D. A. Carson

From Goodreads:

I found Carson’s book to be an incredibly helpful rejoinder to Niebuhr’s classic “Christ and Culture.” Carson writes as a conservative evangelical critical of Niebuhr’s typology, arguing that Niebuhr’s mistake was to present his options as possible alternatives than emphases. Carson defends his thesis mostly in terms of biblical theology, advocating for an integrated reading of the major “turning points” of the biblical narrative. When we do that, we see that matters of Christian engagement with Scripture is highly dependent on various factors including historical, political, and social contexts. This is, in fact, a point Niebuhr is willing to concede in his final chapter of “Christ and Culture” but one he seems unwilling to really wrestle with since he is too personally committed to his Christ transforming culture paradigm.

Readers may grow frustrated with Carson after the second chapter since the rest of the book feels more disconnected from what preceded it as well as Niebuhr’s book. But there are still some interesting ideas in these sections, particularly Carson’s analysis of the four major forces exerting pressure on Christians today in modern democratic nations: secularism, democracy, freedom, and power.

The weakest chapter might be Carson’s summary of Christian relations to the state, all of which basically assume democracy as the most acceptable option even if he is unwilling to say it is the Christian ideal. This is more assumed than proven. And while he is willing to cede some differences in the American and French revolutions, I’m not sure I know why Carson thinks that other than an assumed cultural Christianity rooted in a particular reading of the First Amendment. This, of course, revolves around ideas of establishmentarianism, which as a Baptist, Carson must inevitably reject. I would have benefited from seeing a little more of his work in this area.… (mere)

The volume contains a series of essays examining Second Temple literature in light of E.P, Sanders' landmark work on Palestinian Judaism and his formulation of covenantal nomism. The core essays each examine a selection of typical literature across a wide variety of genres, from psalms and prayers, additions and expansions of Biblical accounts to wisdom literature and apocalypses. Literature from Qumran is also considered along with the writings of Philo and Josephus. An essay focuses on the Pharisees and their place within normative Second Temple Judaism and a linguistic examination of the relevant Hebrew terms surrounding righteousness and covenant. Overall, the majority of the authors found that, with some qualification, covenantal nomism was a broad, but fair statement of the representative literature. Surprising in the light of the consistent affirmation of Sander's proposal was D. A. Carson's concluding summarizing essay which seems to ignore the conclusions of the previous essays and assert the insadaquancies of the concept.… (mere)