Comments on: Leaders are Readers

By: Kirsten Jack

Kirsten Jack — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 02:25:15 +0000

Thanks for the encouragement Bill. I like Sander’s five reasons – I hadn’t thought about it like that before. Especially fellowship with the greats! (For that matter, reading the Bible is an even greater honour!) And half an hour a day is definitely achievable, even for a mum with 4 young kids like me. And who knows the harvest that can be reaped from the ideas/challenges one receives each day, year after year. Worth the investment!
Kirsten Jack

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:43:18 +0000

Thanks Kerry

Yes it is the greatest of themes to always reflect upon and be transformed by, and his is a very great book. I will have to dig out my copy, blow off the dust, and give it another read.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Kerry Letheby

Kerry Letheby — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:31:00 +0000

James Denney’s ‘The Death of Christ’ is a gold mine. When we come to faith in Christ, it is largely based on the acceptance of Christ’s death. However, when you read Denney, you realise just how little of Christ’s death you understood when you actually accepted it. This was the book that told me that God had called me before I called to Him. It has taken me the last 30 years to just scrape the surface and begin to understand anything of the significance of that death.
Kerry Letheby

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 12:09:31 +0000

Thanks John

Hey, at least that means you should be an expert on Pythagoras, Rousseau, Spinoza, Thomas Aquinas, Voltaire, Wittgenstein, and Zeno, to name a few!

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: John Snowden

John Snowden — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:55:03 +0000

I picked up a stray single volume of that encyclopaedia years ago. That might explain why there’s a gap in my knowledge outside “Psychology to Zubiri”. I recall Paul Edwards used to write for Humanist journals decades ago. He also wrote a famous debunking of Heidegger. And he was a friend and defender of Russell.
John Snowden

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:41:49 +0000

Thanks Stephen

Yes but when you finish those, what do you then read for the New Year?!?

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Stephen Frost

Stephen Frost — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:38:07 +0000

@John and @Bill, Yes, I'm a subscriber to Faith and Philosophy journal, and I also do read summaries such as Yandell's Philosophy of Religion. I've read Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview which Bill mentions above (I read it on his advice initially). But there's nothing like trying to stretch and get to grips with the authors themselves. On the shopping list at the moment is Great Books of the Western World which is a 60-volume extravaganza of philosophy and theology (Plato through to Kant, Kierkegaard, Hegel, Nietsche, et al). Rock on Christmas! Stephen Frost, Melbourne.

By: Harrold Steward

Harrold Steward — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:28:27 +0000

Greetings Bill in His revered name.
No, I am not the rural pastor. Our son John suggested the following:

-Bill Pomery, a three-time Mayor of Naracoorte, fearless contender for faith in Christ and an elder.
-Deane Metheringham, Coromandel Valley Uniting Church, faithful bible teacher.
-Geoffrey Bingham, New Creation, author of numerous books, has own printing press, weekly lectures for many pastors, Changi man, devout, suffered much for our Lord.
-Reg Wright, Pastor South Perth, 4 hours daily study, spiritual father to Gwenda and me.

Bill I practised medicine as family medicine, 7 children – one in glory. My dear wife -now limited – carried me through. Bible teaching is my special purpose in life. Website reaching nations. Christ my theme.

Bill your writing is Christocentric. Precious in His eyes. Drawing sap from the True vine.

PS, spent days at CLTC PNG teaching Word with him after His wife called to glory. Oswald Sanders finished has 50th book, while fighting a gastric ca.

Harrold Steward

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 07:00:42 +0000

Thanks John

The Encyclopedia of Philosophy edited by Paul Edwards (8 volumes in 4) is still an invaluable and classic resource in this area. It serves as a great introduction to all the main philosophers and philosophical themes. Probably the most thorough Christian volume is Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview by Moreland and Craig (IVP, 2003). But of course reading the actual philosophers, backed up by such introductions, is also of great value. But like Stephen, I too have not ventured back into Kant or Hegel or some others for a second time!

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch

By: Bill Muehlenberg

Bill Muehlenberg — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:47:50 +0000

Many thanks Harold

I was wondering if anyone happens to know who the Australian rural pastor was that Sanders referred to. Would you know Harold? In fact, would it happen to be you he was referring to? Just a guess.

Bill Muehlenberg, CultureWatch