Generous Calvinism may seem like an oxymoron, but in Saving Calvinism Oliver Crisp helps file the rough edges off a narrow, ossified version of this venerable tradition. The result is a Calvinism that embraces the breadth of its own heritage.
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Adventures in Grandparenting
With thirteen grandkids, Phyllis and I thought we had plenty of experience as we started writing the Grandparenting LifeGuide Bible study. But we decided to interview other grandparents to see what wisdom they might have to offer as well. We certainly learned a lot.
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Family in a Time of Technology
Glowing screens entrance us wherever we are. From smart phones to tablets to laptops to maximum-strength HD TVs–young and old alike are mesmerized by our enticing “easy everywhere” culture. Promising the Nirvana of connectivity, ear buds and touch pads actually detach us from those who are bodily in the same room or at the same table with us.
What’s a family to do? Andy Crouch to the rescue.
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What Writers Most Need to Know
I recently asked my editing, writer, and reader friends, “What do you most wish editors would tell writers (and that writers would take to heart) about writing?” I thought the answers were worthwhile and illuminating. Here are some of the responses I received:
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Union Made
Do leaders make the church or do the people?
The story goes that a small group of radical, white, male leaders created social Christianity, supported by the middle classes. Heath Carter’s account of Chicago, labor and the churches offers a different tale.
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The Penultimate Curiosity
Are science and religion enemies, each seeking supremacy over the other? Or do they simply look at the same thing from different, perhaps complementary, perspectives? In The Penultimate Curiosity, Wagner and Briggs propose a very different relationship than either of these options.
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Does Character Matter?
Does character matter?
Weaving wisdom and insight with the life stories of fascinating people, in The Road to Character, David Brooks offers a much needed book. Each chapter focuses on a different person and theme. Through the lives of people like Frances Perkins, Dwight Eisenhower, Dorothy Day, George Marshall, A. Philip Randolph and Bayard Rustin, George Eliot (Mary Anne Evans), Augustine, Samuel Johnson and Montaigne, we consider dignity, struggle, self-mastery, love, self-examination and more.
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Paul’s New Perspective
Those who walk down the middle of the road, it is said, are likely to get run over by both sides. That is where Garwood Anderson has chosen to daringly place himself in his Paul’s New Perspective. In the current debate on justification between those who hold to the Traditional Protestant Perspective (TPP) and the New Perspective on Paul (NPP), Anderson charts a third way.
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Cracking the Writer’s Block 4: Life Issues
Ron Brackin tells us, “Writers block occurs when a writer has nothing to say. Unfortunately not all writers experience it.”
But you are not like that. No, no, no. Obviously, you have something to say, even if you are not quite sure at the moment what that is. So how do you get unstuck?
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Cracking the Writer’s Block 3: Playing Balderdash
Sometimes our writing is stuck because we don’t know where to start. For some of us, we need to know where we are going to end up before we can begin. And if we don’t, the ink has run out, our pencil is down to a nub, our muse is silent, and the battery to our laptop has died.
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