Thursday, January 29, 2009
More Great Music
I should have more nights where 350 pages of reading is assigned: I get so much more posting done. A magnificent album that is very worth the price I paid for it eight years ago is Don Potter's Facing the Wall. It is instrumental, and possibly not for everyone, but is a display of absolutely magnificent guitar music in various genres. It has crept into almost every playlist that I have, and I've yet to tire of it. Terrific album. Click on my title.
Great Music
The Shoemaker Brothers are a band that is fairly local to our Moscow area, though they will be touring the west coast shortly. Their music is acoustic rock in the best sense: violins (yes, that's plural), guitar, piano and drums or bass. Each of the four brothers plays all of the above instruments, and that quite well. The vocals are in some places iffy, and in others downright distracting, but all in all it is very worthwhile. Click on my title for their link.
Hermeneutics: "Apocalyptic"
Tonight, or early tomorrow as the case may be, I will finish N.T. Wright's tremendous book The New Testament and the People of God. This 400 page magnum opus serves as his introduction to Jesus and the Victory of God, and its magnificence is hard to overemphasize. It reinterprets everything from the Pharisees to the Macabaeans and Hasmoneans, and all done exegetically, soberly, conservatively, and eruditely. Of all the books that I have read in my NSA career, this one has been the most illuminating (save perhaps Capon's eloquence upon the onion) and the most paradigmatically momentous. I cannot recommend this book highly enough.
Among all of this brilliance, he has a magnificent throw-away paragraph on the exegeting of Apocalyptic literature:
"We do this all the time ourselves. I have often pointed out to students that to describe the fall of the Berlin Wall, as one well might, as an 'earth-shattering' event might perhaps lead some future historian, writing in the Martian Journal of Early European Studies, to hypothesize that an earthquake had caused the collapse of the Wall, leading to both sides realizing they could live together after all. A good many readings of apocalyptic literature in our own century operate on about that level of understanding."
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 282: Part III: First-Century Judaism
Among all of this brilliance, he has a magnificent throw-away paragraph on the exegeting of Apocalyptic literature:
"We do this all the time ourselves. I have often pointed out to students that to describe the fall of the Berlin Wall, as one well might, as an 'earth-shattering' event might perhaps lead some future historian, writing in the Martian Journal of Early European Studies, to hypothesize that an earthquake had caused the collapse of the Wall, leading to both sides realizing they could live together after all. A good many readings of apocalyptic literature in our own century operate on about that level of understanding."
N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 282: Part III: First-Century Judaism
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Ouch.
"But no matter how many helpful things you say, if you leave the really huge question out, then all you are really displaying is a real loss of proportion. "Well, other than that, how was the play, Mrs. Lincoln?"
--Doug Wilson
click my title
--Doug Wilson
click my title
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Intriguing Speech Compilation
This speech compilation is actually really funny: "Shame on you..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI
or click on the title.
Enjoy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6wRkzCW5qI
or click on the title.
Enjoy.
Saturday, January 24, 2009
Absurd Levels of Design
In his very enjoyable book Blink, Malcom Gladwell comments that there was a group of people in WWII assigned to intercepting messages in morse code. They did not understand them at all, as they were in German and in code that we hadn't broken, but they were able to figure out who was sending them simply from the sound of the tapping. Each of the thousands of different Germans sending messages had a distinctive way of doing so: not a distinctive pattern of speech, but a distinctive pattern of tapping. We assigned people to follow each of the senders, and after several weeks, in a mix of several thousand messages, one person could be picked out. This enabled us to track them all across Europe, and, if we knew who they were traveling with, we would know what groups of infantry, what tank divisions were being moved where.
Lewis Thomas' book The Lives of a Cell, in which he employs his delightful prose on an incredible range of topics, offhandedly mentions that termites have an odd method of communication: tapping: "From time to time, certain termites make a convulsive movement of their mandible to produce a loud, high-pitched clicking sound, audible ten meters off..." Along with this there are the whale-songs, the "strange, solitary and lovely bell-like notes" produced by bats, the prairie rabbits, hens and mice that all drum their feet, "Fish make sounds by clicking their teeth, blowing air, and drumming with special muscles against tuned inflated air bladders... Even earthworms make sounds, faint staccato notes in rhythmic clusters..."
The list is literally endless. And no two of these would have the same exact sound, and not one of these was not planned from before the foundation of the earth. "The more we know, the more we realize we don't know, and we're learning so fast, it won't be long before we know nothing at all." We learn to sing that we might glorify God, but are still being out-done by earthworms. And how do they even make a sound? With what?
Lewis Thomas' book The Lives of a Cell, in which he employs his delightful prose on an incredible range of topics, offhandedly mentions that termites have an odd method of communication: tapping: "From time to time, certain termites make a convulsive movement of their mandible to produce a loud, high-pitched clicking sound, audible ten meters off..." Along with this there are the whale-songs, the "strange, solitary and lovely bell-like notes" produced by bats, the prairie rabbits, hens and mice that all drum their feet, "Fish make sounds by clicking their teeth, blowing air, and drumming with special muscles against tuned inflated air bladders... Even earthworms make sounds, faint staccato notes in rhythmic clusters..."
The list is literally endless. And no two of these would have the same exact sound, and not one of these was not planned from before the foundation of the earth. "The more we know, the more we realize we don't know, and we're learning so fast, it won't be long before we know nothing at all." We learn to sing that we might glorify God, but are still being out-done by earthworms. And how do they even make a sound? With what?
Thursday, January 22, 2009
Quotes
Some Christians hold, thorugh a misunderstanding of this passage (1 Peter 3:3), that 'it is a sin to wear make-up.' Peter is teaching that it is a sin for a woman to look like she fell face-down into her make-up, or like she puts it on with a trowel" (Her Hand in Marriage, p. 50).
Friday, December 26, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Ontological Suicide
"In the New Testament field, some critics have made a great song and dance about the fact that the details of Jesus' life, or the fact of his resurrection, cannot be proved 'scientifically'; philosophical rigour should compel them to admit that the same problem pertains to the vast range of ordinary human knowledge, including the implicit claim that knowledge requires empirical verification."
--N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 34.
Always enjoyable to watch an opponent fall on his own sword.
--N. T. Wright, The New Testament and the People of God, page 34.
Always enjoyable to watch an opponent fall on his own sword.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Pining for Mount Doom
Craig, James and I are currently sitting in James' and Sproul's room. Why? Because it is toasty warm, and all of the other rooms are so cold. Outside, it is four degrees (with a wind chill), and it got up to sixteen degrees in town today, though at our house, only up to twelve. My goatee has frozen on five different occasions. Our water pipes froze (despite being insulated), and will not be thawed till tomorrow. To top it all off, our furnace has broken. How warm is it in our toasty-warm little cave? With our mighty space heater on full blast, it just crested freezing.
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
NSA Choir Christmas Concert
This is the NSA choir (not the entire school--two seniors are missing), and our first big performance. It actually turned out rather well, and there should be a higher quality video coming out before too long.
Finals
I have two presentations and one paper to write this week, and then next week is finals. For History, I need to know all of Thucydides as well as the tours of Alexander the Great and all of the dates and stuff. For theology, I need to be able to outline and summarize (orally and in prose) every book of the Old Testament, as well as all of our lectures and I have to be painfully detailed on the magnificent book of Song of Solomon. For Latin, I need to memorize all five declensions, all verb forms and everything from ablativus temporis et accusativus cum infinitivus to adjectival forms and whether it is masculinum, femininum or neutrum, as well as the Pater Noster et Credo. For Music, I need to know all lecture and reading material, and be able to sing all solfege patterns (major and minor 2nds, 3rds, 4ths, 5ths, 6ths, 7ths and octaves, ascending and descending. When I am given any note and told to make it Do, Re, Mi, Fa, Sol, La, Ti or Do, then told to sing a Re Fa La off of the Sol, etc, as well as reading music cold), a couple of Psalms that Dr. Erb (who is magnificent) put to music, and the songs from last term.
Then, on Friday morning I drive home for two weeks before heading to Spokane to do sales for the last part of my break. There are four books due the first week of classes, so the break will be rather full, but I hope to get to relax somewhat before next term.
I cannot wait to be home.
Then, on Friday morning I drive home for two weeks before heading to Spokane to do sales for the last part of my break. There are four books due the first week of classes, so the break will be rather full, but I hope to get to relax somewhat before next term.
I cannot wait to be home.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Wilson
When Mercy Is Cruel
Topic: Foundations of Mercy
Abraham Lincoln once asked how many legs a sheep would have if we called the tail a leg. "Five," came the answer. No, Lincoln replied, it doesn't matter what we call it, a sheep will have four legs regardless of what we say.
The Bible gives us the categories of mercy and cruelty. Both of them are defined by God, and not by what we want to call them. These are objective categories, over which Jesus is Lord, and not subjective realities where each one of us gets to roll our own.
For a stark example, a father who refuses to chastize his son physically is a man, Scripture says, who hates his son (Prov. 13:24). But he could, especially in these times, say that striking your son is a fine example of physical abuse, and that he refrains from disciplining him this way because he loves his son. If a man went down to social services for a bit of advice on controlling an unruly son, do you think that man would be told by the social worker there that there was nothing wrong at home that a good whipping wouldn't fix (Prov. 23:13)?
This is the core battle in all temptation, the battle for control of the definitions. The first instance of it happened in the Garden when our parents fell. Who was going to define the tree of knowledge of good and evil? On their account, Adam and Eve were not eating ruination; they thought they were becoming as God, which was a good thing they thought. In Romans 1, Paul says of the idolaters that they were professing to become wise while they were becoming fools. As they were becoming stupider and stupider, they persisted in giving honorary doctorates to each other.
Now this principle applies to mercy as God defines it, and mercy as man apart from Christ defines it. When man in rebellion against Christ defines mercy, what they are talking about is cruelty. A godly man's tender mercies extend down to life in his barn, and in a similar way, the cruelties of the wicked extend into everything. Even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel (Prov. 12:10). A young man may believe all that he was told about sexual liberation, and how important it was not to deny that which was so obviously "natural" to him, and so he pursues the way of fornication, obviously a good and pleasant choice, he believes. What has he done, but give his honor away, and his "years unto the cruel" (Prov. 5:9)?
Why listen to these people at all? Why listen to what they have to say on love, justice, sexual ethics, redistribution, politics, mercy, or economics? "Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps" (Dt. 32:33). They hate God, and they do not love what He loves. The devil, remember, is the father of liars. He does not come to us, tell us the unvarnished truth, in order to allow us to make an informed choice. He lies. And so his cruelties are decked out with noble sounding phrases.
And evangelical Christians go for it. I read just yesterday that the chief lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, a man named Richard Cizik, voted for Obama in the primary (at least), is now in favor of civil unions for homos, and thinks that "character issues" trump disagreement over things like the slaughter of the unborn. There is no other way to describe this than to acknowledge that God has struck our leaders with a judicial stupor. Cizik talks as though character issues are one thing over here, and support for genocidal mayhem is over there. Having a sweet character is here, and approval of sodomy is there. God was clearly in the wrong for His judgment of Sodom's sexual immorality (Jude 7). He should have come down and judged them for their character issues instead.
No doubt, listening to a talk by Cizik would be an experience in listening to sentimentalist bromides all wrapped up in cotton batting. But at the end of the day, he doesn't care about the unborn -- his tender mercies are cruel.
"The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh" (Prov. 11:17).
You can tell if the rot has set in pretty easily. What might the principal mercy opportunity in the United States be? Think about it. A million or more little babies are being chopped into littler pieces. And as soon as someone starts saying, well, yes, "but that's a political issue. I am more interested in broader issues of mercy and social justice," the rot has set in. And it is called a good thing -- progressive. But as Joe Sobran recently put it, if termites could talk, they would call what they do to a house "progress." And of course, it doesn't matter what we call it. The house will still collapse.
Posted by Douglas Wilson - 12/8/2008 10:01:45 AM | Print this post
Topic: Foundations of Mercy
Abraham Lincoln once asked how many legs a sheep would have if we called the tail a leg. "Five," came the answer. No, Lincoln replied, it doesn't matter what we call it, a sheep will have four legs regardless of what we say.
The Bible gives us the categories of mercy and cruelty. Both of them are defined by God, and not by what we want to call them. These are objective categories, over which Jesus is Lord, and not subjective realities where each one of us gets to roll our own.
For a stark example, a father who refuses to chastize his son physically is a man, Scripture says, who hates his son (Prov. 13:24). But he could, especially in these times, say that striking your son is a fine example of physical abuse, and that he refrains from disciplining him this way because he loves his son. If a man went down to social services for a bit of advice on controlling an unruly son, do you think that man would be told by the social worker there that there was nothing wrong at home that a good whipping wouldn't fix (Prov. 23:13)?
This is the core battle in all temptation, the battle for control of the definitions. The first instance of it happened in the Garden when our parents fell. Who was going to define the tree of knowledge of good and evil? On their account, Adam and Eve were not eating ruination; they thought they were becoming as God, which was a good thing they thought. In Romans 1, Paul says of the idolaters that they were professing to become wise while they were becoming fools. As they were becoming stupider and stupider, they persisted in giving honorary doctorates to each other.
Now this principle applies to mercy as God defines it, and mercy as man apart from Christ defines it. When man in rebellion against Christ defines mercy, what they are talking about is cruelty. A godly man's tender mercies extend down to life in his barn, and in a similar way, the cruelties of the wicked extend into everything. Even the tender mercies of the wicked are cruel (Prov. 12:10). A young man may believe all that he was told about sexual liberation, and how important it was not to deny that which was so obviously "natural" to him, and so he pursues the way of fornication, obviously a good and pleasant choice, he believes. What has he done, but give his honor away, and his "years unto the cruel" (Prov. 5:9)?
Why listen to these people at all? Why listen to what they have to say on love, justice, sexual ethics, redistribution, politics, mercy, or economics? "Their wine is the poison of dragons, and the cruel venom of asps" (Dt. 32:33). They hate God, and they do not love what He loves. The devil, remember, is the father of liars. He does not come to us, tell us the unvarnished truth, in order to allow us to make an informed choice. He lies. And so his cruelties are decked out with noble sounding phrases.
And evangelical Christians go for it. I read just yesterday that the chief lobbyist for the National Association of Evangelicals, a man named Richard Cizik, voted for Obama in the primary (at least), is now in favor of civil unions for homos, and thinks that "character issues" trump disagreement over things like the slaughter of the unborn. There is no other way to describe this than to acknowledge that God has struck our leaders with a judicial stupor. Cizik talks as though character issues are one thing over here, and support for genocidal mayhem is over there. Having a sweet character is here, and approval of sodomy is there. God was clearly in the wrong for His judgment of Sodom's sexual immorality (Jude 7). He should have come down and judged them for their character issues instead.
No doubt, listening to a talk by Cizik would be an experience in listening to sentimentalist bromides all wrapped up in cotton batting. But at the end of the day, he doesn't care about the unborn -- his tender mercies are cruel.
"The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh" (Prov. 11:17).
You can tell if the rot has set in pretty easily. What might the principal mercy opportunity in the United States be? Think about it. A million or more little babies are being chopped into littler pieces. And as soon as someone starts saying, well, yes, "but that's a political issue. I am more interested in broader issues of mercy and social justice," the rot has set in. And it is called a good thing -- progressive. But as Joe Sobran recently put it, if termites could talk, they would call what they do to a house "progress." And of course, it doesn't matter what we call it. The house will still collapse.
Posted by Douglas Wilson - 12/8/2008 10:01:45 AM | Print this post
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Limerick
Courtesy of Jeff Moss
There was an old fellow from Lyme,
Who married three wives at a time.
When asked, 'Why the third?' he said, 'Haven't you heard?
Bigamy, sir, is a crime.'
There was an old fellow from Lyme,
Who married three wives at a time.
When asked, 'Why the third?' he said, 'Haven't you heard?
Bigamy, sir, is a crime.'
Monday, November 24, 2008
I Can Live With That
Sorry about the delay in posting. I am currently on a sheetly denuded bed (on my sleeping bag) in Spokane, mooching off of our neighbor "linksys" while avoiding "GetOff." Today, I had a twelve hour day in which I made between $165 and $225. How? By being my (apparently schmoozing) self.
Sunday, November 16, 2008
Bread for Strength, Wine for Joy
Bread for Strength, Wine for Joy
Topic: The Lord's Table
In Psalm 104: 14-15, we are told that God feeds the world. As part of this, the psalmist mentions wine and bread as part of God’s great gift. He tells us that bread is given to strengthen the heart of man, and that wine is given to gladden the heart of man.
As we gather at the Lord’s Table, these are two things we must remember. It is true of food generally, and it is certainly true of this sacramental food. When God gives you something to strengthen you, this means that you need to be strengthened. If you didn’t need, God would not be piling superfluous gifts on you. And in the same way, when God gives you wine to gladden your heart, this means that your heart needs to be gladdened.
Christians are too often weak, and they are too often sorrowful. Because of this, God brings you what is most needful. He brings you strength in the form of bread, and He brings you joy in a cup, the joy of the new covenant.
The bread, of course, is the body of the Lord, which means that you commune with His body, and you commune with one another—for you are His body. If you want to know where a great deal of the strength is, look around you. God has given you strength in the bread He has given you. And He has done the same thing with joy. For this, just listen. Listen to the psalms, and to the harmonies, and to the words of joy. So come—bread for strength, and wine for joy.
Topic: The Lord's Table
In Psalm 104: 14-15, we are told that God feeds the world. As part of this, the psalmist mentions wine and bread as part of God’s great gift. He tells us that bread is given to strengthen the heart of man, and that wine is given to gladden the heart of man.
As we gather at the Lord’s Table, these are two things we must remember. It is true of food generally, and it is certainly true of this sacramental food. When God gives you something to strengthen you, this means that you need to be strengthened. If you didn’t need, God would not be piling superfluous gifts on you. And in the same way, when God gives you wine to gladden your heart, this means that your heart needs to be gladdened.
Christians are too often weak, and they are too often sorrowful. Because of this, God brings you what is most needful. He brings you strength in the form of bread, and He brings you joy in a cup, the joy of the new covenant.
The bread, of course, is the body of the Lord, which means that you commune with His body, and you commune with one another—for you are His body. If you want to know where a great deal of the strength is, look around you. God has given you strength in the bread He has given you. And He has done the same thing with joy. For this, just listen. Listen to the psalms, and to the harmonies, and to the words of joy. So come—bread for strength, and wine for joy.
Thursday, November 13, 2008
Theology Paper, Stage One
For theology, we are required to study and provide a structural analysis on a book of the Old Testament. Stage One, due Friday the 14th, is an overview of the major sections of the book and your defense for breaking the book up into those sections.
Blessings,
Jesse Broussard
Solomon’s Song of Songs
Unmarried Courtship
1:1-3:11
Wedding and Consummation
4:1-5:1
Married Courtship
5:2-8:14
J. A. Broussard
Nicea Term Theology; Stage 1 of Paper
11/13/08
The central “Wedding and Consummation” division that I have made is set off by the occurrence of the wedding (declared in 3:11 and instigating a narrative taking the entirety of the fourth chapter and culminating in the consummation of 5:1). The biggest problem with this division is that several very suggestive references in the first section imply that the wedding has already taken place, a full three chapters before the section in which I posit it. For example: 1:4: “The king has brought me into his chambers;” 1:14: “Our bed is green” (another translation gives the more explicit ‘verdant’), and 1:13: “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts.”
However, the book is stylistically written and the (presumed) wedding narrative is quite centrally placed. Also, the first time that a clear declaration of consummation takes place is in 5:1, following rapid, numerous repetitions of “my sister, my spouse” (4:8,9,10,11,12), which is the first (and, debatably, the only) time that a marital appellation is attached, and the only time that “my sister, my spouse” is used in the book (the last time being in 5:1, the declaration of the consummation). This shows beyond doubt that marriage was at least very much on the mind of the lover, and the fact that his calling the beloved his wife occurs between her mentioning his marriage and his mentioning its consummation, and that this is the only time in the book that anything marriage-like is mentioned is more than merely suggestive of a wedding.
There are seven repetitions of “Daughters of Jerusalem,” all of which curiously lie outside of this very lengthy section: it is actually the longest space within the book that omits this phrase, the narratives immediately on either side contain it. There are also three repetitions of “I charge you…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases,” all of which are outside of this. Finally, several of the suggestive texts are not all that clear, and, due to the responsorial and somewhat dazedly disjointed nature of this book, it generally does no violence to import an equally varied chronology, though the divisions of it would admittedly require careful study.
The first and third divisions are far easier to defend. They mirror each other with very explicit parallelism, being a pre-wedding courtship and a post-wedding courtship. The sections use many of the same phrases; I have already mentioned the seven repetitions of “Daughters of Jerusalem,” and “I charge you…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases,” but also “His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me,” and, “Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices,” as well as the references to an apple tree, feeding flocks, grapes and vines, wine, constant repetitions of myrrh and spices (often spikenard), and two very curious narratives involving the beloved estranged from her lover, arising from bed, seeking the Lover, and encountering watchmen, and these are by no means all of them. Were repetitions or allusions to previously mentioned texts cut out, the only section to be relatively unchanged would be the wedding narrative, while the first and third sections would be cut in half.
Blessings,
Jesse Broussard
Solomon’s Song of Songs
Unmarried Courtship
1:1-3:11
Wedding and Consummation
4:1-5:1
Married Courtship
5:2-8:14
J. A. Broussard
Nicea Term Theology; Stage 1 of Paper
11/13/08
The central “Wedding and Consummation” division that I have made is set off by the occurrence of the wedding (declared in 3:11 and instigating a narrative taking the entirety of the fourth chapter and culminating in the consummation of 5:1). The biggest problem with this division is that several very suggestive references in the first section imply that the wedding has already taken place, a full three chapters before the section in which I posit it. For example: 1:4: “The king has brought me into his chambers;” 1:14: “Our bed is green” (another translation gives the more explicit ‘verdant’), and 1:13: “A bundle of myrrh is my beloved to me, that lies all night between my breasts.”
However, the book is stylistically written and the (presumed) wedding narrative is quite centrally placed. Also, the first time that a clear declaration of consummation takes place is in 5:1, following rapid, numerous repetitions of “my sister, my spouse” (4:8,9,10,11,12), which is the first (and, debatably, the only) time that a marital appellation is attached, and the only time that “my sister, my spouse” is used in the book (the last time being in 5:1, the declaration of the consummation). This shows beyond doubt that marriage was at least very much on the mind of the lover, and the fact that his calling the beloved his wife occurs between her mentioning his marriage and his mentioning its consummation, and that this is the only time in the book that anything marriage-like is mentioned is more than merely suggestive of a wedding.
There are seven repetitions of “Daughters of Jerusalem,” all of which curiously lie outside of this very lengthy section: it is actually the longest space within the book that omits this phrase, the narratives immediately on either side contain it. There are also three repetitions of “I charge you…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases,” all of which are outside of this. Finally, several of the suggestive texts are not all that clear, and, due to the responsorial and somewhat dazedly disjointed nature of this book, it generally does no violence to import an equally varied chronology, though the divisions of it would admittedly require careful study.
The first and third divisions are far easier to defend. They mirror each other with very explicit parallelism, being a pre-wedding courtship and a post-wedding courtship. The sections use many of the same phrases; I have already mentioned the seven repetitions of “Daughters of Jerusalem,” and “I charge you…do not stir up nor awaken love until it pleases,” but also “His left hand is under my head and his right hand embraces me,” and, “Be like a gazelle or a young stag on the mountains of spices,” as well as the references to an apple tree, feeding flocks, grapes and vines, wine, constant repetitions of myrrh and spices (often spikenard), and two very curious narratives involving the beloved estranged from her lover, arising from bed, seeking the Lover, and encountering watchmen, and these are by no means all of them. Were repetitions or allusions to previously mentioned texts cut out, the only section to be relatively unchanged would be the wedding narrative, while the first and third sections would be cut in half.
A Defense of Not Sleeping
I just checked out Doug Wilson's writings. Wow.
Author
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning (ISBN 978-0891075837)
Persuasions (ISBN 978-1885767295)
Finding the Faith
Fruit of the Cross
Ephesians, With Notes
Easy Chairs/Hard Words (ISBN 978-1885767301)
Reforming Marriage (ISBN 978-1885767455)
Contours of Postmaturity (ISBN 978-1885767202)
To A Thousand Generations (ISBN 978-1885767240)
Standing on the Promises (ISBN 978-1885767257)
Her Hand in Marriage (ISBN 978-1885767264)
Joy at the End of the Tether (ISBN 978-1885767509)
Federal Husband (ISBN 978-1885767516)
The Paideia of God (ISBN 978-1885767592)
Fidelity (ISBN 978-1885767646)
For Kirk and Covenant (ISBN 978-1581820584)
Exhortations (ISBN 0967760313)
Untune the Sky (ISBN 978-1930710696)
Mother Kirk (ISBN 978-1885767721)
Future Men (ISBN 978-1885767837)
Excused Absence (ISBN 978-0970224514)
Beyond Stateliest Marble (ISBN 978-1581821642)
Greyfriars Covenant
A Serrated Edge (ISBN 978-1591280101)
The Case for Classical Christian Education (ISBN 978-1581343847)
Blackthorn Winter (ISBN 978-1932168105)
"Reformed" is Not Enough (ISBN 978-1591280057)
My Life for Yours (ISBN 978-1885767905)
Black & Tan (ISBN 978-1591280323)
For a Glory and a Covering (ISBN 978-1591280415)
Letter from a Christian Citizen (ISBN 978-0915815661)
God Is. How Christianity Explains Everything (ISBN 978-0915815869)
The Deluded Atheist (ISBN 978-0915815593)
Co-author
Introductory Logic (with James B. Nance) (ISBN 978-1591280330)
Latin Grammar (with Karen Craig) (ISBN 978-1885767370)
Beyond Promises (with David Hagopian and John Armstrong) (ISBN 978-1885767129)
Southern Slavery As It Was (with Steve Wilkins) (ISBN 978-1885767172)
Angels in the Architecture (with Douglas Jones) (ISBN 978-1885767400)
Is Christianity Good for the World? (with Christopher Hitchens) (ISBN 978-1591280538)
Editor and contributor
No Stone Unturned
The Forgotten Heavens
Repairing the Ruins (ISBN 978-1885767141)
Bound Only Once (ISBN 978-1885767844)
Omnibus I: Biblical and Classical Civilizations (ISBN 978-1932168426)
Contributor
Back to Basics (ISBN 978-0875522166)
Whatever Happened to the Reformation? (ISBN 978-0875521831)
The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism (ISBN 978-0875525549)
When Shall These Things Be? (ISBN 978-0875525525)
The Federal Vision (ISBN 978-0975391402)
The Case for Covenant Communion (ISBN 978-0975391433)
Author
Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning (ISBN 978-0891075837)
Persuasions (ISBN 978-1885767295)
Finding the Faith
Fruit of the Cross
Ephesians, With Notes
Easy Chairs/Hard Words (ISBN 978-1885767301)
Reforming Marriage (ISBN 978-1885767455)
Contours of Postmaturity (ISBN 978-1885767202)
To A Thousand Generations (ISBN 978-1885767240)
Standing on the Promises (ISBN 978-1885767257)
Her Hand in Marriage (ISBN 978-1885767264)
Joy at the End of the Tether (ISBN 978-1885767509)
Federal Husband (ISBN 978-1885767516)
The Paideia of God (ISBN 978-1885767592)
Fidelity (ISBN 978-1885767646)
For Kirk and Covenant (ISBN 978-1581820584)
Exhortations (ISBN 0967760313)
Untune the Sky (ISBN 978-1930710696)
Mother Kirk (ISBN 978-1885767721)
Future Men (ISBN 978-1885767837)
Excused Absence (ISBN 978-0970224514)
Beyond Stateliest Marble (ISBN 978-1581821642)
Greyfriars Covenant
A Serrated Edge (ISBN 978-1591280101)
The Case for Classical Christian Education (ISBN 978-1581343847)
Blackthorn Winter (ISBN 978-1932168105)
"Reformed" is Not Enough (ISBN 978-1591280057)
My Life for Yours (ISBN 978-1885767905)
Black & Tan (ISBN 978-1591280323)
For a Glory and a Covering (ISBN 978-1591280415)
Letter from a Christian Citizen (ISBN 978-0915815661)
God Is. How Christianity Explains Everything (ISBN 978-0915815869)
The Deluded Atheist (ISBN 978-0915815593)
Co-author
Introductory Logic (with James B. Nance) (ISBN 978-1591280330)
Latin Grammar (with Karen Craig) (ISBN 978-1885767370)
Beyond Promises (with David Hagopian and John Armstrong) (ISBN 978-1885767129)
Southern Slavery As It Was (with Steve Wilkins) (ISBN 978-1885767172)
Angels in the Architecture (with Douglas Jones) (ISBN 978-1885767400)
Is Christianity Good for the World? (with Christopher Hitchens) (ISBN 978-1591280538)
Editor and contributor
No Stone Unturned
The Forgotten Heavens
Repairing the Ruins (ISBN 978-1885767141)
Bound Only Once (ISBN 978-1885767844)
Omnibus I: Biblical and Classical Civilizations (ISBN 978-1932168426)
Contributor
Back to Basics (ISBN 978-0875522166)
Whatever Happened to the Reformation? (ISBN 978-0875521831)
The Case for Covenantal Infant Baptism (ISBN 978-0875525549)
When Shall These Things Be? (ISBN 978-0875525525)
The Federal Vision (ISBN 978-0975391402)
The Case for Covenant Communion (ISBN 978-0975391433)
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Declamation: Letter to Grandma
Dear Grandma, how’s the weather down there in California? I hope it’s better than it is up here, because it’s really cold and rainy. I guess for you guys cold and rainy means sixty degrees and partly cloudy. But we actually have to wear coats now. Dad really hates the cold. He says he gets really cold because he has bad circulation. He says he has bad circulation because his pipes are clogged. I’m not sure he knows exactly what that means, but it sounds pretty unhealthy. He wants to come down and spend the winters with you guys but he says that’ll only happen when his ship comes in. He also says he thinks his ship sunk. But he still keeps his eyes peeled.
School’s good. I really like my teachers and my classes and my teachers and my classmates and my teachers. Right now I’m taking a history class and a Bible class, and a music class, and a sort of kinda of speech class, and a kind of like a Spanish class but a little different. My grades are fine…I think…well, I actually don’t really know. You know how back in elementary it was fun to joke about getting a Z or a Z minus. Well, my school actually does that here, but only down to M. At the end of the week the whole student body and faculty gets together and we pray and then sing and then everybody takes naps. Usually one or two people come up and tell I guess you’d call them bedtime stories so everybody can go to sleep easier. Once, I had slept through my early morning class that day so I wasn’t very tired and the story was kinda interesting so I stayed awake the whole time. Life’s pretty good though, I was able to buy a new pencil and some paper. Christmas is coming up though so that’ll help. By the time my birthday rolls around I’ll probably be broke again. Oh how quickly that day will be here, that oh so ominous
February 28th . Big day, mkay, gotta run to class. Love, Ben.
School’s good. I really like my teachers and my classes and my teachers and my classmates and my teachers. Right now I’m taking a history class and a Bible class, and a music class, and a sort of kinda of speech class, and a kind of like a Spanish class but a little different. My grades are fine…I think…well, I actually don’t really know. You know how back in elementary it was fun to joke about getting a Z or a Z minus. Well, my school actually does that here, but only down to M. At the end of the week the whole student body and faculty gets together and we pray and then sing and then everybody takes naps. Usually one or two people come up and tell I guess you’d call them bedtime stories so everybody can go to sleep easier. Once, I had slept through my early morning class that day so I wasn’t very tired and the story was kinda interesting so I stayed awake the whole time. Life’s pretty good though, I was able to buy a new pencil and some paper. Christmas is coming up though so that’ll help. By the time my birthday rolls around I’ll probably be broke again. Oh how quickly that day will be here, that oh so ominous
February 28th . Big day, mkay, gotta run to class. Love, Ben.
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