For the past week and a half, Fred Sanders and Matt Jenson have been discussing Thomas H. McCall’s new book Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why it Matters. See parts 1, 2, 3, & 4 if you missed our little cartoon theology-heads talking back and forth about this commendable book. As our discussion drew to a close, I wrote to Tom and invited him to chime in. Here’s his response. Sanders: Hi Tom. I hope you found our public... Read more
In the Torrey Honors Institute we read Western classics; then we sit in a circle and talk about them. This peculiar form of education (and the list of classic books) can be traced back to the General Honors course offered at Colombia University beginning in the fall semester of 1920. It’s remarkable how many of the elements of the General Honors course remain unchanged in the Torrey Honors Institute almost 100 years later. The General Honors course was the brainchild... Read more
In our final installment talking through Tom McCall’s Forsaken (here are the other ones), we consider McCall’s fourth chapter and conclusion, in which he takes two looks at the question of “why it matters”. Jenson: Continuing on from the last post, where Fred pointed out that each of these chapters involves a holding together, in the fourth chapter McCall demonstrates how the “unbroken word of the triune God” in the cross of Jesus Christ puts broken humanity back together. Because of... Read more
Dr. Peters recently did an interview for the Aqueduct Project on the nature of the evangelical church’s recovery of the Christian tradition. Click here to visit their site and listen in! Read more
As I was driving around LA the other day listening to NPR, two stories run back-to-back caught my attention. The first was a story about the recent Nobel-prize winners John B. Gurdon and Shinya Yamanaka, who have uncovered a means for turning any cell into a stem cell from which an organ or even a clone may be created. The NPR correspondent speculated about possible future ramifications of this capability (for instance, a desperate fan stealing a hair off of... Read more
Further reflections on Tom McCall’s Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why it Matters, as Sanders and Jenson do a conversational review-but-not-a-review type blog thing. Our offices are right down the hall from each other, so you’d think we’d just talk about good books in person… Sanders: Chapter 3, and in the title McCall raises another big question: “Was the Death of Jesus a Meaningless Tragedy?” But he also immediately raises the question, “Should we say that God killed Jesus?”... Read more
More discussion of Tom McCall’s book Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why it Matters, from Fred Sanders and Matt Jenson of Biola’s Torrey Honors Institute. In his second chapter, McCall considers the question, “Did the death of Jesus make it possible for God to love me?” P. T. Forsyth pithily offers his answer: “The atonement did not procure grace, it flowed from grace.” Jenson: Two groups of Christians commonly find in the Old Testament a wrathful God and in... Read more
Tom McCall’s recent Forsaken: The Trinity and the Cross, and Why it Matters (IVP, 2012–thanks to IVP for a copy!) is a very stimulating little book. Its four short chapters (just 165 pages total) are a series of focused treatments of major issues in Christian faith. Tom McCall (associate professor of theology at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) writes for the non-specialist in this book, and keeps things readable. But the intellectual skills he has displayed in his more academic writings... Read more
This Friday October 12 is the deadline for submitting a paper proposal for the inaugural year of the Los Angeles Theology Conference. Since we announced this new annual event one month ago, there’s been quite a bit of excitement about it, mainly because of the great group of theologians who will be doing the plenary sessions: There’s still plenty of time to ponder your travel plans and decide about attending. As soon as you’ve counted the cost and decided (“Great... Read more
A bit late, but not too late! As one chapter in the history of the Torrey Honors Institute closes and another opens, some of the minds responsible for its birth reflect on the development of the program. Join Dr. John Mark Reynolds, Dr. Paul Spears, and Dr. Fred Sanders as they discuss the origins and future of the Torrey Honors Institute. Click here to listen! Read more
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