Check out

Blogs

What happens when the military chaplain is shaken by war – The Washington Post
Whatever the spiritual condition of this chaplain, his story of trauma reminds us of the need to pray for chaplains and those they serve in the armed forces.

British Christianity isn’t dying. It’s sleeping. Evangelism can awaken it
The stats are grim but hope stays strong.

10 Phrases Every Leader Should Use More Often
“As a pastor and speaker on Dave Ramsey’s team, I’ve had the chance to speak to church leaders across the country. I’ve met some amazing leaders. Recently, I’ve been reflecting on what makes a pastor effective. A big part of it? Word choice. It’s so simple! I love that. So check this out: Here are 10 phrases that pastors should add to their vocabularies. ”

Pastor Through Presence
“One-on-one pastoral care is time-consuming and inefficient. And yet, proximity is an important factor in pastoral care.”

John Knox: Christ Was at the Center of His Life
“From the first page to the last of John Knox’s written works, the reader is brought relentlessly back to the source of Knox’s greatness: Christ was at the center of every dimension of his life. It is this, and this alone, that made Knox mighty in his weakness.”

State leader quits ACLU after daughters were ‘visibly frightened’ by men using women’s restroom | LifeSite
A left-wing ACLU leader quits after her children suffer from ACLU policies. She said “the ACLU has become a special interest organization that promotes not all, but certain progressive rights. The “hierarchy of rights” the ACLU chooses to defend or ignore based on who is funding the organization’s lobbying activities.”

Math: Christian Songwriters Love ‘Grace’ But Often Ignore ‘Sin’ and ‘Judgment’ | RELEVANT Magazine
“The analytics gurus at Nate Silver’s FiveThirtyEight.com have confirmed with math something that Christian music fans have long-suspected: Mainstream Christian pop is ” unrelentingly cheerful.”

Books





Here’s my review of Indescribable, a book that left a deep mark upon me.


Check Out

Blogs

Retirement Reexamined | James Clark, Institute for Faith, Works, and Economics
“This kind of carefree, work-free post-retirement life is a widely shared dream today, but it does not align with a Christian understanding of work and vocation. Retirement and old age do not signal the end of one’s vocation, as attested to by R. Paul Stevens in Aging Matters: Finding Your Calling for the Rest of Your Life.

New Series: Taking Back Christianese | Michale J. Kruger, Canon Fodder
“This series is designed to analyze a number of theological phrases or practical bits of Christians wisdom that may simply be wrong, or at least misunderstood. Or maybe both.”

Help Me Teach the Bible: Colin Smith on How to Teach Christ in the Joseph Story | Nancy Guthrie, TGC
“We discussed how to teach the story of Joseph with Christ at the center, as demonstrated in Smith’s ‘Snapshots of a Godly Life’ sermon series.”

Columns from Tabletalk Magazine, June 2016 | Ligonier
Links to several free columns and articles from this month’s issue on Legalism.

Fearing the mic | Josh Thiessan, The Cripplegate
Overcome your fear of public speaking with some help from the Puritan, Richard Baxter.

Why I Am Not Liberal | Tim Challies
“While the terminology of theological liberalism has faded, the spirit of liberalism lives on.”

Be Coached: 5 lessons I’ve learned from a ministry legend. | DJacobsen.com
Warren Wiersbe’s grandson reflects on what he’s learned from him.

Kindle Deals


Kill or Cure: An Illustrated History of Medicine by Steve Parker ($1.99)


Reckless Abandon: A Gospel Pioneer’s Exploits Among the Most Difficult to Reach Peoples by David Sitton ($0.99)


No Greatness without Goodness: How a Father’s Love Changed a Company and Sparked a Movement by Randy Lewis ($2.99). One of my favorite reads of 2014. The VP of Walgreens’ experience of having an autistic son motivated him to initiate a national program to hire more people with special needs — improving profitability in the process.

Video

Learning Greek Is a Lifetime Journey | B&H Academic Blog
Click through for some great advice on learning and continuing to learn Greek.


New Books in the PRTS Library

One of the privileges of working at PRTS is the weekly arrival of new books to supplement our library of 70,000+ books. Here are some of the new selections this week.

Note: Inclusion in the library does not necessarily mean endorsement of contents. We often have to buy books to help students with specialist theses and also to train students to think critically. Also, a book new to the library does not necessarily mean a new book on the market.

For your non-Kindle book buying needs please consider using Reformation Heritage Books in the USA and Reformed Book Services in Canada. Good value prices and shipping.


The Church: A Theological and Historical Account by Gerald Bray

“Solid, shrewd, and most thorough, this superlative survey of God’s people on earth past and present will be a boon not only for seminarians but also for many more of us besides. It is a truly outstanding performance.” -J. I. Packer, Regent College



The Bible in Christian North Africa by Maureen A. Tilley

“Maureen A. Tilley’s study gives new insight into the Donatist church by focusing attention on the surviving Donatist controversies. She persuasively shows how Donatist interpretations of Scripture correlate with changes in the social setting of their church.”



Wandering Souls: Protestant Migrations in America, 1630-1865 by S. Scott Rohrer

“Popular literature and frontier studies stress that Americans moved west to farm or to seek a new beginning. Scott Rohrer argues that Protestant migrants in early America relocated in search of salvation, Christian community, reform, or all three.”


 


Historical Milton: Manuscript, Print, and Political Culture in Revolutionary England by Thomas Fulton

“John Milton’s Commonplace Book is the only known political notebook of a radical polemicist writing during the English civil war, and the most extensive manuscript record of reading we have from any major English poet from this period. In this rethinking of a surprisingly neglected body of evidence, Thomas Fulton explores Milton’s reading practices and the ways he used this reading in his writing.”



As We Grow Old: How Adult Children and Their Parents Can Face Aging With Candor and Grace by Ruth Fowler



Learning to Read and Write in Colonial America by E. Jennifer Monaghan

“An experienced teacher of reading and writing and an award-winning historian, E. Jennifer Monaghan brings to vibrant life the process of learning to read and write in colonial America. Ranging throughout the colonies from New Hampshire to Georgia, she examines the instruction of girls and boys, Native Americans and enslaved Africans, the privileged and the poor, revealing the sometimes wrenching impact of literacy acquisition on the lives of learners.”



The New Testament and Hellenistic Judaism edited by Peder Borgen and Soren Giversen



The Syntax of the Verb in Classical Hebrew Prose by Alviero Niccacci



Temples, Tithes, and Taxes: The Temple and the Economic Life of Ancient Israel by Marty E. Stevens

“The temple in Jerusalem was both the center of ancient Israel’s religious life and also an economic center for the nation. In this groundbreaking study of the economic functions of the Jerusalem temple, Marty E. Stevens … demonstrates that the temple acted as the central bank, internal revenue collector, source of loans, and even debt collector for ancient Israel.”



Islamic Da`wah in the West: Muslim Missionary Activity and the Dynamics of Conversion to Islam by Larry Poston

“This book explains the concept of Islamic ‘da’wah’, or missionary activity, as it has developed in contemporary Western contexts. Poston traces the transition from the early ‘external-institutional’ missionary approach impracticable in modern Western society, to an ‘internal-personal’ approach which aims at the conversion of individuals and seeks to influence society from the bottom upwards. Poston also combines the results of a questionnaire-survey with an analysis of published testimonies to identify significant traits that distinguish converts to Islam.”



The German Roots of Nineteenth-Century American Theology by Annette G. Aubert

“By exploring the significant influence of German theology, especially mediating theology, on American religious thought, this book sheds new and welcome light on nineteenth-century American Reformed theology. It is the first full-scale examination of that influence on the Mercersburg theology of Emanuel V. Gerhart and the Princeton theology of Charles Hodge.”



Jude and the Relatives of Jesus in the Early Church by Richard Bauckham

“This volume is an original and important contribution to the study of the earliest Palestinian Jewish Christianity. For the first time all the evidence for the role which relatives of Jesus played in the early church is assembled and assessed. Dr. Bauckham discusses a wide range of evidence, not only from the New Testament but also from the Church Fathers, the New Testament Apocrypha, rabbinic literature and Palestinian archaeology. The letter of Jude, in particular, proves to have much to teach us about the theology of the brothers of Jesus and their circle…”



How to Be an Atheist: Why Many Skeptics Aren’t Skeptical Enough by Mitch Stokes

“Atheists talk a lot about the importance of skepticism. But the truth is, they’re not nearly skeptical enough…”



What Is God Doing in Israel: When Jews and Palestinians Meet Jesus by Julia Fisher

“Author Julia Fisher presents fourteen true stories from Jewish, Arab, and Palestinian believers living in Israel and Palestinian areas that describe what God is doing despite the current tide of political and religious turmoil. ”



John Calvin’s “Institutes of the Christian Religion”: A Biography by Bruce Gordon

“Here, Bruce Gordon provides an essential biography of Calvin’s influential and enduring theological masterpiece, tracing the diverse ways it has been read and interpreted from Calvin’s time to today.”



Sacred Violence in Early America by Susan Juster

Sacred Violence in Early America offers a sweeping reinterpretation of the violence endemic to seventeenth-century English colonization by reexamining some of the key moments of cultural and religious encounter in North America.”



C. S. Lewis’s “Mere Christianity”: A Biography by George M. Marsden

Mere Christianity, C. S. Lewis’s eloquent and winsome defense of the Christian faith, originated as a series of BBC radio talks broadcast during the dark days of World War Two. Here is the story of the extraordinary life and afterlife of this influential and much-beloved book.”


Check Out

Blogs

How God Messed Up My Happy Atheist Life | Nicole Cliffe, Christianity Today
This is an unusual but fascinating interview:

I became a Christian on July 7, 2015, after a very pleasant adult life of firm atheism. I’ve found myself telling ‘the story’ when people ask me about it—slightly tweaked for my audience, of course. When talking to non-theists, I do a lot of shrugging and ‘Crazy, right? Nothing has changed, though!’ When talking to other Christians, it’s more, ‘Obviously it’s been very beautiful, and I am utterly changed by it.’ But the story has gotten a little away from me in the telling.

Why Abortion Makes Sense | Jonathan Leeman and Matthew Arbo, TGC
“…is it any wonder, then, that pro-choicers call the entity inside a woman’s womb—well, what shall one call it? A fetus? Organic tissue? Uterine contents? A clump of cells? A part of the woman’s own body, like an appendix?”

The Boy, the Gorilla, and the Outrage: Questions for Reflection | TGC
“Here are several questions that are worth considering in light of the death of Harambe…”

What Does it Mean to Take the Lord’s Name in Vain? | Ligonier
“Both in our service and in our worship, we are to think on the things of God with adoration and reverence, knowing that the fact that God has revealed Himself to us by name is itself a great act of grace.”

Seven Ways to Improve Your Preaching | Kevin DeYoung
“Below are seven practical ways we can improve our preaching. And please note: I deliberately use the words ‘we’ and ‘our,’ because I’m thinking of my sermons as much as anyone’s. These suggestions are things I continue to work on as a preacher, sometimes with success and often with less progress than I would like.”

“Gay Christianity”: A Fatal Theological Oxymoron | Dr. Peter Jones, truthXchange

New Book


The Masculine Mandate by Richard D. Phillips. Ligonier have just published this new edition of one of my favorite books for men.

Kindle Deals


The Life of John Newton by American Missionary Fellowship ($2.99)


Making a Difference in Preaching by Haddon W. Robinson ($1.99)


The Great Books Reader, Excerpts and Essays on the Most Influential Books in Western Civilization by John Mark Reynolds ($2.99)


Life in the Balance: Biblical Answers for the Issues Of Our Day by Joni Eareckson Tada and friends ($1.99)


Longhand Luddites and a Plea for Pencraft

Here’s a fascinating article written by Dr. Nathan Eshelman, an alumnus of PRTS, a pastor in Los Angeles, and a life-long learner.


I wondered if I would be able to follow through on my great Luddite classroom experiment, to leave electronics behind. For a few weeks prior to the class I tried to convince myself that it would be manageable; maybe it would even be enjoyable. The pencils were sharpened and the notebook had plenty of blank pages. Ticonderoga pencils and the trusty Moleskine notebook would serve as my tools for the week. Could I let the Macbook rest? Would I?

The class was set to begin—a full week of lectures at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary, my alma mater. Despite the moniker Puritan, the seminary is not a Luddite institution; rather it has state of the art pedagogical technologies. The school is very high tech as far as seminaries go.

At the end of 2008 I finished my pastoral training at Puritan, but I have continued to study since then. As a matter of fact, since completing my undergraduate work in college I have taken 86 seminary classes for credit. This class would make number 87. I am no stranger to the classroom, by any means, and I have been quite content for all these years tapping away on the keyboard along with my fellow seminarians. Why would I change my method of note taking now? It has served me well so far.  The clicking away on keyboards is quite familiar in all Puritan classrooms, and it is true of the other seminary from which I graduated: The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary. Keyboard clicks and taps are familiar sounds in seminary classrooms. I am sure this is true of all humanities and social science departments.

But I have been wondering if that is the way that it should be. Are laptops really necessary in the academy? Do they add pedagogical value in respect to note taking? I am beginning to doubt.

For the last several years I have been reading about how writing notes by hand instead of typing them is better for a student. I have been convinced since 2012, that hand writing sermon notes and sermon preparation is personally helpful. Since the summer of 2012, I have hand written all of my notes during study time and then completed my final sermon manuscripts on my laptop. That transition did not ruin my life; would I be able to do the same in the classroom?

The Luddite Experiment

The forty-some students filed into the classroom unpacking their gadgets and laptops. Professor Chad Van Dixhoorn was on the raised platform with an image of a mid-seventeenth century manuscript on the giant screen behind him. As I sat down, I pulled out my Macbook as usual, but as I reached to plug it in, my hand hesitated.

I would take the plunge.

I would take notes the old fashioned way. A Ticonderoga pencil and my Moleskine notebook would be my tools for the week. And I am very glad that I did.

Before I describe the benefits I received from using the pencil and notebook method, let me be up front about two challenges I needed to get over:

1. I would not have an electronic copy of my notes. If I thought that I needed an electronic copy, I would have to create one following the class. This was manageable and even though I have not investigated it, I know there are technologies that move handwriting to digital storage.

2. I might miss something that the professor said. Like most of you, I type much faster than I write. This was more of an emotional hurdle than an intellectual one. No one types everything that is said.

So, what benefits did I receive from writing my notes rather than typing them?

I have had a couple of weeks to reflect on this question and here are some thoughts. Since this post is written for my friend Dr. Murray, I thought that I would use alliteration so that you can remember my thoughts for your next note taking experience.

Fundamentally Better for Memory & Retention 

Several studies have come out in the last several years that show how hand writing notes improves a students retention of the lecture material and memory of classroom discussion. As I took notes, it was clear to me that I had to think in terms of concepts and ideas rather than focusing on being a courtroom reporter. Writing out the important concepts, memorable quotes, outlining the lecture, and interacting as the professor lectured helped to retain more of the material being presented.

Freedom from Anxiety for Not Getting It All 

The anxiety of missing some of the professor’s thoughts has always been a large factor in my practice of typing notes. That anxiety needed to be set aside, and as I came to terms with the fact that I would not be able to write down everything, the ability to interact with the lecture increased. Instead of hoping that I had written down everything, I was okay with the fact that I was not going to get all of the words, and instead I got the concepts. In regular conversation, people remember concepts and a few good quotes more than they remember word-for-word what the speaker has said. Why should lectures be different? Concepts and good quotes are usually more important than exact phrasing. It’s nice to be free from that false anxiety.

Fatigue-free Without Screen-induced Eye Strain

Less anxiety leads to less fatigue. Of course, there is another fatigue that occurs from the classroom and it is connected to the screen. Dry eyes, watery eyes, headaches, tiredness, and even exhaustion are part of modern student life due to the many hours of staring at screens.  Eye doctors have even made a label for the diagnosis: Digital Eye Strain (DES).

Being free from the screen means that the student is free from the symptoms that the screen brings. This class was a week long and the lectures went from 9AM to 5PM with a lunch break. There were many tired eyes in the class by the end of the week. Truthfully, although the week was mentally challenging, I felt refreshed all week long. I left classes energized rather than exhausted.

Framing of My Notes 

I did not anticipate this benefit, but I do appreciate what the pencil and paper were able to accomplish in this area. Have you ever had a professor write on the white board and you could not capture his or her conceptual diagrams in your laptop notes? I have never been very good at making shapes and diagrams on my laptop, but I can draw in my notebook. I can doodle an idea.

Diagrams, conceptual notes, doodles, graphs, and other visual elements that help the learner are much easier with pencil and paper than they are with a laptop. Notes that include outlines, words, quotes, and visual elements are useful for the learner. This is much easier to accomplish with pencil than it is with pixel.

Fun and Enjoyment of the Lectures 

This is very subjective, but I really feel — subjective word — that the lectures were more fun to hear, maybe because I did not find myself slavishly bound to my laptop or because I was able to reflect more on what was being said. Maybe because my thoughts shifted from being a court reporter to being an active hearer. I can’t prove this, but it was a lot of fun to just listen and enjoy the lectures on their own terms.

Focus Rather than Multitasking 

Maybe the fun was because I was more focused. If you are like me, you get popup reminders and notifications when you are on your laptop. While typing this article, I received a reminder that I need to back up my computer to iCloud. I have been reminded that my Adobe is outdated again. I have been distracted by pop ups of text messages. My email keeps getting refreshed and I have paused to answer a few of those. Those awful Facebook notifications keep telling me that friends have written in certain Facebook groups, people have liked my recent photo, and that troll has responded to my comment on my friend’s wall. Laptops are distracting work environments.

As I sat in Dr. Van Dixhoorn’s class, none of these things distracted me. I did not feel the need to answer emails because I was not on my laptop. I stayed off Facebook until breaks or the evening. All of these things could wait: the tyranny of the urgent was slain.

We are so used to multitasking that we forget that we can only really do well one thing at a time. Professors, do you know this is going on in your classrooms? Why is Wi-Fi really necessary in each class? I am not sure, but I know in this course I was focused and I was thankful that I did not have to multitask during class.

Fraternity with the Professor

Perhaps my favorite benefit was one that I was not expecting. I’ve read the books on how technology is changing us. I have read the medical journals and newspaper articles about typing and memory. I was prepared for many of the benefits, but I was not prepared for the fraternity with the professor.

We all know that communication is about more than just words. Body language, eye contact, subtle nuances of speech, tone, and expression each contribute to communication. We know this, but how many students are communicating in these ways with the professor? How much fraternity is in the classroom?

I don’t pretend to know what was going on in the two rows behind me, but I know that in the rows ahead of me and in my own row, the students were mostly staring at their screens. They were working of course, but attached to the screen as they worked.

While others were staring at their screens I was enjoying eye contact with the professor, interacting with him as a communicator rather than merely a voice containing words. We are created to communicate with our whole person. Has this been largely lost in the classroom? I am convinced that hand writing notes will help us in learning to communicate and interpret more than just words. Fraternity ought to be regained in the classroom.

Challenge to Students: 

So what do we do with this information? There is ample evidence that hand writing notes is pedagogically superior than typing them. How can this find its way back into the classroom? I would like to offer a challenge to the students who are reading this:

Hand write your notes for two weeks and see if you experience the same things that I have described. 

As you accept the challenge, here are a few pointers:

1.  Do much of your work in advance. Read the material. Be familiar with what’s being taught. Know what the professor is lecturing on. When you are more prepared for class, you will have a better classroom experience. Did you know that a syllabus includes the reading list and often a professor will tell what pages should be read prior to each class? Read those pages.

2. Get a high quality notebook. If you want to save your notes, write them in something worth saving. Dollar store spiral bound notebooks are less likely to survive than a high quality notebook. I prefer the Moleskine large classic squared notebook. You can get it for less than $20 and mine will last several months—and I take notes on every event of life.

3. Have good writing tools. I mentioned that I like the Ticonderoga HB2 pencils. I get them in black. I like the way that they write. The graphite does not break like cheap pencils. Of course, some prefer a mechanical pencil: I would recommend the Staedtler drafting pencil.

Good tools promote good work.

4. Learn some short hand. You don’t have to learn a whole new alphabet, just learn some common words and correlating symbols. There are several symbols that are useful for note taking. Watch a few Youtube videos on shorthand. You can also make up some of your own symbols. When I have a word or phrase that I know will be used frequently, I will write the word and in parenthesis make the symbol for it. For example: Westminster Assembly (WA). Then the rest of the time, WA will be sufficient. It’s simple, and it saves time as you take notes.

I hope you take the challenge. As a lifelong student, I do believe that you will really enjoy it!

Challenge to professors: 

It may be a bit bold, but here goes:

Professors, ask that the laptops, iThings, and tablets be put away. 

Do it for one course and see if you like the results. This will not ruin your students’ lives, but it ought to enrich them, stretch them, and even benefit them. A history professor in my congregation has this as a regular classroom requirement and it has gone very well for his undergraduates. There are others who could, from a professor’s perspective, testify concerning the benefits in the classroom.

The studies are everywhere. It is good for a student to not stare at screens. It is good for a student to write on paper with his or her hand. It is not only good educationally, it is good physically and mentally. Your students may not know this, but you do. Equip them.

Read the studies. If you are not yet convinced, begin with a few short articles. You might begin with The Guardian, The Wall Street Journal, and Scientific America. The studies are everywhere.

Require laptops to be closed. Require hand written notes.  The current generation of college students has never known a time when school work was not done on a computer. Show them the joys and benefits. Require that class notes be written by hand.

I would love to hear from you concerning your experience with this. I think you will enjoy the communication and the classroom fraternity. It’s sure to be an improvement over staring at heads and merely hearing the tapping of keyboards.

Longhand and pencraft are valuable. It’s time to reclaim them.

Nathan Eshelman is pastor of the Reformed Presbyterian Church (RPCNA) in Los Angeles, California. He is an MDiv graduate of Puritan Reformed Seminary and a DMin graduate of The Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary in Pittsburgh. He is married to Lydia and they have five children. He also blogs at Gentle Reformation


Check Out

Blogs

The Transgender Conversation You Need to Have With Your Family | Tim Challies
“My concern is that we are hurtling full-speed into untested territory and we and our children are the ones who will need to figure out how to navigate it well. As we do that we may find ourselves in situations that are trying or even dangerous.”

Alarmism And Transgendered Kids | Rod Dreher, The American Conservative
“The woman told me that at her kids’ high school, a shocking number of students are going to their parents asking to be put on hormones and asking for surgery, because they are transgender. This is the cool thing, and the school is falling all over itself to be supportive, and to encourage an ‘ally’ culture.”

The LGBT Movement Will Self-Destruct | Rachel Lu, The Federalist
In the light of the above, here’s an optimistic post. Let’s hope it’s prophetic.

Here is my prediction. Within my lifetime, the LGBT movement will die. It will be remembered not as a Selma moment, but as a Salem moment: a period of collective insanity.

Awkward Gospel Conversations | Jordan Standridge, The Cripplegate
“I’d like to encourage you to rethink the common thought that it is better not to share the Gospel than to do it awkwardly. So here are five reasons why it’s ok to share the Gospel awkwardly.”

10 Ways to Grow Your Marriage While Having Young Kids | Gavin Ortlund, TGC
“I know I can’t be the dad God calls me to be unless my marriage is strong. Here are some strategies we’ve reflected on that might be helpful to other young parents in a similar season of life.”

The Bible Is Unbreakable | Erik Raymond, TGC
“I remember as a non-Christian myself attempting to ‘break it’ only to find it breaking me. What a glorious book! I thought I was reading it, but again it was reading me. I began in judgment of it only to find it was judging me. But even more than that, it provided me the truth that there is a means of rescue from non other than the God whom I feared. What a peerless book indeed!”

Stefan Molyneux: “We Who Reason Demand Freedom” | RealClearPolitics
Stefan Molyneux celebrates his philosophy talk show, Freedomain Radio, for passing 100 million views on YouTube, and delivers a stirring call to arms for deliverance from the tyranny of stultifying political correctness.

After 30 years, it’s good to be married | John Kass, Chicago Tribune
I loved this article.

New Books


A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the Old Testament: The Gospel Promised edited by Miles V. Van Pelt


A Biblical-Theological Introduction to the New Testament: The Gospel Realized edited by Michael J. Kruger

Kindle Deals


Start Next Now: How to Get the Life You’ve Always Wanted by Bob Pritchett ($0.99)


The God Who Is There: Finding Your Place in God’s Story by D. A. Carson ($2.99)


Manhood Restored: How the Gospel Makes Men Whole by Eric Mason ($0.99)


How to Develop a Brilliant Memory Week by Week: 50 Proven Ways to Enhance Your Memory Skills by Dominic O’Brien ($0.99)


Marine!: The Life of Chesty Puller by Burke Davis ($1.99)

Video

The Salute Seen Around the World