http://www.goodreads.com/user/updates_rss/170800 en-US Sat, 24 May 2008 06:27:28 -0700 60 http://www.goodreads.com/ 200 41 http://www.goodreads.com/images/layout/gr_logo.gif 25715260 Sat, 24 May 2008 06:27:28 -0700 Review22863807 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/22863807 The Orthodox Parish in America: Faithfulness to the Past and Responsibility for the Future (Paperback) by Anton C. Vrame
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]]> 22642581 Sat, 19 Apr 2008 07:56:15 -0700 Review20518016 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20518016 Inside Delta Force: The Story of America's Elite Counterterrorist Unit (Paperback) by Eric Haney
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]]> 22497700 Thu, 17 Apr 2008 15:17:55 -0700 Review20408705 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/20408705 The New Faces of Christianity: Believing the Bible in the Global South (Hardcover) by Philip Jenkins
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]]> 21380287 Sat, 05 Apr 2008 16:39:35 -0700 Review19543710 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/19543710 The Orthodox Pastor: A Guide to Pastoral Theology (Paperback) by John Shahovskoy
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]]> 20004072 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:01:22 -0700 Review18452421 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18452421 Journey to Heaven (Paperback) by Saint Tikhon of Zadonsk
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]]> 20004041 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 14:00:47 -0700 Review18452396 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18452396 St. Tikhon of Zadonsk: Inspirer of Dostoevsky (Paperback) by Nadejda Gorodetzky
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]]> 20003851 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 13:58:00 -0700 Review18452238 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/18452238 World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism (Hardcover) by Norman Podhoretz
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]]> 17914502 Sat, 01 Mar 2008 06:57:52 -0800 Comment468837 16563411 Sun, 17 Feb 2008 19:09:03 -0800 Review15661374 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/15661374 to: Cat and Mouse (Hardcover) by Harold Coyle
]]> 16433587 Sat, 16 Feb 2008 07:06:43 -0800 Comment424044 http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/11404915 Skylar's review of Lost Christianities: The Battles for Scripture and the Faiths We Never Knew
by Bart D. Ehrman

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.

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