This month’s free book at Christianaudio.com is Tim Keller’s book Ministries of Mercy: the Call of the Jericho Road (coupon code AUG2010).  Tim Keller is the renowned pastor of Redeemer Presbyterian Church in New York City.  Ministries of Mercy is the published edition of Tim’s doctoral dissertation (D.Min.) which he did at Westminster Theological Seminary.  Here is the blurb:

Why would someone risk his safety, destroy his schedule, and become dirty and bloody to help a needy person of another race and social class? And why would Jesus tell us “Go and do likewise”? Like the wounded man on the Jericho road, there are needy people in our path- the widow next door, the family strapped with medical bills, the homeless man outside our place of worship. God call us to be ministers of mercy to people in need of shelter, assistance, medical care, or just friendship.

Other deacon resources from Tim Keller

• Hardcopy of Ministries of Mercy ($10.39 from Amazon)
• Redeemer Deaconate Training Manual ($35 plus 7.50 for shipping)
• Lectures on deacon training at Westminster Theological Seminary (free, but registration/login required)

Here is a list of some very helpful little articles by Dr. Greg Bahnsen.  I love Bahnsen’s approach toward apologetics and he has had a big impact on how I think and describe Christianity to others.  Below is a brief bio.

Greg L. Bahnsen, (1948-1995), was an ordained minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church and a full time Scholar in Residence for the Southern California Center for Christian Studies. He received his Ph.D. in philosophy from the University of Southern California, specializing in the theory of knowledge. He previously received the B.A. (magna cum laude, philosophy) from Westmont College, and then simultaneously earned the M.Div. and Th.M. degrees from Westminster Theological Seminary. Dr. Bahnsen lectured to a broad range of evangelical Christian groups at many colleges and conferences. He was an experienced apologist and debater, a clear and cogent teacher of the Christian worldview who was devoted to training believers in understanding and applying the Christian faith to every area of life.  His 2 works on apologetics are  Always Ready: Directions for Defending the Faith and  Van Til’s Apologetic: Readings and Analysis.

• PA098-”Ready to Reason”, (VI:12; December, 1990)
• PA099-”The Heart of the Matter: Knowing and Believing”, (VII:1; Jan, 1991)
• PA100-”Answering Objections”, (VII:2; Feb, 1991)
• PA101-”Tools of Apologetics”, (Part I-VII:4; Apr, 1991)(Part II-VII:7; Jul, 1991)
• PA103-”Apologetics in Practice”, [Bertrand Russell as example] (Part I-VII:8; Aug, 1991) (Part II-VII:9; Sep, 1991)
• PA105-”The Problem of Evil”, (Part I-VII:10; Oct, 1991) (Part II-VII:12 Dec, 1991)
• PA107-”The Problem of Knowing the ‘Super-Natural’”,(Part I-VII:11; Nov, 1991) (Part II-VIII:1; Jan, 1992) (Part III-VIII:2; Feb, 1992)
• PA110-”The Problem of Faith”, (Part I-Vol. VIII:5; May, 1992) (Part II-Vol. VIII:6; Jun, 1992)
• PA146-”The Problem of Religious Language”, (Part I-Vol. VIII:9 Sept. 1992) (Part II-Vol. IX:1 Jan. 1993) (Part III-Vol. IX:5 May 1993)
• PA165-”The Problem of Miracles”,(Part I-Vol. IX:7 July 1993) (Part II-Vol. IX:9 Sept. 1993)
• PA112-”A World Without Religion?”, Penpoint I:2 (December 1990)
• PA115-”Dead Wrong”, Penpoint II:2 (April, 1991) [afterlife according to the movies]
• PA123-”Dr. Bahnsen Represents Christianity in Dialogue with Islam and Judaism at Orange Coast College”, Penpoint Vol. II:6 (November., 1991)
• PA137-”The JFK Assassination and Apologetics”, Penpoint Vol. III:3 (May 1992)
• PA142-”Where the Rubber Hits the Road”, Penpoint Vol. III:5 (August 1992)
• PA143-”The Mind/Body Problem in Biblical Perspective”, (1972)
• PA166-”Cross-Examination: What Does it Mean to Believe?”, The Counsel of Chalcedon Vol. X:5 & 6 (July/August 1993)
• PA167-”Reflections on My Russia Trip”, Penpoint Vol. IV:6 (July-August 1993)
• PA186-”Dr. Bahnsen Debates Atheist Lawyer”, Penpoint Vol. V:1 (January 1994)
• PA191-”Van Til and Self-Deception”, Penpoint Vol. V:8 (Sept. 1994) NOTE: [Reprinted Penpoint Vol. V:10 (December, 1994)]
• PA195-”Van Til’s ‘Presuppositionalism’”, Penpoint Vol. VI:1 (January, 1995)
• PA196-”Van Til’s Challenge to Illegitimate Common Ground”, Penpoint Vol. VI:2 (February, 1995)
• PA197-”Van Til’s Why I Believe in God”, Penpoint Vol. VI:3 (March, 1995)
• PA199-”Van Til’s Call For a Distinctive Christian Mindset”, Penpoint VI:4 (April, 1995)
• PA200-”Van Til’s Life and Impact”, Penpoint VI:5 (May 1995)
• PA205-”Radical Empiricism Made Foolish”, Penpoint VI:10 (October, 1995)
• PA206-”Evidential Apologetics: The Right Way”, Penpoint VI:11 (November 1995)
• PA207-”The Crucial Concept of Self-Deception in Presuppositional Apologetics”, Westminster Theological Journal LVII (1995) 1-31
• PA208-”Presuppositional Reasoning With False Faiths”, Penpoint VII:2 (Feb/Mar 1996)
• PA210-”Presuppositional Procedure”, Penpoint VII:8 (September, 1996)
• PA212-”Another Cup of Coffee”, Penpoint VII:10 (November, 1996)

According to a NY Times interview with David Brooks in 2007, Obama has a liking to Rienhold Niebuhr.  This was a recent topic of the biannual Faith Angle Conference in May 2009 hosted by the Pew Forum.  It is quite an interesting discussion.  Take a look here:

http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1268/reinhold-neihbuhr-obama-favorite-theologian

Here is the intro:

Ever since then-Sen. Barack Obama spoke of his admiration for Reinhold Niebuhr in a 2007 interview with New York Times columnist David Brooks, there has been speculation about the extent to which the 20th-century theologian has influenced Obama’s views on faith, politics and social change. At the Pew Forum’s biannual Faith Angle Conference in May 2009, Wilfred McClay, a historian specializing in American intellectual history, offered an overview of Niebuhr’s unique form of progressive Christianity and its influence on 20th-century American politics and international affairs. E.J. Dionne, columnist for The Washington Post, remarked on the recent revival of interest in Niebuhrian thought and the role Niebuhr played as a public intellectual active during the worldwide political upheavals of the 1930s, ’40s and ’50s.

Speaker: Wilfred M. McClay, SunTrust Bank Chair of Excellence in Humanities, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Respondent: E.J. Dionne Jr., Columnist, The Washington Post; Senior Advisor, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life
Moderator: Michael Cromartie, Vice President, Ethics & Public Policy Center; Senior Advisor, Pew Research Center’s Forum on Religion & Public Life

In the following excerpt, ellipses have been omitted to facilitate reading. Find the full transcript, including audience discussion, at pewforum.org.

John Piper’s new book The Future of Justification: A Response to N.T. Wright has finally been released by Crossway. To be honest, I found his Counted Righteous in Christ to be lacking because of the brevity and because he was responding only to Robert Gundry. Thus, I am very glad he has taken the time to extend his previous writings on the subject with about 4 years of questions he has been bombarded with in between. I trust his book will serve as a great help to us all on a variety of levels. You can browse the entire book at Crossway’s site for free, and and you can now download it for free from the Desiring God site. I’d love to hear what you all think…

If you feel you are out of the loop with regards to the recent discussions about the doctrine of justification in Pauline theology, particularly the writings of E.P. Sanders, James Dunn, and N.T. Wright I would suggest checking out thepaulpage.com and Monergism.com‘s “New Perspective” section. For many N.T. Wright sources there is also the ntwrightpage.com.

Click here to browse the book or here for the PDF.