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Once upon a time, I was having a conversation with a ‘theonomist’ over lunch. You need have no idea what a theonomist is or was to understand the drift of the conversation. My friend was deeply persuaded of his convictions.

Among my criticisms of his ‘theonomic’ position was one which to me revealed something of the problematic fruit of the position. Authors in that camp tended to use quite abusive language when speaking of their opponents, and I found this lack of charity toward fellow Christians to be disturbing.

In defense, my friend made reference to the pointed and pugnacious language that Calvin employed critiquing those whose positions he opposed. Lack of charity was not, apparently the issue. The issue was that I was too sensitive and too wimpy to not see that such language is acceptable, if not absolutely manly and courageous in the heat of battle.

This insipid excuse for a man, this dog, this spineless Calvinistic lemming seemed to be persuaded that…

Oops.

My friend seemed to be persuaded that if it was okay for Calvin, it would be okay for us.

But not so fast.

As I have said time and again, there is much to be appreciated and emulated in Calvin. But not this. John T. McNeill, the editor of the Westminster/John Knox edition of Calvin’s Institutes articulates the same concern. McNeill says:

“On occasion, Calvin shows a typically humanist mastery of the language of disparagement and vituperation. His horror of abuses led him at times to use epithets of abuse, and he sometimes resorts to this in assailing the legitimate views of an opponent. This is a deplorable feature by which in parts Calvin’s work is marred for the sensitive reader, but it is not so prevalent as some critics have charged; and in his case invective is not a substitute for argument, but a misconceived attempt to enhance its force.” (page lxxi)

I began writing this a week ago for the sake of those who would be reading Calvin this year. Now it has taken on a certain unexpected relevance given a recent article in the NY Times about Seattle Pastor Mark Driscoll.

I am a fan of Driscoll. And I am obviously a fan of Calvin. But there are things about both men that need to be heard with discernment. We cannot follow either man completely.

At the same time, both men are in some respects larger than life, and around such men falsehood and error will swirl. We need to take what we hear, especially in newspapers and on the internet with great care.

I hope in an upcoming post to comment more directly on this Times article. Stay tuned. Learn from Calvin; learn from Driscoll, you… good person.

UPDATE: Philadelphia’s Philip Ryken has some brief comments on the NYTimes piece here. I’ll post my more lengthy response tomorrow.

“I’m going to start playing the saxophone. For ninety days, I’ll be horrific. At the end of the year, I’ll be able to perform.”

That’s confidence for you. Or bravado.

This is a very selective list from my very selective memory. I list them in no particular order.

William Manchester, The Last Lion This is a two-volume bio of Winston Churchill which ends with him becoming prime minister. The proposed third volume was never published. Manchester is a spell binding author. In order to show how Churchill was a product of the age in which he was raised, the first 100 pages of the first volume is an overview of Victorian England, in which the phenomenal ministry of Charles Spurgeon is referenced. Those first 100 pages are worth the read. For a long time I awaited the publication of the third volume. Eventually, I wrote to Mr. Manchester asking for insight into when we might be able to read the volume. I received a gracious, handwritten note from Mr. Manchester’s personal secretary informing me that he had had a stroke and would not be finishing the work. That made me very sad.

William Manchester, American Caesar This bio of Douglas MacArthur is another Manchester treasure. It would be interesting for me to revisit this one after finishing my read of Truman since paths of these two men, shall we say, clashed. MacArthur is an interesting study in leadership. Perhaps this is why this book shows up on the lists of several prominent Christian leaders in a list at the back of Kent Hughes’ Disciplines of a Godly Man.

David McCullough, John Adams I’ve already said enough about this one. Rarely do I stay up late at night just to read a book. This one fell into that category.

Andrew Bonar, The Memoirs and Remains of Robert Murray McCheyne Perhaps McCheyne is not known to you and perhaps the title puts you off. (I mean, what are ‘remains’ anyway? Are there pieces of bone and hair in a baggie in the back?) However, McCheyne, a Scottish pastor, was a man, like Jim Eliot, whose spiritual insight matured early and whose life ended early, but whose impact lasted far beyond his years. He was a man in love with his Savior.

James W. Alexander, Archibald Alexander I’m a pastor, so I might be drawn inordinately to books about pastors. Archibald Alexander was not only a pastor, but in 1812 he was installed as the founding professor of Princeton Seminary. I found this bio very encouraging as a pastor and as a father. It was written by his son, who himself became a professor at Princeton. If you are familiar with another Princeton professor, the son of Charles Hodge, by the name of A. A. Hodge, three guesses what the ‘A. A.’ stands for.

George Marsden, Jonathan Edwards I am a fan of both this book and the one by Ian Murray of the same title. I was reading the Murray bio when my now 17 year old daughter was born. If you read either bio you will learn why we gave her the name ‘Jerusha’. I prefer the Marsden bio because it’s newer and because he does expose Edwards’ humanness in a way that makes him seem far more rounded.

James Robertson, Stonewall Jackson I’ve read three biographies of Jackson. All three treat Jackson with great respect and not disdain. He was a curious and in some ways puzzling man with sufficient idiosyncrasies to label him an odd genius. All that, together with his obvious piety, make him a man worth knowing.

Arnold A. Dallimore, George Whitefield A two volume work of massive scope of a man whose life impacted Christianity in England and on the American continent. He was a friend of John and Charles Wesley and of Benjamin Franklin. He was passionate about his Calvinism and his evangelism, a combination that is far more common than critics imagine. The amazing thing here is that at the end of volume one, Whitefield is only 25 years old. Wow.

Ian Murray, Martyn Lloyd-Jones I am told that in the 60s there were two churches in London to which students studying there would flock, John Stott’s All Souls and D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones Westminster Chapel. The two men differed, but both had huge and influential ministries. I’d read a bio of either. This two-volume work was written by a man very close to Lloyd-Jones, and so probably lacks the critical distance one might want to see in a biography. But I don’t care. He was an amazing man with an amazing ministry.

Robert Coram, Boyd: The Fighter Pilot Who Changed the Art of War An intern at our church was an Air Force guy who put me onto this book about John Boyd, an Air Force fighter pilot who rethought how war was to be fought. His ideas were rejected by the Air Force and embraced by the Marine Corps, and continue to be the subject of heated debate. The book is fascinating on that score, and as a study of leadership. The author is a devotee of Boyd, and so is perhaps imbalanced because of that. Still fascinating.

And finally, one that I would like to read, is this:

Donald Carson, Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor [Okay, I haven’t read this one yet, but I love the title and hope to read it soon, though I suspect this guy was not as ordinary as the title suggests.]

So, what are your favorites?

A friend the other day wanted to know what biographies I would recommend. I’ve a few, which I will mention here, but I’m particularly interested in what biographies you all might recommend as well.

When I was a boy, I devoured Landmark biographies from our local library. They were small, easy to read, and written about all kinds of really interesting people. I’m older now, and the biographies I read are correspondingly longer, and the time available proportionally shorter, so I don’t read them as much. And I find that I read biographies differently now than I used to.

When I was younger, biographies inspired me. They opened up horizons for what I might do and gave me encouragement as to how to live my life. As I grew older I found that biographies began to frustrate me as I realized that the men about whom I was reading were men of rare gifts and unusual accomplishments alongside of which my own abilities paled. Inspiration faded into regret.

That was, of course, my pride interfering. As I read them now, I read them for the insight they give to the human side of history. But, more significantly, I read them to see the hand of God’s remarkable providence in the lives of people who have impacted the world in which we live.

A couple weeks ago, I took up David McCullough’s massive bio of Harry Truman. Creatively titled Truman, it is over 900 pages long. I had settled in for the months it was going to take me to complete.

That time has now been extended.

For Christmas, my son gave me Quiet Strength, Tony Dungy’s ghost written memoir, with the admonition that I must read it. He read it last summer, as did my associate Geoff, and both were great fans of the book.I have always been impressed with Dungy, and so it did not take much to get me to put Truman on the shelf and take up Dungy.

The book itself is no masterpiece. But the man about whom it is written is a gem. I could gush for some time about this guy. And just a couple days ago, my sister recommended this book about Theodore Roosevelt, which led me to a David McCullough work on Roosevelt. This may end up being the year of the biography.

Back to the original question: What are my favorites? I’ll save that for the next post.

Not that any of this matters, but as I sit here vegging on a Sunday night I was pleased to see that the TV series John Adams won the Golden Globe for best mini-series. And Tom Hanks, in accepting the award, said that we all should go read David McCullough’s book. Here here!

Here’s rooting for Paul Giamati, Laura Linney, and Tom Wilkinson to make it a clean sweep!

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UPDATE: Whoa, it’s a two-fer. One of my favorites, Laura Linney picked up the award for playing Abigail Adams. Horray!

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UPDATE 2: I’m amazed – Paul Giamatti has won for his role as John Adams. I’m watching a bit behind real time, and may not stay up for the rest. But this is amazing that this series would be so well recognized. Worth seeing if you have not.

If you are still considering reading Calvin this year, there is yet time to start. If you miss this week you will only have missed the address to the French king and will not have missed any of the substance of the Institutes.

As an encouragement to consider at least beginning read this from Sean Lucas, a professor at Covenant Seminary, who has himself begun reading Calvin afresh. He comments:

One of the things that has struck me afresh is how the Institutes really are what Calvin (and what I in class) say they are: a manual on piety. Over and again, Calvin preaches, cajoles, directs, persuades and urges; he calls on us to “lift your hearts up” to heaven in order to mediate on the grace and glory of God. He wants us to be changed through a genuine love of God our gracious and loving father. It has been quite refreshing spiritually to do this.

That was my impression when I read them 20 years ago. It’s not too late to jump on board.

Also, if you were thinking about listening to the Covenant Seminary lectures on Calvin on your iPod, I have converted them all to audiobook format. In contrast to normal mp3s, audiobooks remember where you left off when you sync your iPod or switch for a time to a song or some other recording. Let me know if you are interested, and we’ll figure out a way to get these to you. Email me here.

UPDATE; I have been made aware of another site – Princeton Seminary – which has its own schedule for reading the Institutes and has been given permission to post the excellent McNeill/Battles translation in daily increments so that one can read without having to buy the actual book. Also, there is included in this site a podcast of an audio recording of the Institutes. (However, be warned that the audio changes Calvin so that he writes as one who is gender inclusive.) Because of copyright issues, the readings only stay posted for a few days, so you will need to keep up.

So, if you thought that you have had a bad day, consider this poor chap.

Perhaps you saw this.

At least he is ‘unidentified’!

My son asked me the other day, with a certain challenge in his voice, why I had the blog of James Fallows linked on this blog. My son and I share the same generally conservative politics. So, he is, understandably, a bit puzzled to find Fallows’ blog listed as something worth checking out.

That’s a great question. So, what’s my answer?

1) He is a good writer. I learn from good essay writers, and am challenged by them. Obviously blog posts are not classic essays, but they still reveal a certain compositional skill which I not only enjoy, but learn from.

2) He has diverse interests which overlap mine, and which stretch me. In addition to politics, he often posts about computers, language, China, productivity, and a host of other things. This is what I want my own blog to reflect – the diverse interests of its author.

3) He takes a different political spin from most of those I am around. Though I differ, I am challenged by his thought, which is always well reasoned and carefully phrased.

4) He does not hesitate to praise those he criticizes when praise is due.

5) And he often says some things that just make sense. Like this.

He writes a blog the way it should be written… conversationally, sometimes passionately, always very personably.

I’m not saying any of the rest of you should read him. But I find it worthwhile.

That’s why, Matthew. Thanks for asking.

My last post, titled “For Parents of Girls” prominently displayed the cover art from the girl lit sensation Twilight. The article referenced in the post was an article stimulated by the Twilight phenomenon, but which was more about girlhood than it was about the novels. The question the author was addressing was not so much the merits of the books as what there was about being a girl that so resonated with these books.

That is what I find fascinating. What is there about this or that that makes it all so appealing? What do things which we embrace say about us? I have read recently about (and even watched highlight reels of) MMA (mixed martial arts). I have no interest in attending an MMA bout of any kind. But the popularity is off the charts. Why? What is there in people that makes these fights so popular? These are the kinds of questions which interest me.

Hence, my post really said nothing positive or negative about the series. But it did say something intriguing, I thought, about girls and the process of growing up.

I happen to know all those who commented, and they all commented about the books, and not the substance. That’s okay. I like the conversation, and I like to hear what people think, even if it is not directly along the line of what I was thinking. Someday I may have something to say about the books.

But the interesting thing about the comments to the post “For Parents of Girls”, which no doubt means nothing at all, is that if we were to put all the children of all those who commented in one room, in that room there would be nine boys, zero girls!

I just love irony.

Not having time to explore the whole Twilight phenomena (huge book sales, blockbuster movie release, and impact nearly solely among young females), I read what I can when I can about it. This is an interesting take from the Atlantic Monthly. This is not a Christian assessment, of course. But very telling and intriguing for those of us who have or have had girls is this observation:

AS I WRITE this, I am sitting on the guest-room bed of a close friend, and down the hall from me is the bedroom of the daughter of the house, a 12-year-old reader extraordinaire, a deep-sea diver of books. She was the fourth person through the doors of the Westwood Barnes & Noble the midnight that the series’ final volume, Breaking Dawn, went on sale, and she read it—a doorstop, a behemoth—in six hours, and then turned back to page one as though it were the natural successor to the last page.

Posted on this girl’s door—above the fading sticker of a cheery panda hopping over a pink jump rope, and one of a strawberry and a lollipop (their low placement suggesting the highest reach of a very small child), and to the right of an oval-shaped decal bearing the single, angry imperative STOP GLOBAL WARMING—is a small, black, square-shaped sticker that reads MY HEART BELONGS TO EDWARD. In the middle is a photograph of a pair of shapely female hands proffering a red Valentine heart. Also taped to this girl’s closed door is a single piece of lined paper, on which she has written, in a carefully considered amalgam of block letters and swirly penmanship and eight different colors of crayon:

EDWARD’S FAN CLUB
YOU MAY ONLY ENTER IF YOU KNOW THE PASSWORD

That she had made her declaration for Edward on such a pretty, handmade sign was all-girl—as was her decision to leave up the old stickers from her childhood. One of the signal differences between adolescent girls and boys is that while a boy quickly puts away childish things in his race to initiate a sexual life for himself, a girl will continue to cherish, almost to fetishize, the tokens of her little-girlhood. She wants to be both places at once—in the safety of girl land, with the pandas and jump ropes, and in the arms of a lover, whose sole desire is to take her completely. And most of all, as girls work all of this out with considerable anguish, they want to be in their rooms, with the doors closed and the declarations posted. The biggest problem for parents of teenage girls is that they never know who is going to come barreling out of that sacred space: the adorable little girl who wants to cuddle, or the hard-eyed young woman who has left it all behind.

Kinda scary, huh? Yep. Reason #31 parents should be on their knees more than we are.