Contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. Jude 3
For our next forum we’ll be discussing the implications of Luther’s Two Kingdom theory and what it means for us today. This topic is so important that we’ll take the next couple of forums to go through it. For now, however, we’ll start with Anders Nygren’s essay Luther’s Doctrine of the Two Kingdoms, from the book, One Lord, Two Hands?: Essays on the Theology of the Two Kingdoms.
Here’s our readings for our Friday, December 1 Forum! Roni has graciously volunteered to share his wisdom and insight for this session. Our first reading is an article by Gifford Grobien entitled Righteousness, Mystical Union, and Moral Formation in Christian Worship.
For our time together, LaVerne will be conducting this discussion. We’ll be exploring Wokism. Here are our readings:
Here is our final reading for Koukl’s Tactics: Chapters 13 and 14
Here is the reading for our 8/5 meeting. Koukl 5 and 6.
For the next couple of meetings the forum will be reading and discussing Gregory Koukl’s book Tactics: A Game Plan for Discussing Your Christian Convictions. If you don’t have the book, you can read the first two chapters here.
Our reading for this forum will be a chapter titled Worldview Thinking by the Christian Philosopher Ronald Nash. It comes from his book, Life’s Ultimate Questions: An Introduction to Philosophy.
We will discuss the chapter focusing on what a worldview is, why everyone has one, and how worldview thinking is a helpful tool for analyzing alternative views of reality.
Here are some helpful resources if you want to dig deeper:
Philosophy as Comprehensive Vision by philosopher Lewis Hahn (written for an audience of psychologists but has helpful insights on worldview thinking).
In Defense of Metaphysics by philosopher Brand Blanshard. A presentation and defense of metaphysics and worldview thinking.
From Gender Feminism to Catholicism by Kimberley Manning. Referenced by Nash as a change in worldview. Posted simply as an example.
This month’s readings serve as an introduction to postmodernism and we will discuss some responses to it based on a classical and confessionally Christian worldview. Postmodernism’s Applied Turn comes from the book Cynical Theories by Pluckrose and Lindsay. Moreland’s chapter comes from the book Reasons for Faith and the Miller chapter is from the philosophy textbook called Questions That Matter. For our purposes, we will be most interested in the section on Postmodernism and Plantinga’s response at the end of the chapter.
Helen Pluckrose and James Lindsay, Postmodernism’s Applied Turn
J.P. Moreland, Postmodernism and Truth
Ed Miller Skepticism and Postmodernism
For further reading this article from The American Conservative is helpful: Deconstructing the Postmodern Thinkers