Top Ten List Authors I won’t read.
I’m totally stealing this from Nick, but I don’t care. I’m short on time and liked the idea. Besides. He likes it when people link to him. There’s a little overlap on our lists.
The top ten people I don’t care to read:
- Leland Ryken
- Rob Bell
- John Piper
- Noam Chomsky (I enjoy reading people who criticism him more than I would reading him anyway)
- Stanley Grenz
- Wayne Grudem
- Norman L. Geisler
- Charles Ryrie
- Josh McDowell
- Virginia Woolf
Well, well, well..
I’ve read Piper, Grudem, Leland, Geisler, Mcdowell, and Ryrie.
Leland’s Reading the Bible as Literature is good. I used Grudem’s Systematic Theology in seminary.
TC
April 25, 2008 at 8:46 pm
I suppose I should say that I have previously read Piper, Grudem, and Leland.
I agree with Piper on a number of things theologically (though not when it comes to women). Grudem wore out his welcome, as did Leland.
Mike
April 25, 2008 at 8:59 pm
Mike, does Grudem and Leland’s involvement with the ESV have anything to do with it?
TC
April 25, 2008 at 9:02 pm
Good list. I agree with most of it (Grenz excepted), but I only listed people whose books I’ve never read. Unfortunately, I’ve read quite a bit of Geisler, and if I’ve read one McDowell book it’s too much! Good call with Chomsky though, he never even crossed my mind, but I wouldn’t read him either.
Nick Norelli
April 25, 2008 at 9:17 pm
TC: No – well not directly. Its more because I was irritated by the way Grudem dismissed Richard Cervin’s response to his study of κεφαλη back in the 80s. I also don’t care for reading systematics.
Nick: The reason I put Grenz there, though I’d probably enjoy him, is that I really don’t put a very high priority on reading theology in general – i.e. that’s why Grudem. I’ll read philosophy of language stuff – which is why I do read Vanhoozer. And I’ll also read philosophical theology too, like Carl Henry.
Mike
April 25, 2008 at 9:28 pm
Ahh… I understand.
Nick Norelli
April 25, 2008 at 9:30 pm
I got you.
TC
April 25, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Aww, I have enjoyed Ryken and Bell both this past year. So much hate
Nathan Stitt
April 25, 2008 at 11:51 pm
Good list although I would read Grenz again. I do find him difficult in some books (but it could be my uninterest in the topic) but what I’ve read from his systematic theology I liked.
I also want to read Chomsky. I recently read about him in a philosophy book in the chapter on epistemology and my curiosity in him was peaked because of his contribution to that subject. I probably would stick with his language stuff though and skip the politics and whatever else he’s written.
I’ve read a section of Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis and I actually liked what he had to say on the topic and thought it was somewhat original instead of being rehashed and dumbed down theology (although it was practical not philosophical).
I would read some of the others like Piper or Grudem but only to tear their work down
: )
Bryan
Bryan L
April 26, 2008 at 5:33 am
Is it Chomsky’s linguistics or his politics you wouldn’t read? I thought you were a fan of his linguistics, at least one variety of it.
Peter Kirk
April 26, 2008 at 6:30 am
I used Grudem’s Systematic Theology in seminary.
TC,
What was your reaction to Grudem’s statement on ezer that when God helps man, he is subordinate to man?
Mike,
What is it about Grenz that you don’t like.
Suzanne
April 26, 2008 at 8:58 am
Suzanne, I have no problem with Grenz, I just don’t put any theology books high on my priority list.
Mike
April 26, 2008 at 10:09 am
Peter: Yes and no. I like much of what he’s said on somethings, but I don’t care for transformational grammar in any of its forms: Government & Binding, Principles & Parameters…I’m sure its been renamed a few other times.
I don’t think the idea of syntactic transformations or derivations is necessary or perhaps even helpful. The theory I’ve been studying, Lexical-Functional Grammar, is an off shoot created by a former MIT prof (now at Stanford). Its generative in that it seeks to discover phrase structure rules that will generate only the grammatical clauses and no ungrammatical ones, but its not transformational.
For example: Chomsky considers passive clauses in English to be a result a syntactic derivational rule – which explains what we see when we look at basic clauses. It fails when we examine English passive participles. Things get more complicated and the extra rules transformational grammar requires for this seem quite unnecessary. I can’t explain it well in a comment. But the bigger issue is that Chomsky seems to focus too much on English to the exclusion of languages that disagree with his descriptions.
But this is a helpful pdf of power point slides: HERE
On politics, I don’t know enough about his politics to say anything on that.
Mike
April 26, 2008 at 10:20 am
Perhaps it’s my stage of life, but right now I have a list of authors I would LOVE to swear off:
1) Dr Seuss
2) Earle Cairns (The very hungry caterpillar)
3) Michael Bond (Paddington)
4) Any writer involved in the final 3 series’ of Macgyver… what depths they sunk to!!!
Matthew R. Malcolm
April 26, 2008 at 2:11 pm
Matthew: I’m not there yet – though it’ll come eventually.
Mike
April 26, 2008 at 5:19 pm