Vern S. Poythress

Vern Poythress has done much to encourage Christians to embrace the truth that God is God of all of creation and Christians are called to pursue excellence, not just in the “sacred” things like Bible study, learning worship choruses, and coming up with clever sayings for church signs and youth camp bracelets, but also the “secular” things like art, science, math, and literature. His newest volume sets out to look at the topic of chance, statistics, probability and mathematics in the show more light of God’s sovereign reign over all of everything. I decided that this would be a good introduction for me to Poythress on a book-length level. That turned out to be true…and maybe not so true.

One of the first things I found was that Poythress is a very approachable and engaging writer. He has the gifting to be able to take a subject that might not be that interesting and get you interested in it….that actually turned out to be a good thing. It would appear that I am less interested in probability than I thought I was. Beyond that, some of the technical aspects of this work were over my head (apparently my community college “C” in Statistics a couple of years ago has not prepared me to be much of a statistician). But, Poythress did an excellent job maintaining my attention and explaining it where I understand 3/4(or 75%, or .75 or 3 out of 4) of what he was writing about.

Poythress unpacks the difference between chance and Chance and the reign of God over all of his creation. While his language of sovereignty at times felt like fatalism (and I would be very interested to read more of his teaching on human choice/accountability and sovereignty) this is a very encouraging book for the Christian who either has an interest in mathematics and statistics or someone who is taking a course on probability/statistics and would like some encouragement in dealing with the all-too-present naturalism that pervades much of academia. His moral claim about gambling seemed to be an overstatement (both in emphasis and conclusion) and did not differentiate clearly enough between games of pure chance (i.e. roulette) and games of skill that involve aspects of chance (i.e. poker).

So, would I read this again? …No. But, that has everything to do with the subject, not the author. Mathematics in general just does not interest me much at all. However, this work has increased my desire to dive into Logic and Redeeming Science by Vern Poythress, two works I have wanted to read but felt hesitant due to not being familiar with Poythress and being concerned that they/he might be overwhelming to read. The chapters were short, his teaching was clear and simple, and his style was entertaining. I look forward to investing time in some more of his works!

I received a review a complimentary copy through Crossway’s Beyond the Page review program. show less

Vern Poythress attempted to write a textbook on western logic from a Christian perspective. Although he discussed other logics, his main focus was on justifying first order logic with identity (FOL=) as a neo-platonic reflection of “God’s logic” and, because of that, personal and loving.

This reflection bridges the Creator-creature distinction. However, when he sets up this reflection between FOL= and “God’s logic” he assumes that FOL= is not just another example of man’s desire show more for autonomy from God. This is where he makes a mistake.

To see why this characterization of FOL= is problematic, consider that Poythress would not want to describe the Tower of Babel as a reflection of “God’s tower”. Because the Tower of Babel is an example of man’s desire for autonomy from God, it should not reflect anything from God.

Poythress knows that almost no one, Christian and non-Christian alike, thinks FOL= is personal in any way. To counter this anticipated objection, he accuses those who might reject his argument as being “massively guilty” of “idolatry”. For example, consider this comment about guilt and idolatry on page 84:

"Christians too have become massively guilty by being captive to the idolatry in which logic is regarded as impersonal. Within this captivity we take for granted the benefits and beauties of rationality for which we should be filled with gratitude and praise to God."

By committing to FOL= Poythress blinds himself to seeing it as another attempt by man to gain autonomy from God. Given that commitment, perhaps better described as compromise, he now has to defend FOL= even when it attacks the Trinity. show less

It's hard to have a constructive discussion between two opposing viewpoints. This is why Democrats and Republicans fight, Alabama fans and Auburn fans bicker, and Calvinists and Arminians blog against each other with the invective of an ISIS terrorist.

Vern Poythress sees the great divide between theologians who discuss eschatology. Writing from a covenantal perspective, in Understanding Dispensationalists he tries to lay the groundwork for constructive conversations between show more dispensationalists and various other camps. He writes, "I believe dialogue is possible in principle even between 'hardline' representatives of dispensational theology and equally 'hardline' representatives of its principal rival, covenant theology" (7). The tone of this book is pastoral, but it is not limp-wristed. "In the dispute between dispensationalism and covenant theology, both sides cannot be right" (7).

I find the most helpful section of this book to be Poythress' discussion of hermeneutical principles. He argues against the term "literal" interpretation because of its lack of finesse and accuracy in interpreting various genres, especially apocalyptic writings which are essential to any eschatological discussion. He writes, "In a sense nearly all the problems associated with the dispensationalist-nondispensationalist conflict are buried beneath the question of literal interpretation" (78). He notes that most people mean "first-thought interpretation" when they use the term literal interpretation. Instead, he argues for the use of "grammatical-historical interpretation." This methodology moves beyond a "flat interpretation" and attempts to read passages "as organic wholes and tries to understand what each passage expresses against the background of the original human author and the original situation" (84).

This book did much to help my understanding of both covenantal and dispensational frameworks. Poythress navigates the issues while maintaining the clarity of his convictions and a generous spirit. Books like this help foster dialogue where it is sorely lacking. show less

This is probably one of the best reasoned defenses of continuationism that I've read. Additionally, it's just a booklet and very easy to read.