Theologian Trading Cards

My Amazon review of Theologian Trading Cards:


I really wanted to like this, if only for the novel idea of theologians in a fun card format, but there are just too many negative disappointments that I had to give this a one-star (which more than likely means not many helpful marks. Whatever.)


I could initially go into this with the approach of "well, it didn't have A, or B, or C" (and was my deck missing a Spurgeon card?) but the fact is the problem seems to go a lot further than that in that certain categories just, well, aren't broad enough. You could have had all 300 cards based just on the puritans alone, but instead it seems like all we get is a skimpy selection of different eras of the church, and an unfortunately large serving of Eastern Orthodox and Roman Catholicism (selections it seemed aimed to be more focused on the favorable ones, with not as much attention on the torturing, killing and "comfy chair" variety of Roman Catholics from history - and how is it that Pope Benedict [the one who you'll recall granted plenary indulgences, you know, the unscriptural practice that would make most Reformers spin in their collective graves] manages to make the deck as a very modern figure, but we don't see any other equally important modern theologians of a protestant variety like R.C. Sproul or John Macarthur? What floored me even more was the inclusion of Friedrich Nietzsche and Karl Marx. In a box labeled "Theologian Trading Cards". Keyword being "theologian". What the heck?


To me it feels like this entire presentation and packaging was a misnomer, and a more accurate label should have been something like, "Some theologians cherry-picked from a broad ecumenical swath, some of debatable significance, some of questionable orthodoxy, and some notably of distinctly anti-Christian bent Trading Cards". I'm surprised with some of these wonky characters in the box that he didn't include an Aimee Semple McPherson card or Fred Phelps. Who knows.


Additionally frustrating was the frequency of finding cards with no image. Give me a break!!! How often does that happen with sports cards? "Oooh, trade me for your card with NO PICTURE on it." That was frustrating enough alone to merit the one star and to have me considering returning the set to Amazon. If you can't find a picture for these guys from a Google image search, you do the next best thing: commission someone to do up a quick drawing based on what they think the guy likely looked like! For crying out loud, it doesn't have to be a Rembrandt portrait, just give us a best-guess sketch of the person. Blank images were a huge, huge disappointment.


A final gripe was the packaging, as each 'team' in the box was tightly bound in hard to remove plastic that I had to dig at with a knife to get open, and all along I'm wondering, what exactly was the reason for sealing this entire set, and then within the set itself, sealing up each team? Did that really matter? I don't collect sports cards, but is that how they do it when you buy them in box sets? Do they do that with Pokemon cards or something?


Again, I wanted to like this, but even if there had been some sticks of bubble gum included in the set, the content was just a little too skewed, imbalanced and not enough.

131 Christians Everyone Should Know - Book Review

Review of 131 Christians Everyone Should Know that I just posted over at Amazon.

"131 Christians..." really proved to be something of a hit or miss title for me.  I started to incorporate it as part of our family worship, but ultimately abandoned it entirely for a number of reasons.  First is that most of these biographies, far from being captivating insights into these people's lives, actually reads like a droll, static textbook from a secular college.  Even otherwise exciting accounts of people like Hudson Taylor and David Livingston are here presented as somewhat cold and factual, without some of the more exciting episodes or accounts of the miraculous (Taylor in particular, whom I've read a number of biographies of, has some thrilling accounts of God's miraculous provisions, but the 'Christian History' editors decided to leave those out, which is a little bit telling of the ambiguity of their genuine Christian perspective.

The thing I realized is that this isn't "131 Vibrant, Faithful Christians of a Solid, Biblical Testimony", but rather a breezy overview of 131 folks, some stupendous (Calvin), some not so (Finney), that these editors somehow thought worth of writing dull biographies of.  The flavor seems cold on Calvinism, mild on the historic misdeeds of Roman Catholicism, and at times leans favorably towards mystical flavor - which today appeals more to the new agey crowd (and shoppers at Lifeway stores) but not necessarily to me.

Notably missing, much to the detriment of this book, were Christians like John Owen, Richard Baxter, J. Gresham Manchen, Martyn-Lloyd Jones, Cornelius Van Til, or even missionaries like Amy Carmichael or George Mueller, and yet the book included T.S. Elliot and Billy Sunday?

Most troubling is the inclusion of Henry VIII, who's section the editors ridiculous titled as "Defender of the Faith" (a title given to Henry by a Pope, mind you.)  Henry was a murderous adulterer, with an awful track record and hardly what I'd consider a "Christian" that I "must know".  I'm surprised the authors of the book didn't give "Bloody Mary" a chapter with another Papal-approved title such as, "Mary, Darling of Roman Catholicism".  The lack of genuine Christian history is really showing here as the authors completely overlooked Lady Jane Grey, Henry VIII's martyred daugher who had a powerful testimony of faithfulness during her short life, and would truly belong in a book about Christians that you should know.  This book is genuinely about "Man for All Seasons" bad theological history going on here.

One star simply because this serves as a mediocre overview of some historical figures throughout church history, but there have been far better biographies written.  In fact, much more highly recommended would be John Piper's Christian Biographies at Desiring God.  These are far more energetic, emotional and edifying, unlike what the Christian History editors have presented here.  In fact, some comments from Piper on Erasmus really seem to fit the spirit of how the writers presented this "131 Christians" book.  These Christian History edits, as with Erasmus, seem to have a "touch of irony, a superior ambiguity", as if "to be dogmatic about the full theology of Christ was to be distasteful, below the best, elite humanist heights."  I think Piper nailed it with Erasmus, and the glove fits this stale title as well.

Skip it, and check out Piper's bios instead.

Lady Jane Grey: A Woman of Whom the World was not Worthy

Pastor Justin's message about Lady Jane Grey, whom I had never heard of previously. This was a wonderful message, and a humbling reminder of standing strong for the gospel, even when you are presented with a simple avenue of escaping persecution by renouncing faith. A message really worth listening to.

"People of the Church" by L. C. Rudolph

We just finished reading People of the church (Covenant life curriculum) by L. C. rudolph as part of our family worship time, and the text, albeit very brief, offers a decent and compact overview of some of the principle followers of Christ throughout Church history, including Calvin, Polycarp of Smyrna, Columba of Iona, etc.  Ideal for family worship and young listeners, the text offers a glipse into their lives and details some of their accomplishments, in addition to their trials and persecutions.  I wasn't able to find much about it online, but there's a link to Amazon above where it can presumably be found used.  Well worth it.

"Perspectives on Family Ministry"

I just finished "Perspectives on Family Ministry" by Paul Renfro, Brandon Shields and Jay Strother (foreword by Randy Stinson) and thought that this was a fascinating overview of various family ministry models in the church today. I posted a review here on Amazon, but I'm posting it here as well. It's a good book.

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Having just finished reading this book, I was satisfied to find that all three writers in the discussion, Paul Renfro, Brandon Shields and Jay Strother, all presented fair and comprehensive arguments for differing models of what family ministry should be. Yet at the same time, I felt that so much more could have been said and discussed about the issue. There's still plenty of good discussions, responses, and rebuttals, though, to make this a fascinating read.

I thought that Paul Renfro opened up with an excellent presentation and defense of the Family-Integrated model, and indeed there is much good that can be said of this structure of worship. Yet at the same time, as the counter-discussions dig into this model (namely Brandon Shield's counter) the arguments strike that this model doesn't address the community at large, or fractured families. There might be something to this, in the fact that there can be a niche quality some family-integrated churches. Don't get me wrong: as someone personally with a large family, it can be wonderful to be a part of a congregation that is largely family focused and oriented. But at the same time, in this day and culture of fragmented families, the counter-arguments seem to challenge if the family-integrated model does the most to reach those alienated demographics (such as fractured families, singles, etc).

Brandon Shields presents the Family-Based Ministry model, one seemingly more culturally emersed (and at the same time, criticized by some for being too much of the culture.) I did find it commendable that Shield's took time to dig in with a critical view of some of the earlier research as to why children are leaving the church (p. 104) and also, in light of things such as the regulative principle, how Scripture does present non-traditional methods of ministry (p.116). Absent from this model, though, as Renfro points out, is mention of father leadership and the importance thereof - a strong feature of the family integrated model.

Jay Strother followed with a convincing overview of the family-equipping ministry model, which in a nutshell is built around restructuring church roles to work more with parents. One thing noteworthy about Strother's section (as well as with the other writers) was the inclusion of practical examples of the particular ministry model in practice. I think this helped a lot, as sometimes the writers try to describe each individual system, but often what is the most helpful is reading about a realistic example described.

Ultimately the take-away for me was that there are pros and cons to each model of family ministry. I thing that each writer presented a fair case for the different models, as well as a decent challenge to the other viewpoints. While the models of family worship did all have notable differences, it was equally noteworthy to read about the similarities as well (particularly family-based and family-equipping.) The discussions and responses were all cordial and focused on being informative discussions moreso than heavily confrontational, which was greatly appreciated.

One of the things missing, though, that I would have liked to see Paul Renfro take on a little more deeply, was the FIC focus on large families (e.g. families with more than a two kids), and the need to change the child perception paradigm to reflect Biblical principles of children as blessing, instead of the church just mirroring culture's viewpoint that children are a hindrance to material pleasure. To me, large families seem to go hand in hand with the family integrated model, and I would have at least liked to see this addressed (if for no other reason than to verify this conception) and to see how the other models (family-based and family-equipping) approach this view as well. If anything, this seemed to be a sorely missing topic and would have added a richer dimension to the text for me. Renfro would likely have trumped the other two models on this topic, and I can't help but think that addressing the topic of large families, as a key component to the family-integrated model, would have been a fascinating aspect of the debate.

Now slightly off the beaten track, but still noteworthy: what does the cover image of a subway track have to do with this topic? I'm thinking instead that maybe the book should have featured the image of a Sunday School classroom, or a group of school kids, or even a church congregation. So where does the subway come in? Family-based churches that meet on trains? :)

Also, what good does the Latin footnote on pg. 21 do to those who can't read Latin? It looks classy, sure, but means nothing to the monolingual reader.

The Radicals

The Radicals is a fascinating film about the "radical" reformation, or Anabaptist movement of the 14th century, and the tragic story of Michael and Margatetha Sattler. The film, though low-budget, is an excellent account of this movement that defied both the catholic church and other protestant reformers of the time.

The Sattlers joined up with the Anabaptist group and presented teachings that challenged those of the State, and of many protestant reformers. As this movement continued to grow, they faced horrendous persecution, and this video does NOT go light on the details of torture and execution (strong enough that I would not recommend this film for families with young children.)

What was interesting too, to me as an old Star Trek fan was seeing Mark Lenard (Spock's Dad) appear as Michael Sattler's nemesis. He's an excellent actor, and did a tremendous job in this role. Having seen him as a vulcan appealing to Klingons in the United Federation of Planets, it can be a little difficult seeing him outside of that role, but all the same, he does a great job.

The Radicals is a very moving film, and gives an excellent narrative of the early movement of the Anabaptists, their beliefs, and the horrendous persecution that they suffered from the catholic church. The DVD also includes some excellent extras, such as a documentary on the Anabaptists and chapter introductions setting the historical context. Worth checking out, but again, viewer discretion advised for the graphic torture sequences.

"Better a prison of stone than a prison of false conviction."

Excellent map of Church History links and reading

There is a wealth of good information at Spurgeon.org regarding church history and the various directions the church has taken through the ages. The links are plentiful and there is a lot of good reading material here.

Spurgeon.org is a great platform for a number of excellent sites, including the Pyromaniacs blog that I try to follow daily.