Currently, I’m working through D. A. Carson’s The Gagging of God: Christianity Confronts Pluralism. Here Carson interacts the various forms of pluralism in the western world. In the first chapter he introduces 3 types of pluralism.
1) Empirical or Factual Pluralism: This is a simple observation of the reality in which we live. As a fact, we live in a world that increasingly presents us with multiple visions of life, ethics, religion, politics, as they can packaged via different genders, cultures, nationalities, ages, etc.
2) Pluralism as a cherished reality: Here people see pluralism not only as a reality in which we all live, but a good, a thing to be sought after. It has turned pluralism the empirical fact into pluralism the cherished goal.
3) Philosophical Pluralism: Philosophical pluralism acknowledges the fact of pluralism (above) and, as a result, calls into question all and any positions that in the face of this fact dare to assert that it is the only true way of seeing something. For example, in the case of religion, pluralism in this form is the enemy of Christianity because it rejects the exclusivity of the claims of Christ (John 14:6, Acts 4:12) and teaches that all religions are either a) equally right in leading to salvation (however they define it), or b) equally wrong in that no religion is a true (!) representation of whoever or whatever God is.
According to Carson, it’s philosophical pluralism, the commitment to the equality of viewpoints, that leads to the various strands of relativism that we find in our day. he then spends time explaining the challenges of relativistic pluralism in the realms of hermeneutics, philosophy, and religion.
Carson has always been known for his literary candor, not pull punching and willing to say, “oh, please,” when necessary.
One area in which I hope Carson would have pushed a little more (and I haven’t finished the book, so I hope he’ll surprise me) is the positive contributions of deconstructionism for Christian apologetics. Of course, I say this because I’m deeply interesting in the deconstruction of Jacques Derrida, and i’m big into Christian apologetics. I’m also convinced that while Derrida is seriously wrong on a number of points in his philosophy (if we could call it that), that nevertheless their is much good in Derrida’s thought on how systems of thought and institutions collapse under their own ideological weight and internal inconsistencies. Hopefully, one day in the not too distant future I hope to publish something on the topic.
Carson focuses on a number of critiques of Derrida and his project (most everything I agree with), but hasn’t yet (in my reading thus far) “plundered the Egyptians” and explored the ways in which Derrida has helpfully pointed out (or, more modestly, highlighted) the interpretative nature of all human understanding and the failure of modernism.
4) We Become what we Worship: A Biblical Theology of Idolatry- G. K. Beale
A guy can dream…..(well, maybe I’d clean it up a little bit 
Now we conclude this series on the 3-fold office of prophet, priest, and King. Last time we looked at how the office find their ulimate fulfillment in Christ. Now we look at how the church continues these offices as those “in Christ.” The church, as the purified and renewed people of God continues the purpose that was originally given to Adam and recommisioned to Israel.
In the first post of this series, we looked at how what we’ve been calling the “threefold office” of prophet, priest, and king, looking especially at how these offices were originally patterned (in Eden). In the second post, we looked at how the offices played out in the history of Old Testament Israel. Now we turn to take a look at how these offices find their ultimate fulfillment in Jesus Christ.
After the Fall, we find the steady decline of human civilization from Genesis 4 (the murder of Abel) down till Genesis 11 (the Tower of Babel). The decisive break comes in Genesis 12 with the call of Abraham. Through Abraham’s family, deliverance from the curse will finally be realized. Unfortunately, Abraham’s seed (i.e. family) was eventually taken captive in Egypt, but that was not the final say. 400 years after their captivity, God powerfully broke the chains that bound the Israelites, and called them to be His own special possession. Now, here in the history of national Israel, we see the reoccurring theme of the three-fold office.
Today in class, I taught on the deity of Christ, and His three-fold office as prophet, priest, and king. This is all very exciting stuff, and I’m glad the class with also “into it” along with me. When discussing the 3 offices fulfilled by Christ, I thought it helpful to trace these themes through the OT in order to highlight exactly why and how Christ is the perfect prophet, priest, and king.
This past Saturday marked the 2 lesson I’ve taught in my ‘Bible Doctrines’ class at Nyack College, NYC campus. It’s been incredibly encouraging to see how many of the students are participating and positively interacting with the material. As I shared with them, though the course is normally taught in the standard systematic theology (ST) approach (taking themes such as God, Christ, mankind, sin, salvation, atonement, etc) and showing what the whole Bible says about them, I’m attempting to integrate the ST approach with a redemptive-historical approach (as known as the biblical-theological method, BT for short). The BT is especially helpful is tracing various Old Testament themes and showing their fulfillment in Christ, thus giving us a fuller, more robust Christology (i.e. doctrine of the person and work of Christ).
Just today, 
Now, one thing i’ve noticed from walked around at least a couple of Whole Foods stores is their commitment to be ‘green.’ But you’ll also notice little things here and there that hint to some level of commitment to some form of pantheism. Things that imply that we and the world are one, etc. In fact, as I walked onto an aisle that displayed cassettes, DVDS, and CDs, the one repeated theme was your inner power, inner potential, etc. You know, The Secret (i.e. the ‘law’ of attraction) type stuff. Very Eastern influenced to say the least. Then this popped to mind.
Andy Crouch, in his latest book, 
