Blog - Page 167 of 318 - John H Armstrong

The Translation of Novel to Film

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:22-05:00January 10th, 2010|Categories: Film|

Readers know that I love film, both as entertainment and as art. I see a good number of movies and review some of them on this blog spot. I also read widely. I enjoy novels, especially modern novels that are filled with drama and human character development. One of my favorite novelists, especially in his earlier writing, is John le Carre. John le Carre is actually a pen name from an English writer who wrote some pretty stunning stuff about spies during the Cold War era. He was also the master of the betrayal theme in story-telling. Some of John le Carre's novels have become films. Readers of his books often dislike the films. This is a common experience when a novel is made into a film script. But John le Carre has a far better grasp of this process than most critics. Regarding one of his novels becoming a film he said:

The job of the movie (writer) is to take […]

Why I Still Change My Mind

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:22-05:00January 9th, 2010|Categories: Personal|

Perhaps the most controversial, and generally misunderstood, articles that I have ever written were under the series title: "How I Changed My Mind." This series, written for our Viewpoint news magazine, can be found in the Viewpoint archives under the resource tab at our Web site. (They are found in Volume 7:4 through Volume 8:5.)

I have been forced to think about these articles quite a lot since they have been quoted and used against me rather widely. I thought about them again when I wrote my blog for yesterday about rethinking the empirical method and why postmodernism presents a proper challenge to the modernistic way of thinking that many of us learned from our culture and educational background. I have signed articles of faith in my denominational ordination procedure and sign a statement of faith in order to teach at Wheaton College. But it matters not. These articles on changing my mind brought about some major reaction. I once wondered why this […]

The Foolishness of the Gospel to Modern Thought, or Why Postmoderns Are Right to Question Our Empirical Christian Methodology

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:22-05:00January 8th, 2010|Categories: Apologetics, Postmodernity|

Missional-theologian Lesslie Newbigin (1909-1998) said the requirement for a missionary encounter with a culture is having the “courage to hold and proclaim a belief that cannot be proved in terms of the axioms of [that] society.” One of Newbigin’s primary insights can be seen in this very comment. The gospel cannot be reduced to the axioms of Western society, especially the axioms that are deeply rooted in Enlightenment categories of thought and proof. One of the reasons postmodernism raises serious issues for many thoughtful Christians is because they realize that the axioms of the past have failed us and cannot be used to preach or prove the gospel in our time.

In his classic book, Foolishness to the Greeks: The Gospel and Western Culture, Newbigin adds:

This may sound simplistic but it is not. Our modern scientific culture has pursued the ideal of a completely impersonal knowledge of a world of so-called facts that are simply there, that cannot […]

Getting Ready for the Big Game in Pasadena Tonight

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 7th, 2010|Categories: College Football, Personal|

As I noted in my blog of January 1 I was given a wonderful Christmas gift so today I am in Pasadena, California, to see the Crimson Tide of Alabama seek its 13th national championship in collegiate football. This great team, carrying the hopes and dreams of fans from “Sweet Home Alabama,” rides into this big game a favorite. In the eleven previous BCS championship games the underdog has won six times. In the last seven years the underdog has won six out of seven. And the team with the Heisman Trophy winner, which is Alabama this year, always loses this game, with the lone exception being USC with running back Reggie Bush. Alabama will have to change this grim “tide” if they are to celebrate at the end of the big game this evening. I honestly believe they will prevail over Texas because they have a coach who will keep them focused on the task and who knows what it takes to win. […]

Why Do Muslims Become Jesus Followers?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 6th, 2010|Categories: Islam, Missional-Ecumenism|

J. Dudley Woodberry, dean emeritus and senior professor of Islamic Studies at the School of Intercultural Studies at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California, has served at the Christian Study Center in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, and as a pastor in Kabul, Afghanistan and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. When Woodberry speaks about evangelizing Muslims I take notice.

Woodberry’s new (edited) book, From Seed to Fruit, is a 440 page study of global trends, fruitful practices and emerging issues among Muslims. The book asks what practices is God blessing in raising up groups of Jesus followers among Muslims? And how shall we understand Muslim peoples and their access to biblical witness? The book provides the most recent worldwide research on witness to Christ among Muslim peoples, using biblical images from nature to show the interaction between God’s activity and human responsibility in blessing these peoples.

Not […]

When Is It Right to Blame the President for Failure?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 5th, 2010|Categories: Politics, The War on Terrorism|

It is generally believed, at least among pundits and political critics, that a president gets a one-year pass on many issues. He does inherit the impact of previous decisions and he must be given time to put his own people and approaches in place. I accept this “rule of thumb” and have thus withheld criticism of President Obama on many issues. I have done the same with previous presidents, both Republican and Democrat.

I have criticized President Obama on two primary fronts in his first year in office. One is his radically pro-choice stance. He talks about slowing the number of abortions but his actions are consistently pro-abortion in the most radical ways. Even his best Christian friends cannot defend his actions in this area of policy with any degree of conviction. Second, I have criticized President Obama's general approach to the economy, especially the health care plans that both houses of Congress are seeking to combine into one bill for the […]

What Has Happened to Evangelicalism in America?

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 4th, 2010|Categories: American Evangelicalism|

The famous historian of theology, H. Richard Niebuhr, once called theological liberalism a religion devoted to "a God without wrath [who] brought men without sin into a kingdom without judgment through the ministrations of a Christ without a cross" [The Kingdom of God in America, (The Wesleyan University Press, orig. 1937; 1988), p. 193].

I can’t think of a statement that better sums up much of the problem inside the church in our time. Where once liberal theology ravaged the older churches of the so-called mainline denominations, and the fruit of this ravaging and bitter fruit is now self-evident, much of the same emphasis can now be clearly found in our more evangelical churches. Note what Niebuhr’s quote sets forward as the problem:

1. We have a God without wrath

Regardless of how we understand the doctrine of hell, and the early church was not of one mind about […]

American Violet

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 3rd, 2010|Categories: Film, Race and Racism|

American Violet is one of those films I truly wish every Christian I know would see. It reveals the deep seated impact of racism on black America and shatters the typically conservative stereotype that the problem is all but over. The film, released in April of 2009 to a limited number of screens in apparently small towns, is based on the true story of Dee Roberts, a 24 year-old African-American single mother of four living in the small Texas town of Melody (which is the fictitious film name for the town of Hearne). Dee is dragged away from work one day in handcuffs, and dumped in the women's county prison for twenty-one days before her bail can be met. The local district attorney leads an extensive drug bust, sweeping her housing project with military precision. Dee soon discovers that she has been charged as a drug dealer, crack-cocaine. Even though she has no prior drug record, and no drugs were found on her in the raid, […]

For My Father: A Penetrating Look at Palestinian Terrorism

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 2nd, 2010|Categories: Film|

For My Father is “a transcendent and powerful film” says critic Eric Alterman on The Huffington Post. I have to agree. I cannot remember seeing a film that deals with the Israeli/Palestinian struggle that so powerfully moves the mind and heart at the same time. It is not an accident that this Israeli film won seven awards within Israel. Raymond Murray, another professional film critic, calls it “Gripping yet sensitive . . . . warmly humanistic.” This is an understatement.

Terek, a Palestinian forced on a suicide mission in Tel Aviv to redeem his father's honor, is given a second chance when the fuse on his explosive vest fails to detonate. Forced to spend the weekend in Tel Aviv awaiting its repair, Terek must live amongst the people he was planning to kill. To his surprise he connects with several Israelis on the outskirts of society, including the beautiful Keren, who has cut off contact with her Orthodox family and […]

My Surprise Christmas Gift

By John Armstrong|2021-07-02T06:19:23-05:00January 1st, 2010|Categories: College Football, Personal|

Christmas is about many things. Giving and receiving gifts is a lovely, even fairly ancient, custom. But it is vastly over-rated in the West. Between the modern commercialization of Christmas and the huge marketing campaigns that we are annually faced with this season can be anything but Christ-centered. For this reason I have not been big on Christmas gifts, at least those that I receive, for some years. Don’t get me wrong. I enjoy receiving gifts and some are an expression of thought and generosity for sure, especially from my family. This year my wife and I agreed in early December to not exchange gifts, for both personal and practical reasons.

Childhood was another matter altogether. Every Christmas Eve I anticipated the occasion with joyful glee. I still have some old photos of my brother and me opening our wonderful presents and smiling while our parents took pictures. These photos bring back some great memories of the four of […]