The Well-Informed Generalist

…is a fitting title for Ken Myers, the man behind the Mars Hill Audio Journal, which a sort of Christian version of NPR I guess. And a new interview of Myers by Walter Henegar is very interesting. Here’s how Henegar opens his piece, “The Well-Informed Generalist: Why We Should Listen to Ken Myers”—

What do eating habits, film noir, reptiles, human cloning, Facebook, economics, and poetry have to do with the Christian life? “Everything,” Ken Myers would argue, and does, thoughtfully and audibly, at least every other month. For Myers—the living library behind the Mars Hill Audio Journal—what the church needs today is not more specialists, whether in theology or philosophy or church growth, but more “well-informed generalists” who are interested in understanding all of culture in order to live more faithfully in God’s world…

I’m thankful for the specialists, but I agree with Henegar, the church could use a few more articulate generalists, like Ken Myers. The entire interview is very interesting and I commend it.

And if you’d like to hear from the well-informed generalist (for free) I recommend the recent audio interview by Mark Dever titled “Christians and Culture with Ken Myers.” If you’re unfamiliar with Myers this may be the best introduction to his story, his mission and convictions. There is a lot of gold in this interview and it’s here that Myers says, “a local church congregation is the basic unit of cultural resistance.” So true. Good stuff. Enjoy.

HT: to another well-informed generalist

July 8, 2009 - Posted by spurgeon | Culture | | 2 Comments

2 Comments »

I agree with Henegar as well. This is the dire need of the church right now, and the fact that we don’t have enough people like that is showing very clearly.

The Christian is not a homo religiosus but a man, pure and simple, just as Jesus became man… It is only by living completely in this world that one learns to believe. One must abandon every attempt to make something of oneself, whether it be a saint, a converted sinner, a churchman, a righteous man, or an unrighteous one, a sick man or a healthy one… This is what I mean by worldliness — taking life in one’s stride, with all its duties and problems, its successes and failures, its experiences and helplessness…That is faith, and it is thus that he becomes a man and Christian. ” -Dietrich Bonhoefffer

Comment by thelastinkling | July 15, 2009 | Reply
Chesterton seems to agree with the need for generalists:

You cannot evade the issue of God; whether you talk about pigs or the binomial theory, you are still talking about Him…. Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true. Zulus, gardening, butcher’s shops, lunatic asylums, housemaids and the French Revolution — all these things not only may have something to do with the Christian God, but must have something to do with Him if He really lives and reigns…Now if Christianity be…a fragment of metaphysical nonsense invented by a few people, the, of course, defending it will simply mean talking that metaphysical nonsense over and over. But if Christianity should happen to be true-then defending it may mean talking about anything or everything…Things can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is false, but nothing can be irrelevant to the proposition that Christianity is true. (Daily News, December 12, 1903)

Comment by Jude St.John | July 21, 2009 | Reply

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Tony Reinke

Whether by intention or accident you are looking at the blog Miscellanies (formerly The Shepherd’s Scrapbook).

Normally this blog is a stream of miscellanies, but at its center I feature quotes and essays on the Cross of Christ. No series has received more attention than a little tutorial on how to rip a Bible through a table saw on the way to manufacturing a splendid Blank Bible! (Watch your fingers.)

As you can see, we focus on books. I enjoy reading, reviewing, and talking about books (cool) and photographing books (nerd). At times we pull the blanket off newly released reformed Christian books. And an annual highlight is our book of the year award. View all the 2008 winners here.

Welcome aboard! -Tony

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FEATURED BOOKS

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See my 15 favorite books of 2008 here.

Purchase any book through this blog and you will (1) improve your library and (2) help fund this blog. Thanks!

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For Tony’s current reading schedule click here.

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Who is Tony? My name is Tony Reinke. Like a well-dressed but heart-hardened Pharisee I spent 22-years hiding from God in self-righteous ‘faithfulness.’ That was until one morning my heart–numbed by my empty morality and trapped in a deceptively low standard of ‘goodness’–was subdued by God’s sovereign grace (Eph. 2). During a sermon by Paige Patterson in Lincoln, NE on Luke 18:9-14, I perceived the Gospel as the great exchange, released my self-righteousness, and clung to the saving righteousness of Jesus Christ. That morning this Pharisee became a broken tax collector and, though once blind, I could now see the reality of life, the gravity of sin, and the preciousness of Christ’s redeeming blood. Now there is nothing more precious to me than knowing Jesus Christ, the One who died for me and gave me His righteousness in place of my sinfulness (Phil. 3:7-9). Pursuing further up and further into the Cross has become the center of my life and this blog is intended as a place to share the pursuit.

Though I wouldn’t survive long in the wild, I consider myself agrarian (a farm boy from Nebraska). I was a short-term sports writer and a long-term carpenter who loves to tinker with gizmos and design web content. My story is part Mayberry part BlackBerry. Educationally, I graduated from a little private business school in Omaha with a degree in Liberal Arts. Theologically, I’m an autodidact made possible by the patient and wise direction of pastors in a local church. I’ve been married for 11 years to the wife of my youth (Karalee) and we have three precious kids, a majority of whom are named after dead preachers. I now *work* full time as the editorial and research assistant to my living hero of the faith, C.J. Mahaney. My line of work is a mix of theological research, reading, writing, journalism, photography, all integrated into social media (blogs). For fun I administrate Herman Bavinck dot org .

Email/comments. I’m grateful for your readership and would love to hear from you. You can leave a comment on any post to get in touch. Often I can respond to email but sometimes that’s not possible. Here’s the address: crede.ut.intelligas AT mac.com .

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“If you find me short in things, impute that to my love of brevity. If you find me besides the truth in anything, impute that to my infirmity. But if you find anything here that serves to your furtherance and joy of the faith, impute that to the mercy of God bestowed on you and me. Yours to serve you with what little I have.” John Bunyan (Works, 1:336).

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Book wishlist. I hope to have all these valuable books added to my library one day. All from the The Works of Jonathan Edwards (Yale editions) …

Vol. 1: Freedom of the Will (a gift from my friend Robin)
Vol. 8: Ethical Writings (purchased)
Vol. 21: Trinity, Grace, and Faith (purchased)
Vol. 2: Religious Affections (a gift from my friend Josh)
Vol. 3: Original Sin
Vol. 4: The Great Awakening
Vol. 20: The ‘Miscellanies’ ( No. 833-1152 )
Vol. 23: The ‘Miscellanies’ ( No. 1153–1360 )
Vol. 17: Sermons and Discourses ( 1730-1733 )
Vol. 22: Sermons and Discourses ( 1739-1742 )
Vol. 15: Notes on Scripture

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Princeton Cemetery. I don’t know how I did it, but in the Spring of 2006 I convinced my wife and kids it would be fun to spend the day at Princeton cemetery. Princeton is famous for its school and less famous for its rich evangelical history. I took several photographs at Princeton Cemetery (where Edwards, Hodge, Warfield and the Alexanders are buried). These photos always remind me to be Cross-centered.

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Do-it-yourself Blank Bible. Of all the books we promote, none compare with God’s Word. We pursue the Cross as God opens His Word to us. In this anticipation, we encourage you to make your own blank bible like Jonathan Edwards.’ Building a blank bible shows both a commitment to serious, life-long reflection and the anticipation of God’s illuminating Spirit. To date, over 15,000 readers have accessed the Blank Bible Index.

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Humble Calvinism. Early this year we started a series on Humble Calvinism, a study through John Calvin’s Institutes. Especially noteworthy is Calvin’s experiential sensitivity to the contours of godliness. Join us as we continue learning humble and holistic Calvinism as Calvin intended. See the Humble Calvinism series index here.

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The Puritan Study. The Puritans were Cross-boasters. So how do we use the wealth of Puritan literature in our personal devotions and expositional studies? Our series on building and using a Puritan Study answered this important question. For more see the full Puritan Study series index.

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All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

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