One Little Word Newsletter - May 23, 2022
The Land Center event this week, the new SWBTS Journal of Theology, and more on the pro-life movement
Happy Monday. I’ll be spending most of the week in Fort Worth on the campus of SWBTS where the Land Center hosting, along with Stand for Life and the International Association of Christian Educators, a symposium on human dignity. I’m excited about this event as scholars and pastors and students gather to hear from some of the best scholars who have studied the imago dei. I’ll be hosting a panel on a theology of the body with Katie Fruge of The Baptist General Convention of Texas, Greg Allison from Southern Seminary, Autumn Alcott Ridenour from Gordon Conwell, Robert Steward from New Orleans Seminary, and Lainey Greer from Parkwood Church in NC. I was on campus last week. I drove this time, with my daughter, and dropped off all of my library books. The entire bed and backseat of my Ford 150 was full of books.
I’m also a week out from the release of The Characters of Easter. I received the shiny, new author copy in the mail. It’s cool to see this alongside the other two in the series: The Characters of Easter and The Characters of Christmas. I’m grateful to Moody for this partnership. Last week I sent out an excerpt from Characters of Creation. This was from perhaps my most favorite chapter to write, the one on Adam. A sample:
Naked and exposed was Adam. Imagine the most embarrassing, humiliating, shaming moment of your life, and here was Adam’s dilemma. Those hidden sins, those dark spots you buried in your heart that nobody knows. Well, God sees. God sees you. He knows the real Adam, the real you.
And yet, a comfort. “Where are you?” was not a bewildered God, looking for a lost child. “Where are you?” is a grieving Father pursuing a wayward son. “Where are you?” is the aging patriarch in Jesus’ story of the Prodigal, lifting up his garments and sprinting toward his beloved. “Where are you?” is the Good Shepherd, leaving the nine-nine sheep and going after the lost lamb.
You can read the whole excerpt here.
Some things that caught my eye:
The Gospel Coalition is hosting a series of conversations called The Good Debates that I’ve found very helpful. This recent one was between Scott Klusendorf and Karen Prior, who pro-life activists. They debated the scope and aims of the pro-life movement. I found myself at times agreeing with both of them. I wrote this short twitter thread engaging with it here, if you are interested:
The Land Center that I direct at SWBTS is named after Dr. Richard Land, who is a former ERLC president and longtime pro-life champion. I’ve enjoyed my conversations with him in recent days. It’s interesting to talk to someone who was a pro-life leader before the Roe decision in 1973 and has witnessed the movement’s resilience this last half century.
He wrote a helpful article on The Land Center website in response to criticism some younger pro-life folks have of the incremental approach favored by pro-life organizations.
This is a powerful line of questions and a chilling answer from a Congressman in Louisiana directed toward an abortion advocate:
I appreciated this quote from John Piper from his latest address to pastors at Together for the Gospel. He urges us to
be so radically committed to all that the Bible teaches that just when people think they have you pegged in some camp, you bring out of your biblical treasure chest something that throws them completely off-balance — until it becomes well-known: you are nobody’s lackey. You do not live to please men, right or left, rich or poor, white or black, male or female. You march to the biblical drum, no matter what.
You can listen or read the entire article here.
I really appreciate the writing of Samuel James. I liked this piece where he points to Paul’s apologetic preaching in Acts 17 and finds a good example as we think about communicating the gospel in a culture that is skeptical.
SWBTS President, Dr. Adam Greenway, shared this really helpful excerpt from Lee Scarborough on the importance of theological education for women:
Glad to serve in an institution that values Scarborough’s vision of theological education for women.
RTS marks the 100th anniversary of Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon “Shall the Fundamentalists Win” with a series of essays. Very helpful.
The new version of the SWBTS Journal of Theology is out and the theme is “Christ and Culture Revisited.” This edited by Dr. David Dockery. Every issue is like this one, with outstanding contributions.
Hunter Baker has an important article lamenting and rebuking the evil racist ideology that motivated the massacre in Buffalo, NY.
Last week involved a ton of driving. Two podcasts I enjoyed listening to along the way are Kevin DeYoung and Phil Ryken’s discussion about The Heart of the Cross, preaching, and higher education, and Derek Thompson and Scott Lincicome’s podcast about the baby formula crisis.
Books I’m reading:
I finished The Boys by Ron and Clint Howard. Fun, interesting journey through distinctly American lives. I just started listening to The American Puritans by Dustine Benge and Nate Pickowitz. Also reading The Air We Breath by Glen Scrivener.