The similar phrase 'Worldly Christianity' is one used by Bonhoeffer. It's J Gresham Machen that I want to line up most closely with. See his Christianity and culture here. Having done commentaries on Proverbs (Heavenly Wisdom) and Song of Songs (Heavenly Love), a matching title for Ecclesiastes would be Heavenly Worldliness. For my stance on worldliness, see 3 posts here.

Erroll Hulse One in a thousand

Most of those who know the name of Erroll Hulse will be aware that he had a stroke while in South Africa last year and although he is now back in England his progress to health continues to be slow. Meanwhile his book One in a thousand has appeared. It is an excellent book on pastoral ministry made up of a series of an introductory chapter followed by eight studies first in the New Testament (The Chief Shepherd and Paul the inspirer of pastors) and then in church history. With each biography he seeks to draw out one aspect of the ministry. We begin with a Martin, Martin Luther, and end with a Martin, the recently deceased Martin Holdt. With them we have William Perkins - application in preaching, Richard Baxter - the pastor as evangelist, Jonathan Edwards - the pastor as theologian and Martyn Lloyd-Jones - the pastor as preacher. We thus learn some church history at the same time as looking at pastoralia. This EP book works as both an entry level book for budding pastors or those still wet behind the ears and for those longer in the tooth.
PS See what I did there with the title to this post?

No comments: