Someone recently asked me for recommendations for summer reading. I decided to post my response. If I had to select the top favorite books I've read in the last five years, the list would include the following:
1. Dever, Mark. The Message of the New Testament. Wheaton : Crossway, 2005.
This book is the best summary of genuine biblical Christianity that I know of. Whether you agree with the book or not, at least you will understand what true, biblical Christianity is all about.
2. Levin, Mark. Liberty and Tyranny; A conservative manifesto. New York : Threshold, 2009.
I wish it were in my power to make reading this book a mandatory condition for voting. Whether you agree with the book or not, at least you will understand what political conservatism is all about.
3. Evans, Craig. Fabricating Jesus. Wheaton, IL : IVP, 2006.
Outstanding treatment of the controversy surrounding Jesus and the Gospels, including discussion of the so-called "lost gospels" like the Gospels of Judas, The Gospel of Thomas and others.
4. Spencer, Robert. Religion of Peace? Why Christianity is and Islam isn’t. Washington DC : Regnery, 2007.
The title says it all and the argument is convincing to all but those who will not see.
5. Schroeder, Gerald L. The Hidden Face of God; How science reveals the ultimate truth. New York : Free Press, 2001.
The author is the MIT scientist who convinced world-renowned atheist, Anthony Flew to conclude that atheism is not a scientifically viable option.
Honorable mention would include:
Sowell, Thomas. Economic Facts and Fallacies. New York : Basic Books, 2008.
Dembski, William A. The Design Revolution; Answering the toughest questions about intelligent design. Downers Grove, IL : IVP, 2004.
Coulter, Ann. Godless. The Church of Liberalism. New York : Crown Forum, 2006.
Kupelian, David. The Marketing of Evil. Nashville : WND Books, 2005
Other favorites:
BIBLE/THEOLOGY/CHRISTIANITY
Bock, Darrell. Breaking the Da Vinci Code. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 2004.
--. The Missing Gospels. Nashville : Thomas Nelson, 2006
Bock, Darrell and Daniel Wallace. Dethroning Jesus; Exposing popular culture’s quest to unseat the biblical Christ. Nashville, TN : Thomas Nelson, 2007.
Dunn, James. Jesus’ Remembered. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2003.
Eddy, Paul Rhodes and Gregory Boyd. The Jesus Legend; a Case for the Historical Reliability of the Synoptic Jesus Tradition. Grand Rapids : Baker, 2007.
Habermas, Gary R. and Michael R. Licona. The Case for the Resurrection of Jesus. Grand Rapids : Kregel, 2004.
Van Voorst, Robert E. Jesus Outside the New Testament. Grand Rapids : Eerdmans, 2000.
Wright, N.T. The Resurrection of the Son of God. Minneapolis : Fortress Press, 2003.
HISTORY
Woods, Thomas, Politically Incorrect Guide to American History, Washington DC : Regnery, 2004.
ECONOMICS
Sowell, Thomas. Basic Economics. 3rd ed. New York : Basic Books, 2007 (627 p.)
SCIENCE
Dembski, William and Jonathan Wells. The Design of Life. Foundation for Thought and Ethics, 2008.
PHILOSOPHY
Moreland, J.P. and William Lane Craig. Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview. Downers Grove, IL : Intervarsity Press, 2003.
LAW/POLITICS/SOCIAL ISSUES/CULTURE WARS
Gutzman, Kevin. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Constitution. Washington DC : Regnery, 2007
Levin, Mark, R. Men in Black. Washington, DC : Regnery, 2005.
Sears, Alan and Craig Osten. The ACLU vs. America; Exposing the agenda to redefine moral values. Nashville : Broadman & Holman, 2005.
ISLAM
Gabriel, Mark. Islam and Terrorism; What the Quran really teaches about Christianity, violence and the goals of the Islamic Jihad. Lake Mary, FL: Charisma House, 2002.
Gartenstein-Ross, Daveed. My Year Inside Radical Islam. New York : Penguin, 2007.
Ibn Ishaq. The Life of Muhammad. New York : Oxford University Press, 1955, 2006 (The earliest biography of Muhammad, originally written about AD 760).
O’ren, Michael B. Power, Faith, and Fantasy; America in the Middle East 1776 to the Present. New York : Norton, 2007.
Sieff, Martin. The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Middle East. Washington DC : Regnery, 2008.
Spencer, Robert. Islam Unvelied; Disturbing questions about the world’s fastest growing faith. New York : Encounter Books, 2002.
--. A Politically Incorrect Guide to Islam. Washington DC : Regnery, 2005.
--. The Truth about Muhammad. Washington, DC : Regnery, 2006.
Wright, Lawrence. The Looming Tower; Al-Qaeda and the Road to 9/11. New York : Vintage Books, 2007.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
The "Missing Gospels"
The Missing Gospels by Darrell Bock is a discussion of the “lost gospels” discovered at Nag Hammadi which have received so much media attention. Dr. Bock, and expert in the field, compares and contrasts viewpoints appearing in these “missing gospels” with the viewpoints contained in “traditional” sources.
These traditional sources include the documents eventually collected in our New Testament, as well as other sources not in the New Testament: Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, etc. Bock generally confines his discussion to documents written in the first and second centuries AD.
Bock compares these two categories of sources in four areas: 1) The Nature of God and Creation, 2) Jesus: Divine and/or Human 3) The Nature of Humanity’s Redemption and 4) Jesus’ Death: Knowledge, Sin and Salvation.
1) The nature of God and creation: The traditional sources teach that there is only one God who is the creator of the universe. Originally, the creation was good but became “fallen” though sin and rebellion. While the Gospel of Thomas also refers to just one God, most of the “missing gospels,” refer to numerous gods and divine beings, and the material creation is presented as a fundamentally evil mistake from the very beginning.
2) Jesus: Divine and/or human: Contrary to The DaVinci Code, none of the ancient texts— whether traditional or “missing gospels”—present Jesus as merely an ordinary human being. All of the “missing gospels” present Jesus as some kind of exalted or heavenly figure. In fact, some go so far as to say that he wasn’t really human at all—he just appeared to be human. By contrast, the traditional sources consistently refer to Jesus as both human and divine at the same time.
3) The Nature of Humanity’s Redemption: The “missing gospels” consistently present the material world of creation as fundamentally defective and “fallen.” Mankind is divided into two classes: those who understand and embrace the spiritual nature of the world and those who hang on to the physical. Only the former will be redeemed with “the ascent of the spiritual one back into the perfect nonmaterial world.” (146). The flesh will eventually be destroyed. By contrast, the traditional view believes not only in a spiritual world, but the redemption and resurrection of the body as well.
4) Jesus’ Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation: Generally speaking the “missing gospels” present Jesus’ work as leading people out of their “ignorance and forgetfulness” (i.e. ignorance of the fact that they are really spirit creatures trapped in a defective material world) and into future “rest and immortality.” By contrast, the traditional view teaches that Jesus not only showed the way, but is the way. He came to die as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Many biblical critics and members of the media present these “missing gospels as evidence for the diversity of ancient Christianity—often implying that the “missing gospels” have just as much right to be considered “truth” as the traditional sources. The fact is, however, that the earliest traditional sources date back to the first century whereas (with the possible though extremely improbable exception of the Gospel of Thomas), the “missing Gospels all date from the second, third, or even fourth centuries AD.
Far from being family disputes within Christianity, Bock demonstrates that the “missing gospels” present views that are not even in the same ballpark as traditional Judeo-Christian thought. Traditional Christian sources show a striking similarity to the Jewish ground from which Jesus and the apostles came.
The “missing gospels,” on the other hand, appear to be attempts to twist this original Jewish message of Jesus and his earliest followers to make it more palatable to second-fourth century Greco-Roman religious and philosophical speculations which, to those who actually take time to read the “missing gospels” will appear much more bizarre, unbelievable and even offensive than anything found in the New Testament.
Unfortunately, by the very nature of a summary, I have oversimplified Darrell Bock’s arguments and outstanding study. Please read The Missing Gospels for a more detailed and accurate assessment.
These traditional sources include the documents eventually collected in our New Testament, as well as other sources not in the New Testament: Clement of Rome, Ignatius, Polycarp, the Didache, Barnabas, Shepherd of Hermas, etc. Bock generally confines his discussion to documents written in the first and second centuries AD.
Bock compares these two categories of sources in four areas: 1) The Nature of God and Creation, 2) Jesus: Divine and/or Human 3) The Nature of Humanity’s Redemption and 4) Jesus’ Death: Knowledge, Sin and Salvation.
1) The nature of God and creation: The traditional sources teach that there is only one God who is the creator of the universe. Originally, the creation was good but became “fallen” though sin and rebellion. While the Gospel of Thomas also refers to just one God, most of the “missing gospels,” refer to numerous gods and divine beings, and the material creation is presented as a fundamentally evil mistake from the very beginning.
2) Jesus: Divine and/or human: Contrary to The DaVinci Code, none of the ancient texts— whether traditional or “missing gospels”—present Jesus as merely an ordinary human being. All of the “missing gospels” present Jesus as some kind of exalted or heavenly figure. In fact, some go so far as to say that he wasn’t really human at all—he just appeared to be human. By contrast, the traditional sources consistently refer to Jesus as both human and divine at the same time.
3) The Nature of Humanity’s Redemption: The “missing gospels” consistently present the material world of creation as fundamentally defective and “fallen.” Mankind is divided into two classes: those who understand and embrace the spiritual nature of the world and those who hang on to the physical. Only the former will be redeemed with “the ascent of the spiritual one back into the perfect nonmaterial world.” (146). The flesh will eventually be destroyed. By contrast, the traditional view believes not only in a spiritual world, but the redemption and resurrection of the body as well.
4) Jesus’ Death: Knowledge, Sin, and Salvation: Generally speaking the “missing gospels” present Jesus’ work as leading people out of their “ignorance and forgetfulness” (i.e. ignorance of the fact that they are really spirit creatures trapped in a defective material world) and into future “rest and immortality.” By contrast, the traditional view teaches that Jesus not only showed the way, but is the way. He came to die as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
Many biblical critics and members of the media present these “missing gospels as evidence for the diversity of ancient Christianity—often implying that the “missing gospels” have just as much right to be considered “truth” as the traditional sources. The fact is, however, that the earliest traditional sources date back to the first century whereas (with the possible though extremely improbable exception of the Gospel of Thomas), the “missing Gospels all date from the second, third, or even fourth centuries AD.
Far from being family disputes within Christianity, Bock demonstrates that the “missing gospels” present views that are not even in the same ballpark as traditional Judeo-Christian thought. Traditional Christian sources show a striking similarity to the Jewish ground from which Jesus and the apostles came.
The “missing gospels,” on the other hand, appear to be attempts to twist this original Jewish message of Jesus and his earliest followers to make it more palatable to second-fourth century Greco-Roman religious and philosophical speculations which, to those who actually take time to read the “missing gospels” will appear much more bizarre, unbelievable and even offensive than anything found in the New Testament.
Unfortunately, by the very nature of a summary, I have oversimplified Darrell Bock’s arguments and outstanding study. Please read The Missing Gospels for a more detailed and accurate assessment.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)