Category Archives: Harassing the Hobgoblins

The Well-Educated Mind

Posted on August 4, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

Bauer, Susan Wise.  The Well-Educated Mind: A Guide to the Classical Education You Never Had.  New York: Norton, 2003. This isn’t just a book review.  I am also making a template on how to approach literature, as given by Bauer. Anyone … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins | Tagged , | Leave a comment

An Apologetics Primer

Posted on May 14, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

My church group began discussing ideas about an apologetics course this summer.  I’m wondering what kind of books to use.  Nothing too advanced.  And I don’t want this to become a “different styles of apologetics.”  Those discussions are usually as … Continue reading →

Posted in Harassing the Hobgoblins | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Review: For Faith and Clarity

Posted on May 5, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

Beilby, James. ed. For Faith and Clarity: Philosophical Contributions to Christian Theology. This book is not an intro to apologetics. It’s not even an intermediate text. It’s more like a supplement to some theological issues in apologetics. On the whole it … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Review: McCall, Invitation to Analytic Theology

Posted on April 24, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

This is an old review, but I thought I had already posted it.  I hadn’t. Despite it’s relatively simple-sounding and generic title, this book is unique in offering both a model for analytic theology as well as a brief crash … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins, theology | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Plantinga, God, Freedom, and Evil

Posted on April 14, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

Plantinga, summarizing his earlier work in The Nature of Necessity and God and Other Minds, demonstrates that the theist does not face a contradiction in a) asserting God exists and b) evil exists. In this work Plantinga also deals with … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Review: Plantinga, Nature of Necessity

Posted on April 14, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

The most difficult yet most important book (outside of Bible) I have read. Somebody described this book perfectly: “I felt like I was up against a Level 97 Boss and I was only Level 70.” Plantinga begins his survey of modal … Continue reading →

Posted in Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins, Philosophy | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments

Bringing the nous into the heart

Posted on February 11, 2018 by J. B. Aitken

This is from John Mcguckin’s The Path of Christianity: The First Thousand Years, pp. 862-869.  It is very difficult for many people to approach the ancient fathers on prayer.  For some, it looks too much like Buddhism.  And for many activists … Continue reading →

Posted in Fathers, Harassing the Hobgoblins, theology | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

al-Kindi’s argument against eternal universe

Posted on November 12, 2017 by J. B. Aitken

Strictly speaking, this isn’t the cosmological argument, because as it stands there is no inference to a creating Agent.  But it does establish the groundwork for it.  This is from William Lane Craig’s Kalam Cosmological Argument, pp. 23-27. There are six self-evident … Continue reading →

Posted in Harassing the Hobgoblins, Philosophy | Tagged , , | 1 Comment

Review: The Logic of God Incarnate

Posted on November 7, 2017 by J. B. Aitken

by Thomas Morris. This is an incredible primer in analytic theology. Not the first intro text to be sure (that would be McCall), but indispensable nonetheless. Does the claim “Jesus is God the Son” introduce incoherence into the Incarnation? Morris … Continue reading →

Posted in American Theology, Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins, Philosophy, theology | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

The Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship

Posted on October 15, 2017 by J. B. Aitken

by George Marsden.  Oxford University Press. Instead of “Outrageous Idea of Christian Scholarship,” we can name it the “Unstable idea of a halfway-covenant going by the name of Christian scholarship.” A key argument:  Here is the problem.  Secularists object to Christians … Continue reading →

Posted in American Evangelicalism, Book Review, Harassing the Hobgoblins | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment