Notes from the Hilltop
the online home of andy jones
Diverse and Sundry (5/16)
Cornelius Plantinga explains why good reading leads to good preaching in “Tuning the Preacher’s Ear.”
The fastest declining job over the last thirty years: brickmason. The fastest growing job over the last thirty years: people who program factory machines. The lesson: our economy has gone from working with hands to working with machines. The whole chart and summary is available at The Atlantic.
This animated video explores the use of insults in Shakespeare’s plays.
The New Yorker has a new blog called Page-Turner that hosts essays containing “criticism, contention, and conversation about books that matter.”
Diverse and Sundry (5/15)
Richard Mouw offers some thoughts on how pastors can understand and minister to business people in their congregation.
Brett McCracken offers 9 tips for eating Christianly.
A woman watched her adult daughter die at the age of 29. It forced her to ponder the meaning of life. I can’t tell if her premises are Christian but I am confident her conclusion is. She writes, “Give, give, give — what is the point of having experience, knowledge or talent if I don’t give it away? Of having stories if I don’t tell them to others? Of having wealth if I don’t share it? I don’t intend to be cremated with any of it! It is in giving that I connect with others, with the world and with the divine.” Read the entire thing here. I would love to write a book titled “Love Gives.”
Last week, I bought a new pair of blue jeans. I think it’s my first new pair in four years. Now, you can see how a pair of blue jeans are made.
I was in Portland last week and ate at two local restaurants, about three blocks apart on the east side of the city. I ate at Noble Rot and Nostrana. The food is good and the crowd is highly pierced.
Diverse and Sundry (5/14)
The Chalmers Center did a seminar this past Saturday in Portland at Imago Dei Community, sponsered by Living Water. The event was live tweeted and now all the one liners by Fikkert and Corbett are on one page.
My wife is now blogging at Worth Your Wasted Time. Of course, I believe time with her is time well spent!
Francis Slakey’s new book is To the Last Breath: A Memoir of Going to Extremes. He chronicles his quest to climb the highest mountain on every continent. A.J. Jacobs, a fellow extremist author, recently interviewed Slakey about his quest.
Ira Glass, perhaps America’s best storyteller, talks about creativity.
Leon Kass recently gave a lecture at the American Enterprise Institute that is available online. Whether or not you agree with the details, he argues that amidst our prosperity, Americans have lost a profound sense of meaning and purpose in their lives.
Diverse and Sundry (5/11)
When in doubt, sweep. That’s the work ethic one store owner taught a young employee, as told in this short video. (HT:@ChrisinGR)
Time magazine has an article titled, “How Much Sleep Do You Need?” My answer: more.
At the Atlantic, there is an interesting conversation about the past, present, and future of cities as hubs of creativity.
Diverse and Sundry (5/10)
Christian shoddy is still shoddy, says Chris Horst. As he writes, “Slapping an ichthus on a jug of spoiled milk does not honor God. Searing a cross on a hamburger doesn’t make it taste like filet mignon. I don’t care how “Christian” your school is; if all your students fail, I’m not sending my kid there.”
Every seminary student should be forced to memorize and meditate on this statement: “When true learning is properly consecrated it is also largely concealed.” Amen. It is a lesson I continue to learn. This is the focus of Jeremy Walker’s post, “The Beauty of Concealed Scholarship.” You can read it here.
Chris Guillebeau makes a living telling people how to make a living. Now, he has put it all in a book, The $100 Startup.
Breaking news: televangelists misuse donations for luxury items.
Diverse and Sundry (5/9)
The Gospel and Immigration includes this helpful reminder: “A faithful Christian cannot see his Hispanic neighbor as an intrusion of his way of life.”
The Kansas City Central Library has the coolest parking garage ever.
Matt Perman just wrote his first book and has tips for writers gleaned from experience.
The caste system endures in India without any legal requirement compelling its existence. Why does it endure? This lengthy article sets out to answer that question.
Diverse and Sundry (5/8)
I have only challenged a college provost once. I challenged the provost of my college regarding how they as Christians could permit students to take out student loans to finance their education in such large amounts. I don’t remember what he said. It wasn’t memorable. In any case, Collin Hansen does a good job of providing wisdom on the subject to prospective college students.
According to Seth Godin, before there is a tipping point there must first be a flipping point.
The older I get, the more I value listening. The Art of Manliness has some helpful thoughts on the art and benefits of listening.
One church invited their community to worship with them on Easter. Their idea backfired. It appears the community doesn’t like postcards with dead bunnies on the front. Go figure!
Diverse and Sundry (4/27)
I had tickets to attend Wendell Berry’s lecture last Monday in DC but was unable to attend. Thankfully, his lecture, It All Turns on Affection, is available online.
You can win a $100 iTunes gift card. On Call In Culture is soliciting short written reflections on Kuyper’s writings. The details can be found here.
Did you know cats run wild at Disney and people scatter their ashes in the Haunted Mansion? Read all 10 Secrets from the Wonderful World of Disney.
You can get paint colors inspired by great novels.
I just discovered that there is a National Cornbread Festival in Tennessee. It has family vacation written all over it.
Diverse and Sundry (4/26)
Why has Christianity declined in America? Alan Jacobs summarizes the three popular answers to that question and I agree with the one he chooses. Reflecting on Ross Douthat’s new book, Jacobs writes, “Christians lost their cultural influence in large part because they lost their connection to historic orthodoxy.”
The NFL draft begins tonight. At The Atlantic, you can see which parts of the country produce the most NFL players. The south is well represented.
Thom Rainer talks about the five C’s of a healthy vision statement.
GuestMob is a new hotel booking site trying to compete with Priceline and Hotwire. They are currently offering rooms in 20 cities and allow cancellations up to 72 hours in advance. USA Today recently reviewed the site.
James K.A. Smith on Pete Enns
Peter Enns, former professor at Westminster Theological Seminary, has a new book titled, The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins. Enns tends to write books that make evangelicals uncomfortable and this is no exception. I have not read it but reviews of the book are emerging. The latest review is by James K.A. Smith, professor of philosophy at Calvin College and author of Desiring the Kingdom. You can read his full review here.
Smith steers clear of the whole creation vs. evolution topic. Instead, he focuses on the hermeneutics of Pete Enns. Smith writes,
There is a feature of Enns’ argument that could easily go unnoticed only because it is so ubiquitous: his account is entirely “from below.” That is, Enns’ argument is predicated on the working assumption that the meaning of the Scriptures is tethered to—and determined by—the intent of the human authors. Indeed, in this approach human authors seem to be the only relevant authors when it comes to understanding the Bible. There is literally no mention (that I could find) in which the meaning of the Scriptures is linked to what the divine Author might have intended.So when Enns speaks of what Genesis means, he always and only refers to “the biblical authors” (xvii) or “the Israelites” (42)—these are the only operative “authors” in the entire analysis…
Similarly, we are regularly told what “Paul’s gospel” is (93), with just a hint that Paul’s gospel should perhaps not be identified with “the” Gospel. If any meaning is ascribed to Adam in the New Testament, it is Paul who is doing it: “Paul lays much at Adam’s feet, more than a straightforward reading of Genesis dictates” (133). One can get a feel for how “flattened” biblical meaning is for Enns in this passage later in the book (in contrast, say, to the “ecclesiocentric” hermeneutic of Richard Hays, where meaning overflows human authorial intent). Consider Enns’ summary:
Simply put, we cannot and should not assume that what Paul says about Adam is necessarily what Genesis was written to convey—any more than we should assume that what Paul says about Isaiah or Habakkuk is exactly what those authors had in mind… If we fail to grasp that point and assume that Paul is an objective interpreter of Genesis [because we are?!], we will paint ourselves into a corner where we will expect to find something in Genesis that Genesis is not prepared to deliver (117).
Note who populates the terrain of biblical interpretation here: Genesis (or the “authors of Genesis”), Paul, and us. Does it feel like anything is missing? Or Anyone?
While Enns affirms the inspiration and authority of Scripture, this sort of hermeneutical approach functionally naturalizes biblical interpretation. Because this sort of account of biblical meaning is tethered to the intent of human authors, there is no functional role for divine authorship in determining meaning—which is precisely why Enns treats these books and letters as discrete entities rather than parts of a whole canon
Having read Enns’ previous book, Inspiration and Incarnation, I can sympathize. At times, he seems so focused on the human flesh of Scripture that he gives little attention to and leaves little room for its divinity. You can read Smith’s full review here.
