Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali, has urged the church to make efforts to convert Muslims to the Christian faith. See http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1022491/Bishop-says-collapse-Chr... High-ranking support seems minimal: the Mail (OK, it's the UK equivalent of Fox News.....) says...

Just received these helpful additions to my earlier post on Barth from an interested reader: Here are some things that would make my reasons-for-Barth list: • Barth is more than a sparring partner, he seemed to be deeplydevoted to the church of Christ and its survival in the midst ofintellectual...

Mulling over Del's sharp question about what can be learned from Barth, beyond the abandonment of inerrancy, I'd like to suggest the following: 1. Barth was a great mind. Reading the works of a great mind is never a waste of time, even (perhaps especially) at those points where one disagrees. 2...

Here's an interesting piece sent to me by friend of Ref21, Fred Zaspel: Warfield on Separation: Observing the stir ofdivision caused by the entrance of unbelief in African Anglicanism, Warfieldwrites: It maysound well to bewail the reproduction in the foreign field of the "unhappydivisions" by...

I picked up a copy of the excellent left wing thinker, Nick Cohen's, latest book, What's Left? (Harper Perennial) while I was in the UK the other week. It's essentially an analysis, by a man of the left, of the moral and intellectual crisis that exists on the left of British politics. His analysis...

Shhhh, Del. If you keep pointing out all this stuff, you'll shatter my reputation among the attack dogs of the evangelical left (OK, I know they only do it out of love, so I won't be too hard on them) as a ruthless intellectually luddite rottweiler whose only purpose in life is to stop people...

It's great to see that my old Australian mucker from Aberdeen days, Brian Rosner (now at Moore), has a new book out. B and I shared many a happy moment in our cramped attic offices, directly over the mosque at Aberdeen University, in the late 90s, in the howling dark of a winter's midday. B has...

A friend down under tells me that Andy McGowan's book is provoking something of a storm and that an invitation to speak at Presbyterian Theological College in Melbourne has been withdrawn. I confess to struggling with what to make of Andy's The Divine Spiration of Scripture (IVP UK). I've known...

At home in the UK this weekend (a good weekend -- seeing the mighty Gloucester finish top of leage for the third time in six years, at least in the regular season), I picked up a copy of Andrew Marr's excellent book, A History of Modern Britain , and sat outside a cafe in the small town where I...

Justin T just sent me this. Hentoff is a hero -- left libertarian, jazz afficionado, writer of liner notes for the great Robert Zimmerman, and only pro-lifer on the staff at The Village Voice . http://www.washingtontimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080428/EDITORIAL07/122506990/1013/EDITORIAL

I've enjoyed rereading the republished essays of Dr Packer on the atonement in the new Packer-Dever volume from Crossway volume, In My Place Condemned He Stood. Must-reads for all those tired of the childish -- and blasphemous -- superficiality of the `atonement is cosmic child abuse' brigade. I...

I had the great pleasure last week of meeting Rev Danny Hyde, pastor of Oceanside URC in California (a pleasure enhanced by his introducing me to Flanagan's in Grand Rapids). Danny is pastor, so he told me, to a whole collection of surfer dude types whom he has introduced to the treasures of the...

Well, he finally made it. Word from Rome is that John Henry Newman is to be canonised. You can read the story here: http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=12435 I love Newman's writings -- he was perhaps the greatest prose stylist of the Victorian era; and in his clash with the evangelical and...

Solid Ground Christian Books have republished as a booklet the chapter on the fear of God from John Murray's Principles of Conduct . I confess that I've never been a fan of the book, mainly on the grounds that it is a tedious read (yes, John Henry Newman beats John Murray for prose style every time...

My friend, Sheena Strain, sent me this link to an article by Camille Paglia (we are not worthy!) on Hillary Clinton. Of course, I don't have a vote so can't support B or H in the coming contest, but La Paglia's comments are interesting --- as are the blog comments left behind. It's good to know...

This week's prize for the cultural equivalent of identifying the Pope's religious affiliation and revealing the sanitary habits of grizzly bears goes to..... The Times (that's The Times of London to those who come from a country that routinely identifies `Paris' as `Paris, France' lest people get...

I love watching the American media machine in action. The PR blitz that surrounds the Pope's visit is a case in point, one which reminds of the similar avalanche of tosh which came after the death of John Paul II. There we had a Pope who had spent much of his life lambasting the West for its...

No, that's not the name of a dodgy legal firm. Rather, four theologians who have reflected in significant ways on scripture. What is interesting is that, in reading Andrew McGowan's new volume from Apollos UK, The Divine Spiration of Scripture , I am puzzled that he comes to very different...

No, that's not the name of a dodgy legal firm. Rather, four theologians who have reflected in significant ways on scripture. What is interesting is that, in reading Andrew McGowan's new volume from Apollos UK, The Divine Spiration of Scripture , I am puzzled that he comes to very different...

OK, it was a bad day. English rugby is not in need of revival but of resurrection. As the present Mrs T is a Gael to the top of her 4 foot 9 inch frame, it took her less than three seconds to phone her father-in-law to gloat at the end of today's debacle. He, however, was convinced that the usual...

This Wednesday, amid fear of being `whacked' by the Taffia, and with rumours that the Keystone Kops were about to name me as a `person of interest' in their undercover investigation into the recent sinister disappearance of a high-profile member of the Reformed community, I went into hiding.

This Wednesday, amid fear of being `whacked' by the Taffia, and with rumours that the Keystone Kops were about to name me as a `person of interest' in their undercover investigation into the recent sinister disappearance of a high-profile member of the Reformed community, I went into hiding.

Seems it's not only militant homeschoolers, metrotextuals, and the Keystone Kops who have it in for me. Now the fearsome Welsh crime syndicate, the Tafia, have sent out a sinister public warning -- though I do like the fact that they have anglicised the name of the Don. I think Cwrluonu is the real...