We had a thrilling time in Pittsburgh, selling the very thoughtful, accessible and nicely written New York Times best-seller, A Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism,
at the author appearance with Rev. Tim Keller.  I hope you read our
last post about him, and followed some of the good links.  If you
wanted to hear his presentation, here is a podcast video version of one that, I’m guessing, was very similar, done in Berkley California.

We still have some of these for sale for $20 if anybody needs to order any this week (while supplies last.) 

Pittsburgh’s
Carnegie Music Hall was certainly one of the most ornate locations in
which I’ve ever had the privilege of selling books. Even though the
lecture attracted causally dressed college students and working class
pastors alongside the well-heeled from Pittsburgh elite circles, it was
a thoroughly classy evening, with  Keller’s literate presentation a
perfect fit for the thoughtful crowd in that elegant setting.  We thank
the CCO for allowing us to be
the bookseller, and thank the Kellers for their friendliness to us as
we worked the gig.  After packing up and running some errands we eat a
very late night meal with Derek & Scott, I ended up arriving home
just before the sun came up Friday morning.  Whew.

What
an extra thrill, then, to see that the UPS guy has just brought a big
stack of a thick new book, the long-awaited and magisterial third
volume in John M. Frame’s “Theology of Lordship” series.  Entitled The Doctrine of the Christian Life,
(P& R) this weighs in at over 1000 pages and sells for $45.95.  It
is classic Frame at it’s best, I’m told, with rave, rave, rave reviews
from serious Reformed writers, ethicists and Biblical scholars (like
Richard L. Pratt and P. Andrew Sandlin.)  As therapist David Powlison
puts it, “Frame sets forth God’s commandments as broad and deep, as
sweetly adaptable to the varieties of human experience.  He shows how
the person, promises, and actions of our redeemer God are always
intrinsic to our wisdom, faith and love.  He sets forth a vision for
the Christian life that, in fact, glorifies the God of glory.”

Frame
is a brilliant teacher of ethics, complex and fair and thorough,
utterly sound and faithful to Biblical revelation.  He’s aware of the
disagreements within the broader Christian community, is widely read in
all kinds of literature, and knows post-Reformation Reformed thinking
better than most.  He is trying hard not to capitulate to secularized
categories (conservative, liberal) but is holding up a standard of
radical Christian perspective.

The Doctrine of the Christian Life
may spend more time on methodological questions than typical readers
may wish, and there will be sections some may want to skim through
(skim through a full half, and you still get your money’s worth!) 
Still, the vast amount of material, the lucid account of how decisions
are made and ethics developed, and the deeply pastoral desire to help
folks address relevant contemporary topics makes this the sort of
significant resource that isn’t often published.  Kudos to the
publisher, Presbyterian & Reformed,  for their brave commitment to
such sound thinking, for vital book publishing, and for daring to
release such a massive volume of such serious stuff.  May many find it
worth owning, and may many learn to live out this vision of the
Lordship of Christ, across every sphere of life and culture.
 
Frame
unpacks all of this carefully—exploring what we mean by culture,
explaining various schools of thought about spiritual maturity,
teaching solid stuff about church, world, Kingdom… Sadly, not many
church folk know this kind of material very well, but it is a splendid
example of the renaissance of thoughtful evangelical literature, and it
would be a useful resource to have in church libraries.  (His long and
detailed study of the application of the Ten Commandments is itself for
thorough than many lesser books on the subject. Anybody teaching on
this subject will have to consult this.)  I am not using bookseller
hype when I say this is magisterial;  I am aware that I disagree with
the good doctor on several important matters, but that is just beside
the point.  This book is an amazing contribution to the scholarly field
of Christian living, ethics, and seriously Christian witness in public
life. 

One need not have read the previous two, but I thought I’d name them, here.  The first was The Doctrine of the Knowledge of God and the next was The Doctrine of God.  It
is in these seminal texts that he develops his thought about
multi-dimensional knowing, applied, then to our relationship with God.

Hearts & Minds 234 East Main Street  Dallastown, PA  17313  717.246.3333