The Missing Middle

I was fascinated to hear the following interchange about 13 minutes into the most recent interview posted at 9Marks. Mark Dever is interviewing Os Guinness (who, evidently, is a direct descendent of the founder of Guinness beer).

In speaking of his calling, Guinness asserts that he is "between the church and the world."

Dever asks: "And would be a kind of academic who is not tied to a certain educational institution?"

Guinness: "No. I went ot Oxford to do a DPhil. And there I had a real sense that my calling was not academic. I call it the 'missing middle.' You've got magnificent scholarship in the church. There could be a lot more, but it's magnificent scholarship. And you've got lots of wonderful, faithful people in the church who will do whatever the Lord shows them to do. In many ways there is a missing middle: you could call it the intermediate level of knowledge. So my calling is to make sense of serious scholarship--make it intelligible, make it practicable, to people who don't get into that world. But I am not an academic scholar."

Hillsong: Stronger

There is love that came for us
Humbled to a sinner's cross
You broke my shame and sinfulness
You rose again victorious

Faithfulness none can deny
Through the storm and through the fire
There is truth that sets me free
Jesus Christ who lives in me

You are stronger
You are stronger
Sin is broken
You have saved me
It is written
Christ is risen
Jesus you are Lord of all

No beginning and no end
You're my hope and my defense
You came to seek and save the lost
You paid it all upon the cross

Peace Amid Chaos

Dad has started a new series of posts on how believers in Jesus can learn to live in peacefulness and quiet in the midst of the frenetic lives we live in the twenty-first century West. Very helpful stuff as usual.

Motives in Preaching

A deconstructive anecdote on our motives when we get up to preach or teach the Bible.

Vanhoozer: Doctrine and Life

Kevin Vanhoozer in a typically inimitable articulation of the necessary conjunction of what we believe and how we live (what I call strawberry-rhubarb theology):

[H]e who is tired of doctrine is tired of life, for doctrine is the stuff of life. Christian doctrine is necessary for human flourishing: only doctrine shows us who we are, why we are here, and what we are to do. The stereotype of doctrine as dry and crusty cuts a flimsy caricature next to the real thing, which is brave and bracing. Doctrine deals with energies and events that are as real and powerful as anything known in chemistry or physics, energies and events that can turn the world we know upside down, energies and events into which we are grafted as participants with speaking and acting parts.

--The Drama of Doctrine: A Canonical-Linguistic Approach to Christian Theology, xiii.

No. 26

Volume 26 of the Yale critical edition of Edwards' works is out.

HT: JEB

Another Exciting transition

Another man I love is moving back into pastoral ministry, at this church.

Grateful

Today through this weekend, no thoughts or quotes or links or reflections or news. Just gratitude for these two, my two favorite people in the universe: my wife Stacey and son Zachary Edwards.

q

The worst part of my day: leaving in the morning to walk to the library to study all day. The best part of my day: walking home.

Searchable Edwards Imminent

The JE Center at Yale announces the impending availability of full online search capacity of the Yale critical edition of Edwards' Works, which right now sits at 25 volumes.

The Works of Jonathan Edwards Online 2.0 (WJE Online 2.0) is getting ready for the Registered User’s Beta phase. We invite you to participate in a month-long testing of our new release: a fully searchable digital interface through which anyone can explore Edwards' written thoughts.

Thank You

"At 7:15 PM on Sunday, July 13, his heart stopped, and my heart broke."

I have been married to my best friend for seven years. So had this dear sister.

Sobering, heart-wrenching, encouraging, longing-igniting, idol-smashing. Thank you for helping me.

I am currently working on a doctorate in biblical studies.

A PhD does not address this.