The things some people do for entertainment!
There are numerous enormously popular activities that I just don’t get.
Slot Machines
Around here in Alabama Casinos are not legal so they say. However, there is apparently some sort of loophole in these laws because we have dog tracks and at at least one of these tracks there is what appears to me to be a casino. Not a full-blown casino with all the trappings, but basically a big huge giant room filled with slot machines.
We also, apparently on a county by county basis, seem to go back and forth between allowing or not allowing ‘arcade’ rooms which are essentially slot machine casinos on a very small scale, yet with no cash award but something else such as gift certificates, etc.
Finally, Alabama also has at least one gaming institution on Indian (Native American) Land.
The point is, that this stuff is extremely popular. Even in Alabama where gaming is supposedly not legal, some form of it is legal and operates on a big scale. Not to mention how many people frequently drive over to Mississippi where it is legal. Whenever any of the arcade places are open, they are packed – especially in the late night hours. I have been into the Choctaw Indian casino before and there were lots of people in there – and this during daytime hours. It was just becoming prime time when we left and the crowd was growing fast. I have had the same experience at one of the dog tracks, which has a huge room of slot machines. I have also been on the casino on a couple of cruise ships and they are always busy. Finally, I have been to both Atlantic City and Lake Tahoe and was just amazed at the amount of activity.
All this may sound like I actually go to these places a lot. Actually, I do not and am not at all interested in them. Every time I have been in one of these places, I have been with other people who wanted to go. I had little or no interest and did little or no gaming. It’s not that I have a huge moral problem with gambling per se, it’s just that it does not interest me.
However, I could give you a long list of names of people I personally know who just can’t get enough of it. Presumably, they all believe they will strike it rich one day. They all claim that for their entire history of gaming, they have come out ahead – though none of them has kept records proving it, and if everyone who played came out ahead, the casinos would be out of business! All of them have at one time or another hit a big jackpot of hundreds of dollars. One of them has even once hit a jackpot of over fifteen thousand dollars. Yet, I’ll bet every one of them has in the end lost money on gaming. Yet they all keep going. Why? I just don’t get it.
And I only know a relative handful of people. There are thousands of folks doing this stuff all over the country every single day. They all think they are going to hit it big. They all seem frustrated every time they come out of the place. However, one thing is for certain. The CASINO is making money. The whole thing is set up so that they take in much more money than they pay out. That is obvious. These things are huge and elaborate and must cost a fortune. That money comes from the gamers who think they are going there to get rich. Every gamer I know understands all this. He or she just thinks that the next time they go they will beat the odds and win big and it will all be worthwhile. It is true that a few individual gamers do hit it big. But if they do, they need to quit right then and there. It is an absolute law of how these things operate that if anyone played continuously for all there lives, they would come out very much in the negative. In other words, the more you play, the more you lose. There is no way around that. So, if you just happen to have one great day and win thousands you need to walk away and never come back. I have yet to meet a gamer who has done so. The industry knows this and is laughing all the way to the bank with the money.
The picture I have in my mind of playing the slots is the picture of standing in front of a garbage can and little by little throwing your money in it. If that’s what you call entertainment, then by all means, go for it. Just count me out.
Soccer
The next thing is soccer. I won’t elaborate much, because in spite some of the predictions of soccer fanatics, the sport still has not become huge in the US. I remember reading a Lewis Grizzard column once where he stated that someone had told him that ‘in 25 years soccer will be bigger in America than football, baseball, and basketball combined.’ He replied that someone had told him the same thing 25 years earlier. Well, it’s probably been close to 25 years since Grizzard wrote that article and soccer is still not huge in the US. You know why? Because we actually have sports that are entertaining. Football, basketball, auto racing – heck, even baseball seems about as fast paced and exciting as an Indiana Jones movie next to big league soccer. I would probably even prefer watching golf on television to watching soccer. I just can’t imagine that the sports gods could develop an actual team sport that involved a ball, pads, and cleats that was more boring to watch than soccer.
Now, when two of my kids were younger, they actually played soccer. I’m talking about, say, 2nd, 3rd, 4th grade or thereabouts. It was actually fun to watch. Obviously, it is fun for a parent to watch his own kids, but even beyond this, it was fun just watching all the kids play. There was actually tons of action. There were scores like 10-8 and stuff like that. But soccer seems to be the one game in the whole world that gets progressively more boring as you move up in skill level. By the time we get to major league soccer or world cup soccer, it is just painful to watch. It is simply a bunch of guys kicking a ball all over a huge field. Yawn.
You know its boring when the announcers have to scream like a banshee every time someone scores. That’s because a score is so rare. Every soccer game I have ever watched has a final of 1-0. Heaven forbid if it winds up 1-1. It then goes into some sort of overtime that could not be called ‘sudden death.’ Maybe ‘long drawn-out painful boring death’ overtime is what they call it in soccer. If they ever have a game that ends 2-1 that is considered an offensive shoot out. It’s offensive alright!
So, if there is a soccer game on tv, count me out. I think I have some drying paint to watch.
Deer Hunting
Let me be clear about this. I am a man. I love man things. Football. Beer. Rock and Roll. Women. (Well, actually I love one woman very much!) I don’t like musicals, chick flicks, shopping for clothes, or anything like that.
I preface this section in this way because apparently to a large number of dudes out there, deer hunting is the height of manhood. Conversely then, if a man does not like to go deer hunting, he is not much of a man.
Now, if you want to kill Bambi then by all means, go ahead. I just don’t get it though. Every friend of mine who has described his hunting trip to me gives me the same description. I’ll see if I can summarize it here:
You sleep in a musty, dusty, stinky, hunting camp cabin in the middle of nowhere that only gets used a few times a year
You wake up hours before the sun does.
You find your way out into the middle of the woods
You climb up in a tree stand – a device that has been specifically engineered for your discomfort.
You sit there for hours freezing you valued manhood off – because it’s only legal, apparently, to hunt deer during record cold temperatures
You’re sitting there freezing for hours just on the chance, the slight chance, the miniscule chance, that some prize buck will pass by within shooting distance. More often than not you a) see nothing b) see only a doe and its not doe season c) see a buck that’s not worth the effort d) see a prize buck who is about seventy three thousand yards away
After hours of this, you climb down and go back to the musty, dusty, cabin and drink your fill of Wild Turkey. This, actually, is a good hunting day.
A bad day, I believe, is the one day out of fifty that you get a good shot at a good deer because then….
You see the deer you want so you take your frost-bitten fingers and grasp your freezing cold weapon.
You raise it and try to aim at some specific spot on the deer who is always, as I said, about 73 thousand yards away. You are trying to aim while at the same time shivering.
Nine times out of ten he gets spooked and runs off before you get a shot.
Nine times out of ten if you get a shot you can’t actually pull the trigger because you can’t actually feel your fingers
Nine times out of ten if you actually fire a shot, you miss
Nine times out of ten if you do hit him, you injure him, but he doesn’t just fall over dead right there. So, here starts the second phase of ‘hunting’ – hunting for the place where your injured specimen hopefully falls over and dies.
Nine times out of ten you don’t find him
If you do find him, nine times out of ten he is still alive, barely, then you have to kill him on the spot – if he doesn’t jump up and attack you first – a thing the deer does about seven times out of ten at this point.
Ok, so now you’ve gotten success. You’ve got a kill. (Do the math, here, the chances of you getting to this point are one in 166,666,667) BUT, what the heck do you do with him? Where the heck are you? How the heck do you get him back to the musty dusty cabin? How do you get him home? All of this involves knives, blood, guts, smells, sights, ugh! There is a six in ten chance you'll puke in the process. If this is at least your second day of the trip and you have been guzzling Wild Turkey the night before, these odds go up to 9.9 out ot ten!!
Now, if you ever find your way back and if you ever make it home with some semblence of a usable animal, you have to go pay someone to process the animal into edible meat. How much does that cost?
So, you now have freezer full of meat. No room for stuff like chicken, beef and pork. Bucky’s moved in!
Your wife (if you still have one) cooks you a nice deer roast.
It tastes something akin to what you would imagine road kill would taste like.
Great. Yeah. You’ve got me convinced! Can I please go with you next time? Oh, wait. Never mind. There’s a sale at Macy’s.
Wednesday, July 23, 2008
Monday, July 14, 2008
Theological Book Recommendations - II - James B. Jordan
Time to follow up on the theological book recommendations. Previously I wrote about Dr. Leithart. Today, I want to speak of one of his great friends and mentors – James B. Jordan.
Mr. Jordan has received an A.B. Degree in Comparative Literature from The University of Georgia, and an M. S. and Th.M. in Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary, as well as a D.Litt. from the Central School of Religion. He has served numerous churches in various capacities, and currently operates Biblical Horizons in Niceville, Florida, which is linked on this blog.
Jordan’s gift is in understanding and explaining the depths of the biblical text. He does so much more than a simple straightforward wooden literlist interpreter would do – but not at the expense of the literal truth of God’s word. I hinted around in my post about Dr. Leithart what some of the interpretive principles are. Again, these include 1) typology 2) poetry 3) chiastic structures 4) panel layouts 5) parallelism 6) symbolism and many other principles – each of which in itself is a deep, textured, multi-faceted topic worthy of many lengthy blogs.
Mr. Jordan rails against what he terms ‘interpretive minimalism’ – that is, simply reading the text straight prose without digging deeper into these other interpretive methods. None of this is to deny or even downplay in the least the literal truth of what is literally the Word of God. Quite the opposite, really. So much deeper, more meaningful truth can be brought out when a broader, deeper, interpretive method is followed. Unfortunately, in these blogs, I simply do not have the space to really discuss all this, and the real purpose of these blogs is not to explain it in detail anyway, but to point my millions of followers in the direction of some great works to read for themselves.
That said, let me mention a few of Jordan’s works:
Through New Eyes
Subtitled Developing a Biblical View of the World. On my post concerning Dr. Leithart, I highly recommended his book A House For My Name. In his preface, Dr. Leithart semi-jokingly stated that he toyed with the idea of titling that book "Through New Eyes for Dummies." (In fact, in nearly all of Dr. Leithart’s works, he gives thanks to Mr. Jordan for his influence.) Probably even more so than A House… I would recommend Through New Eyes as a starting place for anyone seeking to get a deeper understanding of Scripture and even more importantly to get a deeper understanding of how to read, study, and interpret scripture in the future. I simply can not recommend this book highly enough.
If you do ever find yourself reading this book and get bogged down in the opening pages, please keep plodding through. Once some original groundwork is laid, the book to me actually gets much easier to read and understand.
While not as straight of an Old Testament Survey as A House…this book nonetheless at points does present something of an Old Testament history culminating in the coming of Christ – especially in Part 4. However, it is much broader than that, spending a great deal of the bulk of the book discussing the topics of typology, symbolism, etc. as interpretive tools. The chapter titles are as follows:
Part 1 The Nature of the World
1. Interpreting the World Design;
2. The Purpose of the World;
3. Symbolism and Worldview;
Part 2 The Features of the World
4. The World as God’s House;
5. Sun, Moon, and Stars;
6. Rocks, Gold and Gems;
7. Trees and Thorns;
8. Birds and Beasts;
9. Angels;
Part 3 the Transformation of the World
10. Breaking Bread – the Rite of Transformation;
11. Man – The Agent of Transformation;
12. Eden – The World of Transformation;
Part 4 The Movement of History
13. The World of Noah;
14. The World of the Patriarchs;
15. The World of the Tabernacle;
16. The World of the Temple;
17. The Worlds of Exile and Restoration;
18. The New World;
19. The Course of History.
There are also lots of diagrams which are usually helpful. This book has helped me more than any other single work in developing an understanding of the Biblical text. I highly recommend this work.
Primeval Saints
Subtitled Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis this 150 page gem looks at such heroes and villains (often both found in the same person!) as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph among others. Some of the persons and events we have often associated as being negative are shown in a positive light – for example Abraham ‘lying’ about Sarah being his sister, Jacob tricking Isaac for his blessing, etc. Very simple read – very informative also.
Creation in Six Days
Subtitled A Defense of the Traditional reading of Genesis One. This book is not a ‘defense’ of creationism as opposed to some sort of Godless evolution. Instead, it is a defense of interpreting the creation account as teaching a six day, relatively recent creation as opposed to the interpretation of other Bible believing Christians who have tried to explain away the creation story as being somehow symbolic, poetic, or whatever. As should be obvious, Jordan see a Bible filled with poetry, symbolism, etc. and often this gives us deeper, richer theological meaning to the text. However, this does not mean that the straight reading is totally meaningless and can be ignored. The literary features add to the straight readings – it does not make it null and void.
According to Jordan, almost the ONLY people who have tried to make the case that the creation account actually does not teach a literal six day recent creation are Bible believing evangelical Christians. Liberals say that it teaches this, but the Bible is not the infallible Word of God, and therefore it is ok if it teaches this and is incorrect. Atheists and evolutionists say it teaches this which only shows that the Bible is unreliable and Christians are simply crazy to believe it because you know, obviously the world is gazillions of years old and species, including mankind, were not created whole but evolved over long periods of time. Faced with this, conservative, Bible believing Christians have been forced to say that well, The Bible is God’s infallible Word and can not be wrong, but since ‘obviously’ the world is gazillions of years old, and evolution has ‘obviously’ occurred, the Creation account must actually not teach a literal recent six day creation. Therefore, several alternate theories have cropped up, including a couple of varients of what is known as the ‘framework interpretation,’ an interpretation known as ‘anthropomorphic days,’ one known as the ‘limited geography interpretation.’ Jordan takes these on one at a time and shows they simply do not work as interpretations of the creation account. The only consistent, sensible interpretation of the creation account is the traditional one that the world was created in six, normal days, not so very long ago.
Now, if the actual interpretation of the creation account is that the world was created in six days and this relatively recently, then we as Christians have but two choices. Hold fast to the Word of God in the face of ridicule by modern science or somehow, someway, deny the Scripture (and therefore its author??)
Going on from there, a couple of brief books concerning worship/liturgy that are very worthwhile if you already have some interest are Liturgical Nestorianism and the Regulative Principle, and The Liturgy Trap. These two books are quite particular in their content, and if you do not already have some understanding of the various philosophies of worship – esp. as seen in reformed worship controversies, then these may not interest you. However, if you ever actually do read some of these recommendations, sooner or later you will have interest enough to read these works.
The only other book I currently own of Jordans is Covenant Sequence in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. At this point this is the only book of Jordan’s that I do not give a wholehearted recommendation for. This is not because I have some sort of disagreement with it, but because this is the only book of the ones I’ve mentioned so far that is just simply too technical for me to get much out of it. This book is only like 70 pages, but I’ve never been able to read it thorough because I keep getting bogged down. Actually, this book would have probably been much more readable at 300-400 pages instead of 70, because at 70 it is just too dense.
Other writings by Jordan that I have read include various essays which appear in essay collection books (a lot of the same ones as Leithart). His essay Merit Verses Maturity in the book The Federal Vision is worth the price of the book. He also has really countless essays available in various forms that can be found and or purchased for his Biblical Horizons website linked on this page.
For future reading for me, I desire at some point to find his commentary on the book of Judges. A reading of this book along with Leithart’s books on Samuel and Kings would really give one a solid basis for this period of Biblical history. (If my pastor Rich Lusk can ever get his book on Ruth done, that would be the icing on the cake!)
In addition to this, another book I long to get to is his Sociology of the Church which is really, I believe a collection of topical essays more than a full concept book. He also has a Brief Readers Guide to the Book of Revelation which is likely worth the effort. Finally, his most recent publication is his long awaited commentary on the Book of Daniel entitled Handwriting on the Wall. Unfortunately it is a bit pricey, and may be out of a philosophers budget right now!
Anyway, James Jordan would be an excellent choice to begin reading if you want to broaden you theological understanding. Start with Through New Eyes – followed by perhaps Leithart’s A House for My Name and you’ll be off and running!!
Mr. Jordan has received an A.B. Degree in Comparative Literature from The University of Georgia, and an M. S. and Th.M. in Theology from Westminster Theological Seminary, as well as a D.Litt. from the Central School of Religion. He has served numerous churches in various capacities, and currently operates Biblical Horizons in Niceville, Florida, which is linked on this blog.
Jordan’s gift is in understanding and explaining the depths of the biblical text. He does so much more than a simple straightforward wooden literlist interpreter would do – but not at the expense of the literal truth of God’s word. I hinted around in my post about Dr. Leithart what some of the interpretive principles are. Again, these include 1) typology 2) poetry 3) chiastic structures 4) panel layouts 5) parallelism 6) symbolism and many other principles – each of which in itself is a deep, textured, multi-faceted topic worthy of many lengthy blogs.
Mr. Jordan rails against what he terms ‘interpretive minimalism’ – that is, simply reading the text straight prose without digging deeper into these other interpretive methods. None of this is to deny or even downplay in the least the literal truth of what is literally the Word of God. Quite the opposite, really. So much deeper, more meaningful truth can be brought out when a broader, deeper, interpretive method is followed. Unfortunately, in these blogs, I simply do not have the space to really discuss all this, and the real purpose of these blogs is not to explain it in detail anyway, but to point my millions of followers in the direction of some great works to read for themselves.
That said, let me mention a few of Jordan’s works:
Through New Eyes
Subtitled Developing a Biblical View of the World. On my post concerning Dr. Leithart, I highly recommended his book A House For My Name. In his preface, Dr. Leithart semi-jokingly stated that he toyed with the idea of titling that book "Through New Eyes for Dummies." (In fact, in nearly all of Dr. Leithart’s works, he gives thanks to Mr. Jordan for his influence.) Probably even more so than A House… I would recommend Through New Eyes as a starting place for anyone seeking to get a deeper understanding of Scripture and even more importantly to get a deeper understanding of how to read, study, and interpret scripture in the future. I simply can not recommend this book highly enough.
If you do ever find yourself reading this book and get bogged down in the opening pages, please keep plodding through. Once some original groundwork is laid, the book to me actually gets much easier to read and understand.
While not as straight of an Old Testament Survey as A House…this book nonetheless at points does present something of an Old Testament history culminating in the coming of Christ – especially in Part 4. However, it is much broader than that, spending a great deal of the bulk of the book discussing the topics of typology, symbolism, etc. as interpretive tools. The chapter titles are as follows:
Part 1 The Nature of the World
1. Interpreting the World Design;
2. The Purpose of the World;
3. Symbolism and Worldview;
Part 2 The Features of the World
4. The World as God’s House;
5. Sun, Moon, and Stars;
6. Rocks, Gold and Gems;
7. Trees and Thorns;
8. Birds and Beasts;
9. Angels;
Part 3 the Transformation of the World
10. Breaking Bread – the Rite of Transformation;
11. Man – The Agent of Transformation;
12. Eden – The World of Transformation;
Part 4 The Movement of History
13. The World of Noah;
14. The World of the Patriarchs;
15. The World of the Tabernacle;
16. The World of the Temple;
17. The Worlds of Exile and Restoration;
18. The New World;
19. The Course of History.
There are also lots of diagrams which are usually helpful. This book has helped me more than any other single work in developing an understanding of the Biblical text. I highly recommend this work.
Primeval Saints
Subtitled Studies in the Patriarchs of Genesis this 150 page gem looks at such heroes and villains (often both found in the same person!) as Adam, Noah, Abraham, Jacob, and Joseph among others. Some of the persons and events we have often associated as being negative are shown in a positive light – for example Abraham ‘lying’ about Sarah being his sister, Jacob tricking Isaac for his blessing, etc. Very simple read – very informative also.
Creation in Six Days
Subtitled A Defense of the Traditional reading of Genesis One. This book is not a ‘defense’ of creationism as opposed to some sort of Godless evolution. Instead, it is a defense of interpreting the creation account as teaching a six day, relatively recent creation as opposed to the interpretation of other Bible believing Christians who have tried to explain away the creation story as being somehow symbolic, poetic, or whatever. As should be obvious, Jordan see a Bible filled with poetry, symbolism, etc. and often this gives us deeper, richer theological meaning to the text. However, this does not mean that the straight reading is totally meaningless and can be ignored. The literary features add to the straight readings – it does not make it null and void.
According to Jordan, almost the ONLY people who have tried to make the case that the creation account actually does not teach a literal six day recent creation are Bible believing evangelical Christians. Liberals say that it teaches this, but the Bible is not the infallible Word of God, and therefore it is ok if it teaches this and is incorrect. Atheists and evolutionists say it teaches this which only shows that the Bible is unreliable and Christians are simply crazy to believe it because you know, obviously the world is gazillions of years old and species, including mankind, were not created whole but evolved over long periods of time. Faced with this, conservative, Bible believing Christians have been forced to say that well, The Bible is God’s infallible Word and can not be wrong, but since ‘obviously’ the world is gazillions of years old, and evolution has ‘obviously’ occurred, the Creation account must actually not teach a literal recent six day creation. Therefore, several alternate theories have cropped up, including a couple of varients of what is known as the ‘framework interpretation,’ an interpretation known as ‘anthropomorphic days,’ one known as the ‘limited geography interpretation.’ Jordan takes these on one at a time and shows they simply do not work as interpretations of the creation account. The only consistent, sensible interpretation of the creation account is the traditional one that the world was created in six, normal days, not so very long ago.
Now, if the actual interpretation of the creation account is that the world was created in six days and this relatively recently, then we as Christians have but two choices. Hold fast to the Word of God in the face of ridicule by modern science or somehow, someway, deny the Scripture (and therefore its author??)
Going on from there, a couple of brief books concerning worship/liturgy that are very worthwhile if you already have some interest are Liturgical Nestorianism and the Regulative Principle, and The Liturgy Trap. These two books are quite particular in their content, and if you do not already have some understanding of the various philosophies of worship – esp. as seen in reformed worship controversies, then these may not interest you. However, if you ever actually do read some of these recommendations, sooner or later you will have interest enough to read these works.
The only other book I currently own of Jordans is Covenant Sequence in Leviticus and Deuteronomy. At this point this is the only book of Jordan’s that I do not give a wholehearted recommendation for. This is not because I have some sort of disagreement with it, but because this is the only book of the ones I’ve mentioned so far that is just simply too technical for me to get much out of it. This book is only like 70 pages, but I’ve never been able to read it thorough because I keep getting bogged down. Actually, this book would have probably been much more readable at 300-400 pages instead of 70, because at 70 it is just too dense.
Other writings by Jordan that I have read include various essays which appear in essay collection books (a lot of the same ones as Leithart). His essay Merit Verses Maturity in the book The Federal Vision is worth the price of the book. He also has really countless essays available in various forms that can be found and or purchased for his Biblical Horizons website linked on this page.
For future reading for me, I desire at some point to find his commentary on the book of Judges. A reading of this book along with Leithart’s books on Samuel and Kings would really give one a solid basis for this period of Biblical history. (If my pastor Rich Lusk can ever get his book on Ruth done, that would be the icing on the cake!)
In addition to this, another book I long to get to is his Sociology of the Church which is really, I believe a collection of topical essays more than a full concept book. He also has a Brief Readers Guide to the Book of Revelation which is likely worth the effort. Finally, his most recent publication is his long awaited commentary on the Book of Daniel entitled Handwriting on the Wall. Unfortunately it is a bit pricey, and may be out of a philosophers budget right now!
Anyway, James Jordan would be an excellent choice to begin reading if you want to broaden you theological understanding. Start with Through New Eyes – followed by perhaps Leithart’s A House for My Name and you’ll be off and running!!
Monday, June 30, 2008
Youtube
I like youtube...for the most part. A while back, I linked a bunch of youtube vids to this blog - found over to the right. However, since then, I have gone back and looked and a lot of my linked vids are no longer available on youtube. This is mostly due to copyright lawsuits.
If you read my economic posts, you will probably figure out that I am basically in agreement with this. Say a movie company makes a movie. Someone - the movie company, the actors, etc. actually 'own' the product. Not just anyone can then 'broadcast' this product. The production company has invested its money, as well as the time and talents of its workforce in the production. The actors have invested their time and talents. These are the people who whould reap the financial reward, if any, from the viewing of the product. They have taken the risk of their time and money - they get any reward. They - someone in this chain anyway - own the rights to broadcast the piece when and where they choose.
Now, if someone, without permission, 'broadcasts' snippets from the movie on a site like Youtube, they are doing something they have no legal right to do. I guess I also have no legal right, therefore, to link to the youtube post so that my millions and millions of readers can see the snippet. Often then, when someone posts a two minute segment they find funny or meaningful on Youtube, sooner or later the owners of the piece file against youtube and have it removed. All well and good. Philosophically I do not have a problem with their petitioning at all.
However, I tend to think it possibly a bit unwise. Watching a two minute segment on Youtube will not prevent anyone from spending the money on the product. It might actually encourage it. Watch a two or three minute segment and think its funny and you might actually go rent the movie. You might even come across a movie you were unfamiliar with before, then go watch it. Actually, rather than gripe to Youtube to have the snippets of their work removed, the production companies need to right Youtube a thank you letter. Really, what it is, is FREE ADVERTISING! Then, when I link it to MY blog, its even more free advertising. You, my loyal millions of readers, might actually go rent a movie, or by a CD, or something because of a link on my blog. Why do you think every small time rock band or filmmaker in the world posts their work for free on Youtube or other web based sites? It gives them a chance at a sale!! Just see my own kids stuff on there!
At any rate, I just removed about half the links I had to Youtube because they were no longer available. Bummer. You guys, the millions of followers of the Groaning Philosopher are the real losers in all this!!
If you read my economic posts, you will probably figure out that I am basically in agreement with this. Say a movie company makes a movie. Someone - the movie company, the actors, etc. actually 'own' the product. Not just anyone can then 'broadcast' this product. The production company has invested its money, as well as the time and talents of its workforce in the production. The actors have invested their time and talents. These are the people who whould reap the financial reward, if any, from the viewing of the product. They have taken the risk of their time and money - they get any reward. They - someone in this chain anyway - own the rights to broadcast the piece when and where they choose.
Now, if someone, without permission, 'broadcasts' snippets from the movie on a site like Youtube, they are doing something they have no legal right to do. I guess I also have no legal right, therefore, to link to the youtube post so that my millions and millions of readers can see the snippet. Often then, when someone posts a two minute segment they find funny or meaningful on Youtube, sooner or later the owners of the piece file against youtube and have it removed. All well and good. Philosophically I do not have a problem with their petitioning at all.
However, I tend to think it possibly a bit unwise. Watching a two minute segment on Youtube will not prevent anyone from spending the money on the product. It might actually encourage it. Watch a two or three minute segment and think its funny and you might actually go rent the movie. You might even come across a movie you were unfamiliar with before, then go watch it. Actually, rather than gripe to Youtube to have the snippets of their work removed, the production companies need to right Youtube a thank you letter. Really, what it is, is FREE ADVERTISING! Then, when I link it to MY blog, its even more free advertising. You, my loyal millions of readers, might actually go rent a movie, or by a CD, or something because of a link on my blog. Why do you think every small time rock band or filmmaker in the world posts their work for free on Youtube or other web based sites? It gives them a chance at a sale!! Just see my own kids stuff on there!
At any rate, I just removed about half the links I had to Youtube because they were no longer available. Bummer. You guys, the millions of followers of the Groaning Philosopher are the real losers in all this!!
Interesting little blurb about the Census questionairre I found at the Ludwig von Mises Institute website.
http://blog.mises.org/archives/008233.asp
http://blog.mises.org/archives/008233.asp
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Theological Book Recommendations - I
I recently wrote several book suggestions for economics. I would like to write a few recommendations on religious/theological works as well. This list is by no means complete – even of the books that I would recommend. Also, as with all subjects, there are countless books published on the topic, and I have not read even one one-hundredth of one percent, so there are probably innumerable books out there that others could recommend to me. Therefore, these are simply recommendations – not an attempt to be an end-all discussion about which books one must read.
I would like to start off discussing my favorite theological authors and list several books by each with brief discussions of each. I really enjoy each of these writers a great deal, and the order they appear below is simply the order they came to my mind, not necessarily an order of favorites. In this post, I will start with one of my favorite authors.
Peter Leithart
I would recommend to anyone anywhere to read anything they can get their hands on by Dr. Leithart. He is simply one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. I have fallen far behind on reading his books, because he seems to write books faster than I can read them. I will list and discuss several here.
Before discussing, though, I would like to make a caveat. Most of the writers I am going to be discussing come from the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition. That may seem at first to pigeonhole my exposure to one small section of the total Christian Tradition. And certainly Leithart and many of the others are firmly planted in the Presbyterian/Reformed Tradition. However, certainly with Leithart (as well as Jordan, our next author) you really get the best of all worlds. These guys are extremely well read across the vast array of the Christian tradition. They constantly quote or reference scholars/authors/thinkers/pastors from all sorts of various Christian denominational affiliations. Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and others are referenced extensively – or if not, their influence can be seen in their writings. Therefore, you get a truly Catholic (in the good sense of the word) reflection on things theological along with the doctrinal boundaries of the broader Reformed world. This makes it far more interesting, readable, and informative than someone stuck only within the reformed world, while at the same time not losing the moorings that reformed doctrinal boundaries give you.
That said, allow me to discuss Leithart’s work.
The Kingdom and the Power
I think this was his first major book length publication. I have seen evidence on Amazon of earlier books or collaborations, but I believe these are minor compared to this. This is absolutely one of my favorite books. Very readable, very thought provoking. It is scholarly (filled with endnotes referencing a variety of sources) yet accessible, in my opinion, to the average, or even slightly below average reader. This is my favorite level of book to read. Most popular level stuff is just so much fluff, not really saying anything. On the other end of the spectrum is scholarly work that makes my eyes gloss over while I try to read it. This book (as with most of Leitharts work) is incredibly deep while still being readable.
The topic of this book is pretty much given in its subtitle Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church. Leithart discusses the Christians role in the current "cultural wars." Written in the early 1990s some of the issues and people mentioned may seem a tad dated now, fifteen years later, but this is not even distracting. Leithart’s argument is not that Christians should be politically active in some certain way, or not active, or anything of the like. (He discusses early some of his own activism and/or lack thereof in the anti-abortion movements) His point is that actually the most political thing the church can do is to be the church. The church is most politically active when her people are gathering on a regular basis and corporately worshipping the One True and Living God, praying, singing, confessing, loving one another, communing. This is where the Kingdom is manifest. This is how societies will change primarily. Any political or social activism by Christians individually or collectively needs to flow out of a culture of coroporate worship.
A House for My Name
Subtitled A Survey of the Old Testament. This book is exactly what that subtitle says – well almost. It is not really a full survey of the entirety of the Old Testament Writings (Torah, historical books, wisdom literature, Psalms, Prophets). Instead it is really a survey of Old Testament History – basically outlining the major themes from Genesis through the intertestamental period. Like any good OT discussion should do, he finishes with the wonder of the Gospel and how it fits into, and completes, the story. The Old and New Testaments are not two separate entities, but are indeed one story that the OT starts, and the NT completes.
This book does not simply reiterate the stories told in the OT, but discusses the typology of the OT. This very brief review can not begin to touch on what this means – you’ll just have to buy the book! However, this is one of those handfuls of books that I absolutely recommend to everyone. You can gain so much from learning that the OT is not simply a collection of stories designed to be example to us. What does the creation story mean? What was the Garden? What does the flood and Ark of Noah signify? How does the Ark relate back to creation? How does it relate to Eden? Why is the basket of Moses referred to as an Ark? Why are there multiple stories that repeat similar themes? Barren women conceiving? Women killing bad guys (usually with a head injury)? What are literary panel structures? What are chiastic structures? How does worship and covenant renewal fit into the OT? How does it flow into the NT? I could go on and on. Great, great book. Again, deep and scholarly, yet readable and accessible to even a simpleton like me!
Blessed are the Hungry
Subtitled Meditations on the Lord’s Supper. Another great book. Unfortunately, in most protestant churches the Lord’s Supper is just not a noticeable part of the culture. Oh maybe once per quarter, or if you are lucky, once per month (I went to one Baptist Church for about 3 ½ years and celebrated communion, I think, twice!) you get to chew on a bland cracker and have a sip of, ugh, grape juice. However, Leithart considers the Supper to be the "world in miniature; it has cosmic significance. Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ. It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven. Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth."
That’s heavy stuff. Leithart then goes on to 28 Old and New Testament Passages concerning the importance of the communion meal. He relates areas you would have never thought of back to the Supper. Some are easy – think of the feeding the five thousand. Jesus took the food in his hand, gave thanks, and distributed it, thereby feeding thousands. He follows the same procedure in the Last Supper. Some of the OT passages may seem to be a stretch, until you start to realize how common such things are, and that really all of scripture is ultimately about Christ communing with His Church. All of a sudden, another key to understanding Scripture is opened up. This with the previous book will certainly bring you a long way to better scriptural wisdom.
This book closes with the only long essay in the whole thing (Most of them are less than 5-6 pages.) The long essay looks at the Lord’s Supper in Christian history, suggesting that most of the controversy has focused on the wrong thing. The question is not what happens or does not happen to the communion elements. The question is what happens to the communion participants. Good Stuff!
Against Christianity
Yes, the title may sound shocking. I think it was intentionally provocative on the author’s part. As should be obvious, Dr. Leithart is not against the faith, Our Lord, Scripture, Christian living, etc. However, he is against what many people seem to posit as the faith. That is, namely, that we can reduce all of scripture to some list of propositions and call this list of propositions "Christianity." Then of course, anyone who assents to these propositions is a "Christian". This is a major truncation, in fact a misrepresentation, of what the faith actually is. The faith is really a whole new way of being human. It is not something we assent to and maybe participate in on Sunday Morning, then leave at the altar. It is something to be lived. We are followers of Christ morning, noon, and night, seven days a week. Our whole life is not simply colored by our Christian beliefs (assents to propositions) but in fact our very nature and existence is dead and resurrected into newness. The depth of this relatively short book is simply mind boggling. The writing is among Leithart’s best, though at times least accessible. I did notice that when I re-read the book a second time, I got a whole lot more out of it. This is also among Dr. Leithart’s most controversial works. Particularly since a large portion of the Presbyterian/Reformed world actually does believe that "Christianity" is simply an "assent to certain propositions."
A Son to Me
This book is an exposition on the books of I and II Samuel. Many typological themes are picked up on and hammered home. Think of this as A House for My Name expanded to greater detail – honed in on a particular book of the Bible. It’s been a while since I read this, so it is hard to comment. However, as the title suggests, the theme of ‘sonship’ runs throughout the book(s) of Samuel. Samuel became a ‘son’ first to Hannah, of course, but also then to Eli. David became a ‘son’ to Samuel. Hmmm, the Father and the Son. Any Christian implications in this book of the Old Testament?
From Silence to Song
Subtitled The Davidic Liturgical Revolution. This book picks up on the fact that early in the history of the nation of Israel (Leviticus in particular) there was no music involved in worship. With the kingship of David, this changed. (I’m sure you all noticed that when studying the OT , didn’t you??? Me neither!!!) David instituted Levitical Choirs, and instrumentalists. ‘Song’ is really glorified speech and prayer. This represents a major step forward in redemptive history. Dr. Leithart draws out many important implications of this for Christian life, worship, and finally for eschatology. Pretty short book, yet fairly deep reading.
Others
I have read at one time or another all of the books above, but Dr. Leithart has written many more which I will briefly mention here. Yes, they are all on my reading list!
The Brazos Commentary on I and II Kings
( I am not sure if this is the exact title) The publishing company Brazos is working on a series of Biblical commentaries by various heavyweight theologians. Dr. Leithart seems to have great interest in Old Testament Studies, particularly the periods covered by Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. He has done extensive studies in these areas. I have heard great reviews about this book. I would think it would stand alongside A Son to Me, (Samuel) and From Silence to Song (which is largely from Chronicles) along with the relevant sections of A House for My Name to give the unseasoned a great overall view of this period of Biblical history.
Other books that I have not yet read, but certainly intend to at some point include The Promise of His Appearing. This is a commentary on the NT book of II Peter. Solomon Among the Postmoderns; The Baptized Body; Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, and Hope in Western Literature. In addition to this, he has written other literary works including Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespear Plays. Miniature in Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austin. Writer of Fancy; The Playful Piety of Jane Austin. Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature. And finally Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. As you can see, the man has a widespread knowledge of theology, history, and literature.
One other work worth mentioning is The Priesthood of the Plebs which was actually Leithart's doctoral thesis at Cambridge University in England concerning baptism. All of these works are available all over the web, although some are getting hard to find and sometimes expensive. And really, there are other books and untold articles and essays by Dr. Leithart. Several essay collection books (The Federal Vision, The Case for Covenant Communion and several others) have essays by Dr. Leithart. Hopefully I have wet your appetite and you may start checking some of these out.
I have actually had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Leithart on several occasions, even attending a small gathering for dinner a couple of times. For someone obviously in the upper echelon (did I even spell that correctly?) of intellectualism, he is as down to earth and pleasant to be around as one could imagine – even autographing several of my books. Great Guy. Great Books. I have heard him teach and preach – several times on the Samuel and Kings sections that he was working through while working on his books – What a treat! In fact, he will be here in town at our church in July '08. Check out our web page to the right if you want to find out about it.
If I had to recommend only one Leithart book (that would be very difficult) I think it would be A House for My Name. I think every Christian needs to read this book. It will help so much in your biblical studies and understand. And isn't understanding God's Word one of our highest callings as Christians?
Whenever I get around to posting again, I will write about James B. Jordan who has actually been something of a mentor for Dr. Leithart. Again great stuff!
I would like to start off discussing my favorite theological authors and list several books by each with brief discussions of each. I really enjoy each of these writers a great deal, and the order they appear below is simply the order they came to my mind, not necessarily an order of favorites. In this post, I will start with one of my favorite authors.
Peter Leithart
I would recommend to anyone anywhere to read anything they can get their hands on by Dr. Leithart. He is simply one of the most brilliant minds on the planet. I have fallen far behind on reading his books, because he seems to write books faster than I can read them. I will list and discuss several here.
Before discussing, though, I would like to make a caveat. Most of the writers I am going to be discussing come from the Presbyterian/Reformed tradition. That may seem at first to pigeonhole my exposure to one small section of the total Christian Tradition. And certainly Leithart and many of the others are firmly planted in the Presbyterian/Reformed Tradition. However, certainly with Leithart (as well as Jordan, our next author) you really get the best of all worlds. These guys are extremely well read across the vast array of the Christian tradition. They constantly quote or reference scholars/authors/thinkers/pastors from all sorts of various Christian denominational affiliations. Methodists, Baptists, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, Eastern Orthodox, and others are referenced extensively – or if not, their influence can be seen in their writings. Therefore, you get a truly Catholic (in the good sense of the word) reflection on things theological along with the doctrinal boundaries of the broader Reformed world. This makes it far more interesting, readable, and informative than someone stuck only within the reformed world, while at the same time not losing the moorings that reformed doctrinal boundaries give you.
That said, allow me to discuss Leithart’s work.
The Kingdom and the Power
I think this was his first major book length publication. I have seen evidence on Amazon of earlier books or collaborations, but I believe these are minor compared to this. This is absolutely one of my favorite books. Very readable, very thought provoking. It is scholarly (filled with endnotes referencing a variety of sources) yet accessible, in my opinion, to the average, or even slightly below average reader. This is my favorite level of book to read. Most popular level stuff is just so much fluff, not really saying anything. On the other end of the spectrum is scholarly work that makes my eyes gloss over while I try to read it. This book (as with most of Leitharts work) is incredibly deep while still being readable.
The topic of this book is pretty much given in its subtitle Rediscovering the Centrality of the Church. Leithart discusses the Christians role in the current "cultural wars." Written in the early 1990s some of the issues and people mentioned may seem a tad dated now, fifteen years later, but this is not even distracting. Leithart’s argument is not that Christians should be politically active in some certain way, or not active, or anything of the like. (He discusses early some of his own activism and/or lack thereof in the anti-abortion movements) His point is that actually the most political thing the church can do is to be the church. The church is most politically active when her people are gathering on a regular basis and corporately worshipping the One True and Living God, praying, singing, confessing, loving one another, communing. This is where the Kingdom is manifest. This is how societies will change primarily. Any political or social activism by Christians individually or collectively needs to flow out of a culture of coroporate worship.
A House for My Name
Subtitled A Survey of the Old Testament. This book is exactly what that subtitle says – well almost. It is not really a full survey of the entirety of the Old Testament Writings (Torah, historical books, wisdom literature, Psalms, Prophets). Instead it is really a survey of Old Testament History – basically outlining the major themes from Genesis through the intertestamental period. Like any good OT discussion should do, he finishes with the wonder of the Gospel and how it fits into, and completes, the story. The Old and New Testaments are not two separate entities, but are indeed one story that the OT starts, and the NT completes.
This book does not simply reiterate the stories told in the OT, but discusses the typology of the OT. This very brief review can not begin to touch on what this means – you’ll just have to buy the book! However, this is one of those handfuls of books that I absolutely recommend to everyone. You can gain so much from learning that the OT is not simply a collection of stories designed to be example to us. What does the creation story mean? What was the Garden? What does the flood and Ark of Noah signify? How does the Ark relate back to creation? How does it relate to Eden? Why is the basket of Moses referred to as an Ark? Why are there multiple stories that repeat similar themes? Barren women conceiving? Women killing bad guys (usually with a head injury)? What are literary panel structures? What are chiastic structures? How does worship and covenant renewal fit into the OT? How does it flow into the NT? I could go on and on. Great, great book. Again, deep and scholarly, yet readable and accessible to even a simpleton like me!
Blessed are the Hungry
Subtitled Meditations on the Lord’s Supper. Another great book. Unfortunately, in most protestant churches the Lord’s Supper is just not a noticeable part of the culture. Oh maybe once per quarter, or if you are lucky, once per month (I went to one Baptist Church for about 3 ½ years and celebrated communion, I think, twice!) you get to chew on a bland cracker and have a sip of, ugh, grape juice. However, Leithart considers the Supper to be the "world in miniature; it has cosmic significance. Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man, to the mystery of the world, which is Christ. It is not confined to the first day, for its power fills seven. Though the table stands at the center, its effects stretch out to the four corners of the earth."
That’s heavy stuff. Leithart then goes on to 28 Old and New Testament Passages concerning the importance of the communion meal. He relates areas you would have never thought of back to the Supper. Some are easy – think of the feeding the five thousand. Jesus took the food in his hand, gave thanks, and distributed it, thereby feeding thousands. He follows the same procedure in the Last Supper. Some of the OT passages may seem to be a stretch, until you start to realize how common such things are, and that really all of scripture is ultimately about Christ communing with His Church. All of a sudden, another key to understanding Scripture is opened up. This with the previous book will certainly bring you a long way to better scriptural wisdom.
This book closes with the only long essay in the whole thing (Most of them are less than 5-6 pages.) The long essay looks at the Lord’s Supper in Christian history, suggesting that most of the controversy has focused on the wrong thing. The question is not what happens or does not happen to the communion elements. The question is what happens to the communion participants. Good Stuff!
Against Christianity
Yes, the title may sound shocking. I think it was intentionally provocative on the author’s part. As should be obvious, Dr. Leithart is not against the faith, Our Lord, Scripture, Christian living, etc. However, he is against what many people seem to posit as the faith. That is, namely, that we can reduce all of scripture to some list of propositions and call this list of propositions "Christianity." Then of course, anyone who assents to these propositions is a "Christian". This is a major truncation, in fact a misrepresentation, of what the faith actually is. The faith is really a whole new way of being human. It is not something we assent to and maybe participate in on Sunday Morning, then leave at the altar. It is something to be lived. We are followers of Christ morning, noon, and night, seven days a week. Our whole life is not simply colored by our Christian beliefs (assents to propositions) but in fact our very nature and existence is dead and resurrected into newness. The depth of this relatively short book is simply mind boggling. The writing is among Leithart’s best, though at times least accessible. I did notice that when I re-read the book a second time, I got a whole lot more out of it. This is also among Dr. Leithart’s most controversial works. Particularly since a large portion of the Presbyterian/Reformed world actually does believe that "Christianity" is simply an "assent to certain propositions."
A Son to Me
This book is an exposition on the books of I and II Samuel. Many typological themes are picked up on and hammered home. Think of this as A House for My Name expanded to greater detail – honed in on a particular book of the Bible. It’s been a while since I read this, so it is hard to comment. However, as the title suggests, the theme of ‘sonship’ runs throughout the book(s) of Samuel. Samuel became a ‘son’ first to Hannah, of course, but also then to Eli. David became a ‘son’ to Samuel. Hmmm, the Father and the Son. Any Christian implications in this book of the Old Testament?
From Silence to Song
Subtitled The Davidic Liturgical Revolution. This book picks up on the fact that early in the history of the nation of Israel (Leviticus in particular) there was no music involved in worship. With the kingship of David, this changed. (I’m sure you all noticed that when studying the OT , didn’t you??? Me neither!!!) David instituted Levitical Choirs, and instrumentalists. ‘Song’ is really glorified speech and prayer. This represents a major step forward in redemptive history. Dr. Leithart draws out many important implications of this for Christian life, worship, and finally for eschatology. Pretty short book, yet fairly deep reading.
Others
I have read at one time or another all of the books above, but Dr. Leithart has written many more which I will briefly mention here. Yes, they are all on my reading list!
The Brazos Commentary on I and II Kings
( I am not sure if this is the exact title) The publishing company Brazos is working on a series of Biblical commentaries by various heavyweight theologians. Dr. Leithart seems to have great interest in Old Testament Studies, particularly the periods covered by Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. He has done extensive studies in these areas. I have heard great reviews about this book. I would think it would stand alongside A Son to Me, (Samuel) and From Silence to Song (which is largely from Chronicles) along with the relevant sections of A House for My Name to give the unseasoned a great overall view of this period of Biblical history.
Other books that I have not yet read, but certainly intend to at some point include The Promise of His Appearing. This is a commentary on the NT book of II Peter. Solomon Among the Postmoderns; The Baptized Body; Deep Comedy: Trinity, Tragedy, and Hope in Western Literature. In addition to this, he has written other literary works including Brightest Heaven of Invention: A Christian Guide to Six Shakespear Plays. Miniature in Morals: The Christian Novels of Jane Austin. Writer of Fancy; The Playful Piety of Jane Austin. Heroes of the City of Man: A Christian Guide to Select Ancient Literature. And finally Ascent to Love: A Guide to Dante’s Divine Comedy. As you can see, the man has a widespread knowledge of theology, history, and literature.
One other work worth mentioning is The Priesthood of the Plebs which was actually Leithart's doctoral thesis at Cambridge University in England concerning baptism. All of these works are available all over the web, although some are getting hard to find and sometimes expensive. And really, there are other books and untold articles and essays by Dr. Leithart. Several essay collection books (The Federal Vision, The Case for Covenant Communion and several others) have essays by Dr. Leithart. Hopefully I have wet your appetite and you may start checking some of these out.
I have actually had the great privilege of meeting Dr. Leithart on several occasions, even attending a small gathering for dinner a couple of times. For someone obviously in the upper echelon (did I even spell that correctly?) of intellectualism, he is as down to earth and pleasant to be around as one could imagine – even autographing several of my books. Great Guy. Great Books. I have heard him teach and preach – several times on the Samuel and Kings sections that he was working through while working on his books – What a treat! In fact, he will be here in town at our church in July '08. Check out our web page to the right if you want to find out about it.
If I had to recommend only one Leithart book (that would be very difficult) I think it would be A House for My Name. I think every Christian needs to read this book. It will help so much in your biblical studies and understand. And isn't understanding God's Word one of our highest callings as Christians?
Whenever I get around to posting again, I will write about James B. Jordan who has actually been something of a mentor for Dr. Leithart. Again great stuff!
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Reading List
This post is a continuation of the previous post below. There, I talked about the lack of knowledge of the general population in the area of economics. I ended by stating that I would continue with a brief reading list. Before perusing this list, you may want to read the previous post to get an idea of where I am coming from.
I do have a few of caveats concerning this list: 1) This list is not to suggest that any and every thing said by each of these is absolutely without error – this is not a wholesale endorsement of any or every of these writers and their work 2) some of these writers are Christian of one stripe or the other, and some are not. Ultimately, I do believe that real truth is only to be found in God, its author. Therefore, real truth on earth can only be ascertained by those who faithfully believe in Him. However, this does not mean that unbelievers are not capable of getting glimpses of this truth or teaching it to others. An absolute atheist may be able to calculate the distance between the earth and sun, but have no comprehension of the maker of the earth and sun. 3) I have not myself read all of these. In fact, there are a great many that I have not. However, I am familiar enough with most of the authors to comment. I will try to comment on these issues where appropriate.
Henry Hazlitt
The first place that I send every person I can to get an overall, simple, easy to read explanation is to a book entitled Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. (I have absolutely no idea what his religious views, if any, were) This is a relatively short work made up of numerous, relatively short and easy to understand essays on a variety of topics including some of those listed above (minimum wage laws, etc.) His "one lesson" is essentially what I have written about in the previous post, but in his words it is stated thusly: "From this aspect, therefore, the whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists of looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.
He then goes on to do just that, tracing the consequences of various policies and ideas for all groups. I can not recommend this work highly enough. If you never read another work on economics in your life, please read this one.
Clarence Carson
Another writer who is not known to the major portion of the general populace, but who is worth seeking out is Dr. Clarence B. Carson. Dr. Carson was from small town rural Alabama, received an education from Auburn University and Vanderbilt University, taught at both high school and college level, and wrote numerous books and countless articles. His main area of study was history. However, in this he developed an interest and aptitude in economics. Dr. Carson’s most important contribution to this field was, in my opinion, his book The War on the Poor. This book was written in the late 1960s during the peak of President Johnson’s "Great Society" program. Carson demonstrated, both theoretically and with empirical evidence, that all these programs aimed supposedly at helping the poorer people actually causes them harm. (Again, this is Hazlitt’s ‘one lesson’ of economics.) Thus, the so called "war on poverty" of LBJ was actually a "war on the poor." This work is mostly unknown and overlooked. I think it should be essential reading in our classrooms today. Dr. Carson also wrote a book entitled Basic Economics. This is more an overall view of economic thought with the various economic theories explained. I do believe Dr. Carson was a man of faith, though I am uncertain his denominational affiliation.
Gary North
Dr. Gary North is a controversial figure for numerous reasons. I will very briefly mention them here, but without any personal bias. Dr. North is a very conservative Christian with ties to certain minority wings within the reformed Christian right. This alone, of course, makes him at the very least a little suspect to those anywhere to the left of Jerry Falwell. However, the biggest problem within the circles he has run in seems to be in-fighting. All points theological and otherwise are firmly marked out and anyone within those circles who steps outside the lines then becomes outcast, or makes the others outside their own lines out to be the outcast. North has probably been on both sides of the "I’m the real reformed Christian" arguments.
As an example, North had strong ties with Dr. R. J. Rushdoony - probably the most important man in the circles in which he runs. He even became Dr. Rushdoony’s son in law. However, North and Rushdoony eventually had a falling out from which they apparently still had not mended at the time of Rushdoony’s death a few years back.
Dr. North is also noted for his sensationalism which is sometimes a bit over the top. He was one of the louder voices forecasting the Y2K disaster. He even personally staked his own professional reputation on his being right about the pending doom stating essentially that if he was wrong about it then no one should ever listen to anything he had to say again. Many of his followers spent tons of money preparing for the disaster. Of course he turned out to be wrong. Of course he keeps on opining on a variety of topics and of course a large contingent of his followers were unswayed by his inaccuracy.
Although I have never met nor spoken to the man, I know several who have had direct contact with him. My understanding is that there can be a lack of Christian love, humility and charity in his personality.
All the above is simply expanding on my caveats that I started with. I know Dr. North is a Christian and I do not question the sincerity or orthodoxy of his faith for one minute. However, I would be very uncomfortable totally aligning myself with his name.
That said, Dr. North has done a tremendous amount of work in the area of Biblical economics (which seems to be his area of special expertise.) If we ignore him because of the above stated reasons we may be missing out on some thoughtful insight. Some of Dr. North’s books include his being publisher of a series of books called Biblical Blueprints. In addition to being the publisher, he was the author of several of the volumes. Pertinent titles in this series include Inherit the Earth: Biblical Principals in Economics; Honest Money:Biblical Principals of Money and Banking; In the Shadow of Plenty; Biblical Principals of Welfare and Poverty (Written by George Grant). In addition to this series, Dr. North has written An Introduction to Christian Economics and Coined Freedom: Gold in the Age of the Bureaucrats. Finally, Dr. North’s lifelong project has been to produce an economic commentary on every book of the Bible. This is a very ambitious project and will likely not be completed. However, he has produced several such commentaries. Dr. North also writes numerous newsletters and has various websites he either runs or contributes to.
I have read several of his works and find them to be solid in the area of economics and would recommend them. This is not a wholesale endorsement of everything he has ever said, nor even of the theories of economics laid out in these books. However as part of forming an overall understanding of economics from a Christian perspective, Dr. North is very valuable.
I would absolutely recommend Honest Money as being almost as indispensable as Hazlitt’s work.
David Chilton
David Chilton was a theological writer who produced one of the greatest comentaries on the book of Revelation ever written. He was also for a time closely associated with Dr. North. (I think they ended in a theological squabble.) While he was working with Dr. North, Chilton produced a book entitled Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. This book was a biting, somewhat sarcastic response to a book published previously by Ronald Sider entitled Rich Christians in and Age of Hunger. Sider’s thesis was that it is a disgrace that there are Christians (mostly American) who are rich while the world is full of poverty. His solution, of course, was government programs. He attempted to use scripture to justify this position stating that God is always on the side of the poor and against the rich. Chilton demolishes this thesis biblically.
Because of his sometimes caustic wit, this book is often looked down upon as negative. However, if one can read through the biting humor, one can learn quite a bit about biblical economics here. Chilton’s book is not anti-poor, nor anti-charity. It is anti-forced governmental solutions to these problems. If you are somewhat sympathetic to his views, this will be one of the most entertaining books on economics you will ever read. If you are not sympathetic to his views, I would not recommend reading this until you have had a full cardiac exam.
Ludwig von Mises
Mises was, as far as I know, not a Christian. I am not even sure I understand exactly where he is coming from. Mises did not necessarily see some form of moral correctness or superiority of the free market, honest money system. He simply saw very clearly that the outcomes of this system were always superior to the outcomes of any form of planned or managed economy. On the one hand, therefore, he wrote from an empirical standpoint. We can study the theories behind the various economic systems and come to definite conclusions. We can then study these systems in practice and see these outcomes.
On the other hand, Mises was, correctly I believe, doubtful of the ability of the economist’s ability to empirically study a specific effect of a specific economic activity. That is because unlike with the physical sciences, economic factors can not be isolated in a laboratory type setting. We can not, for instance, hold all things constant while varying minimum wage, then measure the effects of the minimum wage. This is impossible. The economy is dynamic, not static. The whole economy is constantly changing. How can we therefore, amidst all this change, measure the effects of minimum wage? However, minimum wage can be shown very definitely in theory to have a negative impact. We can look at the overall economic policy of a nation and determine if it is sound or not theoretically. We can then look and see if our predicted effects are generally coming about in the economy.
The system of economics that Mises is associated with is called the Austrian School of Economics. This line of thought is not necessarily religious. However, the economic theories on paper are quite similar to what some see as the biblical system of economics (sound money, limited government intervention, etc) Because of this, Mises and his crowd were known to at least cross paths with Rushdoony, North, and their crowd.
Mises wrote tremendous volumes. I mentioned several of them previously. Human Action, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality; Socialism; The Theory of Money and Credit are among his most widely read works. Much can be learned about Mises and the Austrian School from the Ludwig von Mises Institute located in Auburn, Alabama. They also have a website. It may be worth researching.
Murray Rothbard
Rothbard was a student of Mises. He was not a Christian, though apparently he had a great deal of respect for the Christian tradition of the West. Of interest are his book America’s Great Depression and his magnum opus Man, Economy, and State. He wrote many others as well as countless articles and essays.
His America’s Great Depression absolutely demolishes the myth that the depression was caused by the free market and that the nation was rescued by government intervention. The actual truth is that the depression was caused by government intervention, made longer and deeper by further government intervention, then masked by yet further government intervention which continues to this day.
Other writers who may be of varying interests include Dr. George Grant, Thomas Sowell, Llewellyn Rockwell and others. Do some internet searches. Also, the standard historical read for economics students would be Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Generally speaking then, I would recommend the following:
Start with Hazlitt to get a simple, easy to read, easy to understand introduction into general economic thought. Next read Carson’s Basic Economics to get a broader, overall view of the study of economics, followed by his The War on the Poor. From there, if you are still interested, read some of North, et al Biblical Blueprints series, at least the ones that are economic in nature. Particularly Honest Money is a must. From there, go where you may, including possibly some of the others listed above, or others I have not listed.
I do have a few of caveats concerning this list: 1) This list is not to suggest that any and every thing said by each of these is absolutely without error – this is not a wholesale endorsement of any or every of these writers and their work 2) some of these writers are Christian of one stripe or the other, and some are not. Ultimately, I do believe that real truth is only to be found in God, its author. Therefore, real truth on earth can only be ascertained by those who faithfully believe in Him. However, this does not mean that unbelievers are not capable of getting glimpses of this truth or teaching it to others. An absolute atheist may be able to calculate the distance between the earth and sun, but have no comprehension of the maker of the earth and sun. 3) I have not myself read all of these. In fact, there are a great many that I have not. However, I am familiar enough with most of the authors to comment. I will try to comment on these issues where appropriate.
Henry Hazlitt
The first place that I send every person I can to get an overall, simple, easy to read explanation is to a book entitled Economics in One Lesson by Henry Hazlitt. (I have absolutely no idea what his religious views, if any, were) This is a relatively short work made up of numerous, relatively short and easy to understand essays on a variety of topics including some of those listed above (minimum wage laws, etc.) His "one lesson" is essentially what I have written about in the previous post, but in his words it is stated thusly: "From this aspect, therefore, the whole of economics can be reduced to a single lesson, and that lesson can be reduced to a single sentence. The art of economics consists of looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.
He then goes on to do just that, tracing the consequences of various policies and ideas for all groups. I can not recommend this work highly enough. If you never read another work on economics in your life, please read this one.
Clarence Carson
Another writer who is not known to the major portion of the general populace, but who is worth seeking out is Dr. Clarence B. Carson. Dr. Carson was from small town rural Alabama, received an education from Auburn University and Vanderbilt University, taught at both high school and college level, and wrote numerous books and countless articles. His main area of study was history. However, in this he developed an interest and aptitude in economics. Dr. Carson’s most important contribution to this field was, in my opinion, his book The War on the Poor. This book was written in the late 1960s during the peak of President Johnson’s "Great Society" program. Carson demonstrated, both theoretically and with empirical evidence, that all these programs aimed supposedly at helping the poorer people actually causes them harm. (Again, this is Hazlitt’s ‘one lesson’ of economics.) Thus, the so called "war on poverty" of LBJ was actually a "war on the poor." This work is mostly unknown and overlooked. I think it should be essential reading in our classrooms today. Dr. Carson also wrote a book entitled Basic Economics. This is more an overall view of economic thought with the various economic theories explained. I do believe Dr. Carson was a man of faith, though I am uncertain his denominational affiliation.
Gary North
Dr. Gary North is a controversial figure for numerous reasons. I will very briefly mention them here, but without any personal bias. Dr. North is a very conservative Christian with ties to certain minority wings within the reformed Christian right. This alone, of course, makes him at the very least a little suspect to those anywhere to the left of Jerry Falwell. However, the biggest problem within the circles he has run in seems to be in-fighting. All points theological and otherwise are firmly marked out and anyone within those circles who steps outside the lines then becomes outcast, or makes the others outside their own lines out to be the outcast. North has probably been on both sides of the "I’m the real reformed Christian" arguments.
As an example, North had strong ties with Dr. R. J. Rushdoony - probably the most important man in the circles in which he runs. He even became Dr. Rushdoony’s son in law. However, North and Rushdoony eventually had a falling out from which they apparently still had not mended at the time of Rushdoony’s death a few years back.
Dr. North is also noted for his sensationalism which is sometimes a bit over the top. He was one of the louder voices forecasting the Y2K disaster. He even personally staked his own professional reputation on his being right about the pending doom stating essentially that if he was wrong about it then no one should ever listen to anything he had to say again. Many of his followers spent tons of money preparing for the disaster. Of course he turned out to be wrong. Of course he keeps on opining on a variety of topics and of course a large contingent of his followers were unswayed by his inaccuracy.
Although I have never met nor spoken to the man, I know several who have had direct contact with him. My understanding is that there can be a lack of Christian love, humility and charity in his personality.
All the above is simply expanding on my caveats that I started with. I know Dr. North is a Christian and I do not question the sincerity or orthodoxy of his faith for one minute. However, I would be very uncomfortable totally aligning myself with his name.
That said, Dr. North has done a tremendous amount of work in the area of Biblical economics (which seems to be his area of special expertise.) If we ignore him because of the above stated reasons we may be missing out on some thoughtful insight. Some of Dr. North’s books include his being publisher of a series of books called Biblical Blueprints. In addition to being the publisher, he was the author of several of the volumes. Pertinent titles in this series include Inherit the Earth: Biblical Principals in Economics; Honest Money:Biblical Principals of Money and Banking; In the Shadow of Plenty; Biblical Principals of Welfare and Poverty (Written by George Grant). In addition to this series, Dr. North has written An Introduction to Christian Economics and Coined Freedom: Gold in the Age of the Bureaucrats. Finally, Dr. North’s lifelong project has been to produce an economic commentary on every book of the Bible. This is a very ambitious project and will likely not be completed. However, he has produced several such commentaries. Dr. North also writes numerous newsletters and has various websites he either runs or contributes to.
I have read several of his works and find them to be solid in the area of economics and would recommend them. This is not a wholesale endorsement of everything he has ever said, nor even of the theories of economics laid out in these books. However as part of forming an overall understanding of economics from a Christian perspective, Dr. North is very valuable.
I would absolutely recommend Honest Money as being almost as indispensable as Hazlitt’s work.
David Chilton
David Chilton was a theological writer who produced one of the greatest comentaries on the book of Revelation ever written. He was also for a time closely associated with Dr. North. (I think they ended in a theological squabble.) While he was working with Dr. North, Chilton produced a book entitled Productive Christians in an Age of Guilt Manipulators. This book was a biting, somewhat sarcastic response to a book published previously by Ronald Sider entitled Rich Christians in and Age of Hunger. Sider’s thesis was that it is a disgrace that there are Christians (mostly American) who are rich while the world is full of poverty. His solution, of course, was government programs. He attempted to use scripture to justify this position stating that God is always on the side of the poor and against the rich. Chilton demolishes this thesis biblically.
Because of his sometimes caustic wit, this book is often looked down upon as negative. However, if one can read through the biting humor, one can learn quite a bit about biblical economics here. Chilton’s book is not anti-poor, nor anti-charity. It is anti-forced governmental solutions to these problems. If you are somewhat sympathetic to his views, this will be one of the most entertaining books on economics you will ever read. If you are not sympathetic to his views, I would not recommend reading this until you have had a full cardiac exam.
Ludwig von Mises
Mises was, as far as I know, not a Christian. I am not even sure I understand exactly where he is coming from. Mises did not necessarily see some form of moral correctness or superiority of the free market, honest money system. He simply saw very clearly that the outcomes of this system were always superior to the outcomes of any form of planned or managed economy. On the one hand, therefore, he wrote from an empirical standpoint. We can study the theories behind the various economic systems and come to definite conclusions. We can then study these systems in practice and see these outcomes.
On the other hand, Mises was, correctly I believe, doubtful of the ability of the economist’s ability to empirically study a specific effect of a specific economic activity. That is because unlike with the physical sciences, economic factors can not be isolated in a laboratory type setting. We can not, for instance, hold all things constant while varying minimum wage, then measure the effects of the minimum wage. This is impossible. The economy is dynamic, not static. The whole economy is constantly changing. How can we therefore, amidst all this change, measure the effects of minimum wage? However, minimum wage can be shown very definitely in theory to have a negative impact. We can look at the overall economic policy of a nation and determine if it is sound or not theoretically. We can then look and see if our predicted effects are generally coming about in the economy.
The system of economics that Mises is associated with is called the Austrian School of Economics. This line of thought is not necessarily religious. However, the economic theories on paper are quite similar to what some see as the biblical system of economics (sound money, limited government intervention, etc) Because of this, Mises and his crowd were known to at least cross paths with Rushdoony, North, and their crowd.
Mises wrote tremendous volumes. I mentioned several of them previously. Human Action, The Anti-Capitalistic Mentality; Socialism; The Theory of Money and Credit are among his most widely read works. Much can be learned about Mises and the Austrian School from the Ludwig von Mises Institute located in Auburn, Alabama. They also have a website. It may be worth researching.
Murray Rothbard
Rothbard was a student of Mises. He was not a Christian, though apparently he had a great deal of respect for the Christian tradition of the West. Of interest are his book America’s Great Depression and his magnum opus Man, Economy, and State. He wrote many others as well as countless articles and essays.
His America’s Great Depression absolutely demolishes the myth that the depression was caused by the free market and that the nation was rescued by government intervention. The actual truth is that the depression was caused by government intervention, made longer and deeper by further government intervention, then masked by yet further government intervention which continues to this day.
Other writers who may be of varying interests include Dr. George Grant, Thomas Sowell, Llewellyn Rockwell and others. Do some internet searches. Also, the standard historical read for economics students would be Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776).
Generally speaking then, I would recommend the following:
Start with Hazlitt to get a simple, easy to read, easy to understand introduction into general economic thought. Next read Carson’s Basic Economics to get a broader, overall view of the study of economics, followed by his The War on the Poor. From there, if you are still interested, read some of North, et al Biblical Blueprints series, at least the ones that are economic in nature. Particularly Honest Money is a must. From there, go where you may, including possibly some of the others listed above, or others I have not listed.
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