Christian Theological/Philosophical Book Club discussion
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      John - alas, I feel you will find this a contentious group thoroughly ensconced in their own corners. We have fun debating and playfully poking at one another's perceived weak points, but no minds are ever changed.
    
      Hello John. I'm new here too. I have no graduate degree and my undergrad degree is in chemistry. But I love reading philosophy and apologetics and would welcome discussing books or topics with you and others. I have never read Bavinck. Theologians I have read include Hodge, Grudem, Erickson, Edwards, Duffield/VanCleve, and Bloesch. I have also read works by philosophers like Craig, Geisler, Turek, Sproul, McGrath, Plantinga, and P. Fernandes. Presently I'm reading Nancey Pearcy's "Love Thy Body" and am starting Clouser's "Myth of Religious Neutrality". I have read much about Bavinck in other works but please refresh my memory. What did you think of his work?
      My question...If the Bible says one thing and science or philosophy says something different...
...Which one is right?
      I found Bavinck to be a phenomenal thinker and writer (in translation). What he does that I really like is balancing his rich reformed dogmatics with the contmporary(ish) liberal theology from schleiermacher’s ‘Christian Faith’. Seeing reformed people engage with alternate positions with a goal other than trying to argue them into silence is amazing in itself. He is a solidly reformed voice who is both gentle and conscious about answering contemporary questions. His first volume is a bit too dense for most just because of his immense acquaintance with the canon of western literature. His bibliography for volume one is almost 120 pages if I recall correctly! You should look into sphere sovereignty - an idea he really championed.What philosophy are you interested in? Metaphysics was my focus — mainly early modern guys like Hume and Descartes, but I spent a fair bit of my university days in the existentialists.
      In short, I'm here to learn. I have a lot of opinions, but one of the most fundamental changes that was affected in me when I came to Christ was that I no longer felt the need to be "right" concerning matters of speculation. Most here have a better and more broad knowledge of scripture than I, so I tend to read a lot more than I post.
    
      Adam wrote: "In short, I'm here to learn. I have a lot of opinions, but one of the most fundamental changes that was affected in me when I came to Christ was that I no longer felt the need to be "right" concern..."Welcome aboard Adam.
As for "being right"... in this group there is one source for that... the Bible!
      John - Would you mind expounding on the reasoning that brought you to Christ? I love hearing peoples' stories!
    
      Folks - one of the reasons I'm here is too keep current on the latest trends in USEING religion and the Bible to justify our members' sins and biases. We have some very creative demagogues on this board who are absolutely sure God vouchsafes his will ONLY to them.
    
      Robert wrote: "Folks - one of the reasons I'm here is too keep current on the latest trends in USEING religion and the Bible to justify our members' sins and biases. We have some very creative demagogues on this board who are absolutely sure God vouchsafes his will ONLY to them. ..."Like you! You REJECT the CLEAR Word of God and then TELL US what God really meant to say.
      Jon wrote: "Hello, I am here because I simply enjoy theological and philosophical and if possible historical discussion. I’ll talk with anyone, anywhere, anytime. Not because I arrogantly think I can defeat an..."Thank you John. I appreciate your attitude. You might like a new book that shares that attitude, We Should Be One: United in the Word of God. You can check it out at www.weshouldbeone.com.
      Annette wrote: "I'm here because I love to dive deeper and deeper into the word of God and learn from the experience of others. Unfortunately, there is so much head-whacking going on, that I got tired of it. I wou..."Me too. Check out a new book, We Should Be One: United in the Word of God. A preview is available on www.weshouldbeone.com.
      Tom wrote: "Hi Adam. You might try a new book, We Should Be One: United in the Word of God."Unfortunately Tom takes a very broad and ungodly definition of the "Word of God". From previous posts Tom includes the Koran, Buddhist texts and other "books" as the Word of God...
Whereas the Bible claims exclusivity as Jesus being THE ONLY WAY of salvation.
      John 14:6 - "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."END OF THE STORY (if you are interested in the TRUTH)
      I join this group because of the religious censorship of my family, my secular university, and my whole country in general...
    
      Hans wrote: "Here in the hope to find some reading challenges, like "book of the month" or so, chosen by it's members"God bless and let's see if we can get something like that going.




I found people to be more gracious at my secular university than at the bible college I went to as well which I found really hard. So hopefully the tone here is a bit more forgiving. Always keen to discuss works with people.
How did you guys find Bavinck’s theology?