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	04/19 Clark is currently reading: Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit (Paperback) by Eric Haney bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	04/17 Clark is currently reading: The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Hardcover) by Philip Jenkins bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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	04/05 Clark is currently reading: The Orthodox Pastor: A Guide to Pastoral Theology (Paperback) by John Shahovskoy bookshelves: currently-reading	my rating:
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April 19

Clark is currently reading:
Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit (Paperback)
by Eric Haney
bookshelves: currently-reading

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April 17

Clark is currently reading:
The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Hardcover)
by Philip Jenkins
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April 05

Clark is currently reading:
The Orthodox Pastor: A Guide to Pastoral Theology (Paperback)
by John Shahovskoy
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March 23

Clark marked as to-read:
Journey to Heaven (Paperback)
by Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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Clark is currently reading:
St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Inspirer of Dostoevsky (Paperback)
by Nadejda Gorodetzky
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Clark is currently reading:
World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (Hardcover)
by Norman Podhoretz
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March 01

February 17

Clark gave

to:
Cat and Mouse (Hardcover)
by Harold Coyle

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read in February, 2008, has a copy to sell/swap

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February 16

New comment on Skylar's review of Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew

Clark wrote: "An excellent review. I join in recommending the book "Misquoting Truth" for a cheerful, ac...more An excellent review. I join in recommending the book "Misquoting Truth" for a cheerful, accurate, humble answer to Ehrman and similar writers.

I will add a thought. In another forum I encountered a former Catholic now atheist who argued strenuously along Ehrman's lines against the authority of Scripture and the orthodoxy of orthodox Christianity. He was especially scandalized that about dirty dealing and politicsc associated with the coalescence of orthodox Christian doctrine and the list of canonical books of Scripture.

There is, it seems to me, an epistemological stumbling block here for people who argue like this. It may seem to be nothing more than a word game to some, but I ask all to consider the following for more than a second or two.

Folks argue that orthodox doctrines and the list of canonical works are not from God because there was dirty dealing and the result came from "politics." For our immediate purposes let's accept the claims of dirty dealings and politics; and we recognize that this is not their only argument. For now let's just examine this (major) argument. The syllogism is something like: God would not in such an important thing work through dirty dealing and politics; the coalescence of orthodox theology and list of canonical works included dirty dealing and politics; therefore orthodox theology and the list of canonical works is not from God.

These people have an a priori assumption about how God would or would not act in the world. They claim to know what I (an Orthodox Christian) would not claim to know -- how God works or would work in the world.

Given the *Scriptural* list of cases in which God's will worked itself out through and despite sinners and dirty dealing, the syllogism's major premise seems tenuous at best.

And if one does not accept the authority of Scripture then it seems to me hubristic and self-contradictory to claim to know how God would or would not work in the world, and to be able to discern on this basis what God's will is and what it is not.

The syllogism then becomes: For no reason other than my own preconceptions and wishes about God I assume that God would not work through or in a situation of politics and dirty dealing; the coalescencce of orthodox theology and the list of canonical scriptures included politics and dirty dealing; therefore these things are not from God.

Orthodox Christianity is noted for its strong "apophatic" thread -- that God is so infinitely other that we cannot begin to comprehend Him except insofar as He has revealed Himself to us. Perhaps the Ehrmanites could accept at least this part of Christian theology, rather than to claim knowledge about how God's workings would or not would not be visible in the world.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A......less "

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Clark read and liked Skylar's review of Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew:

"Here is a sentence from "Lost Christianities" that provides a clue to why the book is not really very sensational, as well as a clue to Ehrman's perspective: "It comes as a bit of a sho" ...read more »

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