Category: Book Review

Debates about worship are nothing new to the church. While it may seem like we are the first ones to wrestle with songs and hymns and decorum on Sundays, that is far from the case. For example, in the 8th Century, an argument broke out in the Greek Orthodox Church known as the “Iconoclast Controversy.”…

The term “gnostic” is an unfamiliar one today. Historically, it referred to a group of Christians who believed they had special knowledge. “Gnostic” comes from the Greek word gnosis, meaning knowledge, ((G. Abbott-Smith, A Manual Greek Lexicon of the New Testament (New York: T & T Clark, 2001 ed.) 94. Gnosis refers to “a seeking…

There are few topics in Christian history that have caused as much controversy as that of Calvinsim. Augustine and Pelagius, Martin Luther and Erasmus, John Calvin and Jacob Arminius, George Whitfield and John Wesley, R. L. Dabney and D. L. Moody have all debated Calvinism passionately. ((Dave Hunt & James White, Debating Calvinism: Five Points,…

In the 1800s, a movement started in the church which said that the goal of Christianity is to change society. ((The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church, ed. by J. D. Douglas (Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, 1978) 911. To be specific: “No clear definition can be given to the term [Social Gospel], nor…

The word “psychology” means “study of the soul” in Greek. ((Erich Fromm, Psychoanalysis and Religion (New Heaven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1950) 7. Fromm originally used this definition to refer to “psychoanalsys,” not “psychology.” But, for the purposes of this article, both words refer to the same concept.))  It comes from two Greek words, psyche…