Ian Clary has alerted me to the fact that Don Macleod has posted his commencement lecture on Christian biographers here . And John Starke over at the Gospel Coalition has expressed his willingness to do the administrative work necessary for organising a pitch fork wielding mob to spark the...

Just a note on emoticons. You shouldn't use them: 1. Real men don't use them. In fact, not even Paul Levy uses them. They are thus part of the feminization of the church. 2. People who have a decent command of the English language and are able to express themselves using those old fashioned things...

Hagiography - the uncritical and adulatory description of the life of a hero of the faith - is probably the most common form of popular Christian biographical writing and probably the most useful in a strictly pragmatic, results-oriented way. A. Donald Macleod, speaking at Westminster last week on...

The lovely Simonetta Carr, who first drew my attention to the uncanny resemblance between Puritan theologian Thomas Goodwin and legendary Led Zeppelin drummer John Bonham , has done it again: another beautifully illustrated children's book, this time on Athanasius, is soon to be released. You can...

Last night my wife and I had the immense privilege of having dinner with Geoff Thomas and his Iola. Geoff has been praised on this blog before, and more than once. He is truly one of the giants of the last hundred years. Outside of this blog and Banner of Truth circles, you may not hear his name...

Justin Taylor helpfully links to , and comments on, a blog about N T Wright, hell, and Rob Bell. Predictably, Dr Wright has apparently blamed the Americans for being somewhat fixated on hell, a cultural argument he deployed earlier relative to the historical Adam. Two observations seem apposite:...

Yesterday, I preached on Judges 19. As I preached, I was aware of a stillness in the congregation that I had never known before. I have been working through Judges for nearly two years and, from the moment I started the series, I was always acutely aware that Judges 19 was coming. The gang rape of...

If the choice of Athanasius as a subject for a brief intellectual biography is useful, given both his context and his contribution, a second thing that commends him is chronological distance from the present day. I was asked recently for advice on how to write about someone who is still alive and...

After a period of radio silence, Mrs Peel, formerly of The Department of Academic Avenging at WTS and 'talented amateur theologian,' dropped me a line last week, bringing my attention to the latest New Perspective on Paul and suggesting that, as I was clearly falling behind my chosen leadership...

Friend Steve Burlew over at Banner of Truth has brought this this post on conferences to my attention. The points are good, well-made and welcome but I do have one small reservation: every megaconference celebrity to whom I have spoken has played a variation on the same basic theme -- the speakers...

This just in from Justin Taylor: "Tell Levy that JP is in the video. That's him shooting an airball around the 00:33 mark!" That rather kills the conspiracy theory. Unless, of course, it's just a hologram or a body double. I think we need to see the birth certificate.

Last night I preached on the themes in Lord's Day 19 of the Heidelberg Catechism where the issue is the session of the Son at the right hand of the Father. Two things struck me as I prepared. First, there is always a temptation to see the Father-Son relationship in salvation in an adversarial...

This is somewhat overdue, as I promised Crossway I would do it some time back; but the following is a belated recommendation of Rid of My Disgrace: Hope and Healing for Victims of Sexual Assault by Justin S. Holcomb and Lindsey A. Holcomb, both associated with Mars Hill Church in Seattle, where...

I heard the news about Bin Laden's death when I arrived back at the Philadelphia Airport at 1045 on Sunday night with my colleague, Greg Beale. We noticed a small group huddled by a TV in the almost-deserted airport and stopped to see what the news was. It was quite amazing to see the excitement...

All the discussion about the church and celebrity culture motivated one person to write the following to me, which I reproduce here with permission. I should also add that I do not know to which church he is referring: "Pastoral care, you might say, is my greatest concern for the church. Preaching...

I am told by friends that the evangelical celebrity discussion continues apace elsewhere on the web and has even thrown up some unusual but undoubtedly important questions, such as the one over at the Old Life theological Society: Which is the best Led Zeppelin album, IV or Houses of the Holy ? The...

Mark Meynell has a good post on questions to ask as you read popular history. You can find it here . If you rummage around on his site, you will also find some other very interesting entries, such as John LeCarre's reflections on writing.

The exchanges between, among other, Messr Duncan, Hart, DeYoung and Evans (all theologians, not a firm of accountants) have been very interesting. I do not want to contribute directly to the exchange but would offer a sidebar comment to the effect that the categories are somewhat anachronistic and...

Reflecting on the week's correspondence (public and private) a number of thoughts come to mind: 1. The responses fell into three broad categories: (a) Trueman was spot on (and no, those ones didn't come in from my mum writing under pseudonyms -- at least, I don't think so - she uses British...

The BBC have put together an interesting documentary on the Pelagian controversy here . Thanks to The Librarian for bringing this to my attention. A good way to kill time while waiting.

I confess to being quite overcome at the Rev. Anyabwile's offer to edit a Festschrift for me. I would, of course, be honoured to decline such; and, if he can tell me where and when it is to be presented, I will make sure that, at the last minute, I am unavoidably absent due to being called away to...

The amount and the strength of the pushback on my last few posts leads me to conclude that either (a) I am completely wrong on the matter of conferences (and being completely wrong is not without -- ahem -- precedent in my bio) or (b) I am absolutely right on target (that would be unprecedented,...

Thanks to Thabiti for his comments. I appreciate them, read them as frank and friendly, and offer these in like spirit. To deal with the last point first, and to engage in some self-justifying, self-serving, purely self-interested defensive boxing (hey, at least I am honest), the Clarus conference...

As a follow-up to yesterday's post, I want to offer some radical suggestions for future megaconferences. I should say at the start - or rather reiterate, as I did say this yesterday - that I have mellowed in my view of such conferences over the years. Thus, I allow that conferences do offer great...