bermuda Triangle. And the short anecdote about the Mary Celeste‘s final demise off the shore of Haiti is short, but fascinating.

I heartily recommend this book to anyone who wants a delightful read about a true mystery.

Out And About (2013/03/21)

Poetry

  • Priscilla Wong has featured another of her poems, Re-Visions
  • Jim Hamilton has featured a poem of his, Daniel

Literature

Theology

Foreign Policy And Liberty

  • The Obama Administration’s Secrecy And Violations Of Civil Liberties
    • The Pentagon Papers’ lawyer James Goodale was interviewed and he said that the Obama administrations approach to classified information is “Antediluvian” and “worse than Nixon”.
    • The Obama administration is arguing that warrantless GPS tracking of citizens is necessary and “probable cause” is not an applicable standard to this issue.
  • The Iraq War
    • (WARNING: There are extremely graphic photos in this article that are not for the faint of heart.) This article about the the deadly impact of the Iraq war, especially in Fallujah, is quite thought provoking. The article says “Contamination from Depleted Uranium (DU) munitions and other military-related pollution is suspected of causing a sharp rises in congenital birth defects, cancer cases, and other illnesses throughout much of Iraq.”.
    • A recent Reuters article states that the Iraq war has cost $2 trillion dollars and the interest payments on that could eventually swell the figure to $6 trillion. At what point does the cost of such a war (in money, American lives, Iraqi lives, Iraqi children being born deformed, etc.) become too much? How about when the case for the war was built on misinformation?
  • Syria