Interview with Keller on Counterfeit Gods

A recent interview with Tim Keller in Christianity Today about his highly anticipated book that has rocked the blogosphere, Counterfeit Gods: The Empty Promises of Money, Sex, and Power, and the Only Hope that Matters.

I have read the interview. It gives a very good preview of the book which centered on these questions:
How should Christians think of money, sex, and power?
What makes these three so enticing and difficult to control?
Do Christians have blind spots when it comes to false gods?
How does someone identify their idols?
How do we get rid of idols?
Is it necessary to suffer disappointment before seeing that idols don’t satisfy?

It might take a while for the book to reach Australia. It is currently in the top 200 of all books at Amazon.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, you can download the Introduction Chapter from the Westminster Bookstore here.

HT: Justin Taylor

Yet he want books!

From Spurgeon's famous sermon on 2 Timothy 4:13 where Paul asks Timothy to bring him his books/parchments:

We do not know what the books were about, and we can only form some guess as to what the parchments were. Paul had a few books which were left, perhaps wrapped up in the cloak, and Timothy was to be careful to bring them. Even an apostle must read. . . . A man who comes up into the pulpit, professes to take his text on the spot, and talks any quantity of nonsense, is the idol of many. If he will speak without premeditation, or pretend to do so, and never produce what they call a dish of dead men's brains—oh! that is the preacher. How rebuked are they by the apostle!

He is inspired, and yet he wants books!

He has been preaching at least for thirty years, and yet he wants books!

He had seen the Lord, and yet he wants books!

He had had a wider experience than most men, and yet he wants books!

He had been caught up into the third heaven, and had heard things which it was unlawful for a men to utter, yet he wants books!

He had written the major part of the New Testament, and yet he wants books!

The apostle says to Timothy and so he says to every preacher, "Give thyself unto reading." The man who never reads will never be read; he who never quotes will never be quoted. He who will not use the thoughts of other men's brains, proves that he has no brains of his own.

Brethren, what is true of ministers is true of all our people. You need to read. Renounce as much as you will all light literature, but study as much as possible sound theological works, especially the Puritanic writers, and expositions of the Bible. We are quite persuaded that the very best way for you to be spending your leisure, is to be either reading or praying. You may get much instruction from books which afterwards you may use as a true weapon in your Lord and Master's service. Paul cries, "Bring the books"—join in the cry.

Books, anyone?

As the year is fast approaching to its final countdown, many avid bloggers (and readers) have shared their lists of top books of 2008 that they have read. Their appetite for good books (Challies led the pack by reading 80+ books this year!) is really an encouragement. I have been a bit slack this year, my excuse is I have to read lots of non-theological literature as well including leadership, management, and the like. Just for your interest, a recent Wall Street Journal article "Bush is a book lover" reported the number and range of books that President Bush has read in 2008; apparently he too likes to read.

I have compiled the list of the Christian books below for your perusal, just in case you are wondering what you want to read during summer (if you are in my part of the world). Click on the hyperlink to see their review or comments on each book listed:

Tim Challies
Don’t Stop Believing by Michael Wittmer
Crazy Love by Francis Chan
The Reason for God by Tim Keller
Christless Christianity by Michael Horton
Unpacking Forgiveness by Chris Brauns
Love or Die by Alexander Strauch
Memoirs of an Ordinary Pastor by D.A. Carson

Honorable mentions: The Courage To Be Protestant, Do Hard Things, A Tale of Two Sons, Why We’re Not Emergent, He Is Not Silent, and Touching History.

Seth McBee
1. The reason for God, Tim Keller
2. Jesus: Made in America, Stephen J. Nichols
3. God is the Gospel, John Piper
4. Vintage Jesus, Mark Driscoll and Gerry Breshears
5. Why We're Not Emergent, Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck
6. A Tale of Two Sons, John MacArthur
7. Simple Church, Thom Rainer & Eric Geiger
8. The Law and Its Fulfillment, Thomas R. Schreiner
9. Death by Suburb, David Goetz
10. Game Day for the Glory of God, Stephen Altrogge

Dave Bish
1. You can change - Tim Chester.
2. Worship Matters - Bob Kauflin.
3. Alarm to the Unconverted Sinner - Joseph Alleine.
4. Miracles - C.S. Lewis.
5. Francis Schaeffer: An Authentic Life - Colin Duriez.
6. The Reason for God - Tim Keller.
7. The Kingdom and The Power - Peter Leithart.
8. Dominion and Dynasty - Stephen Dempster.
9. Death by Love - Mark Driscoll.
=10. Lectures to my students - CH Spurgeon.
=10. But is it real? - Amy Orr-Ewing.

Special mentions: Commentary on the New Testament use of the Old Testament edited by D.A. Carson and G.K. Beale, On the Incarnation by Athanasisus

Adler ttg Sikap terhadap Buku

Tim Challies baru-baru ini di blognya mengutip dari Mortimer Adler, penulis buku klasik HOW TO READ A BOOK (yang menurut hemat saya, perlu dibaca oleh setiap orang Kristen yang serius mau bertumbuh dalam imannya). Thanks buat Tim yang mengangkat point ini persis di saat gereja tempat saya melayani sedang memulai program bulan buku:

There are two ways in which one can own a book. The first is the property right you establish by paying for it, just as you pay for clothes and furniture. But this act of purchase is only the prelude to possession. Full ownership comes only when you have made it a part of yourself, and the best way to make yourself a part of it is by writing in it. An illustration may make the point clear. You buy a beefsteak and transfer it from the butcher’s icebox to your own. But you do not own the beefsteak in the most important sense until you consume it and get it into your bloodstream. I am arguing that books, too, must be absorbed in your blood stream to do you any good.

Confusion about what it means to “own” a book leads people to a false reverence for paper, binding, and type — a respect for the physical thing — the craft of the printer rather than the genius of the author. They forget that it is possible for a man to acquire the idea, to possess the beauty, which a great book contains, without staking his claim by pasting his bookplate inside the cover. Having a fine library doesn’t prove that its owner has a mind enriched by books; it proves nothing more than that he, his father, or his wife, was rich enough to buy them.

There are three kinds of book owners. The first has all the standard sets and best sellers — unread, untouched. (This deluded individual owns woodpulp and ink, not books.) The second has a great many books — a few of them read through, most of them dipped into, but all of them as clean and shiny as the day they were bought. (This person would probably like to make books his own, but is restrained by a false respect for their physical appearance.) The third has a few books or many — every one of them dog-eared and dilapidated, shaken and loosened by continual use, marked and scribbled in from front to back. (This man owns books.) …

But the soul of a book “can” be separate from its body. A book is more like the score of a piece of music than it is like a painting. No great musician confuses a symphony with the printed sheets of music. Arturo Toscanini reveres Brahms, but Toscanini’s score of the G minor Symphony is so thoroughly marked up that no one but the maestro himself can read it. The reason why a great conductor makes notations on his musical scores — marks them up again and again each time he returns to study them—is the reason why you should mark your books. If your respect for magnificent binding or typography gets in the way, buy yourself a cheap edition and pay your respects to the author.

Young, Restless, Reformed

Ini salah satu buku yang saya ingin beli dalam waktu dekat, baru terbit bulan April 2008: Young, Restless, and Reformed: A Journalist's Journey with the New Calvinists.. Yang membuat buku ini unik adalah karena ditulis oleh Collin Hansen, jurnalis termuda dan juga editor-at-large dari Christianity Today. Selama dua tahun dia melakukan survey jurnalisme-nya terhadap sebuah angin segar yang terjadi di Amerika.

Kebangkitan Calvinisme di US dalam dekade terakhir yang dipelopori oleh orang-orang seperti Ligon Duncan, Al Mohler, John Piper, C.J. Mahaney, Mark Dever, R.C. Sproul, John MacArthur, Mark Driscoll, dst. (mereka sering tampil bareng di banyak conferences) menjadi sebuah fenomena baru yang banyak mempengaruhi remaja-pemuda berusia 20-an tahun. Ini sebuah momentum sejarah yang Allah tentukan dalam kedaulatanNya yang saya kira akan memaknai kembali dengan intensif arti dari kata "Re-FORMASI."

Salah satu orang yang memberikan endorsement terhadap buku Hansen diatas adalah D.A. Carson. Berikut yang ia tulis:

"While other movements have been making a bigger splash in the headlines, a number of strategic ministries have been quietly (and sometimes not so quietly!) upholding the doctrines of grace, planting churches, seeing people converted, teaching the whole counsel of God. These are now beginning to coalesce in a variety of mutually encouraging ways. It is a pleasure to recommend Collin Hansen's survey of some of these movements. This is not the time for Reformed triumphalism. It is the time for quiet gratitude to God and earnest intercessory prayer, with tears, that what has begun well will flourish beyond all human expectation."
—D. A. Carson, Research Professor of New Testament, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School

Sebelum buku ini terbit, pengarangnya Collin Hansen telah menulis sebuah artikel yg menjadi cover story Christianity Today edisi September 2006, berjudul: "Young, Restless, and Reformed: Calvinism is making a comeback--and shaking up the church." Artikel ini menjadi one of the most-read articles di majalah tersebut.

Buku Rohani Terbaik tahun 2008

Christianity Today setiap tahun membuat peringkat buku-buku terbaik dalam setiap kategori (apologetika, Christian living, dst.). Tahun 2008 ini, ada 359 judul yang di-nominasi-kan oleh penerbit yg muncul di pasar tahun kemarin. Editor Christianity Today memilih buku-buku terbaik dalam setiap kategori, yang kemudian di-vote oleh sebuah panel.

Hasil akhirnya adalah 10 buku yang keluar sbg pemenang, dan 11 buku yang memperoleh awards of merit sbb. Deskripsi ttg buku-buku tersebut ada disini.

The L books I recommend my students

There is at least one leadership book published every single day. At that rate, compulsive reader one may be, trying to catch up with leadership books and still maintain his or her sanity is simply obnoxious and impossible. Thankfully, for every 100 books, there is one that stands out from the rest. The books below are those that in my view stand tall, shaping the practice of leadership around the globe, for better or worse...

New Book: The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment

Tim Challies, yang disebut oleh Justin Taylor (rekan sepelayanan John Piper) sebagai The World’s Most Famous Canadian Reformed Blogger menulis sebuah buku baru yang penting untuk dibaca: The Discipline of Spiritual Discernment.

Tertarik untuk membaca Foreword (oleh John MacArthur), Introduction, dan Chapter 1 dari buku tersebut? Klik disini.