Showing results by author "Douglas Wilson" in All Categories

Wordsmithy is for writers of every sort, whether experienced veterans, still just hoping, or somewhere in between. Through a series of out-of-the-ordinary lessons, each with its own takeaway points and recommended readings, Douglas Wilson provides indispensable guidance, showing how to develop the writer's craft and the kind of life from which good writing comes.

In the Garden of Eden, there was only one "No." Everything else was "Yes." In this short book on childrearing, Douglas Wilson points out that we have a Father who delights in us and makes it easy for us to love and obey him. If that is the kind of Father we have, shouldn't we earthly parents do the same? Wilson explains how parents should not just try to get their kids to obey a set of rules or to make their house so fun that following the rules is always easy. Instead, he calls for parents to instill in their kids a love for God and His standards that will serve them well all their days.

Doug reviews Jerry A. Coyne's patronizing evolutionary screed, Why Evolution Is True, chapter by chapter. This short pamphlet contains a pile of Doug's hilariously apt metaphors as he deconstructs Coyne's presuppositions about creationism and science.

Many conservatives are ready to give up fighting against the legalization of marijuana. “Hasn’t the war on drugs been a failure?” they ask. Libertarians turn this surrender into a virtue: “People should be free to do what they want, as long as they’re not hurting anyone.” But as Christians, we must be ready to swim against the tide, even when it’s no longer cool. Liberty for potheads means tyranny for everyone, including the smokers enslaved by the drug.

In Rules for Reformers, Douglas Wilson poaches the political craft of radical progressives and applies it to Christian efforts in the current culture war. The result is a spicy blend of combat manual and cultural manifesto. Rules for Reformers is a little bit proclamation of grace, a little bit Art of War, and a little bit analysis of past embarrassments and current cowardice, all mixed together with a bunch of advanced knife-fighting techniques. As motivating as it is provocative, Rules for Reformers is just plain good to hear.

The Builder’s Room is where founders, entrepreneurs, authors, and leaders talk honestly about what it takes to build something real. Host Durrell K. Douglas sits down with people who are actually in the arena, creating companies, movements, and ideas that shape communities and industries. These conversations go beyond the highlight reel and explore the pressure, the pivots, the risks, and the hard decisions that rarely make it into public view.

Easy Chairs, Hard Words offers an honest look at difficult passages in Scripture. Presented as a series of fictional conversations between a curious young Christian and a seasoned pastor, these dialogues speak with clarity to those new to the Reformed faith. They begin with the question, "Can salvation be lost?" and from there wrestle with other hard-to-swallow doctrines, including the freedom of the will, election, and original sin.

Young Thomas Monroe was bred for the sea. At his first chance he sets off on a merchant’s ship, but Thomas gets more of an adventure than he’d expected when his ship is captured by the pirates whose treasure map he stole! He somehow must keep himself and his captain alive and beat the pirates to their treasure. Meanwhile, hundreds of years in the future, Jim Monroe—Thomas’ descendant—is also in desperate need of that treasure, or he and his mother will lose the family land. Embark on this thrilling tale of piracy and derring-do, Douglas Wilson’s first foray into children’s fiction.

When John Monroe saves a mother and daughter from the clutches of a rogue English soldier, he is thrust into a world of intrigue and espionage. It’s the height of the French and Indian War. In possession of a letter that exposes British troop movements, John must race to deceive the French before the rogue soldier can catch up to him and provide the actual intelligence the French need.

C S. Lewis stands as one of the most influential Christians of the twentieth century. His commitment to the life of the mind and the life of the heart is evident in classics like the Chronicles of Narnia and Mere Christianity―books that illustrate the unbreakable connection between rigorous thought and deep affection. This volume explores the man, his work, and his legacy―reveling in the truth at the heart of Lewis’s spiritual genius: God alone is the answer to our deepest longings and the source of our unending joy.

Thirty years ago, Recovering the Lost Tools of Learning was published so that Christian parents instead of fretfully wringing their hands at the deterioration of American culture would actually do something to resist it. Pastor and school-founder Douglas Wilson called on parents to reject public schools and to give their kids a completely different type of education, with the Lordship of Jesus Christ at the center.

The so-called New Atheists have a great deal of moral indignation at all the evil in the world, but, as apologist and theologian Douglas Wilson cheerfully points out, they have no moral basis for it whatsoever. If we are merely the result of billions of years of matter in motion, then why do we feel that concentration camps, genocide, apartheid, and the like are so obviously wicked and despicable, if in fact such events are just time and chance acting on matter?

Modern culture is increasingly hostile to Christians, and Christians are increasingly aware that they need to form strong communities to do for them what the culture no longer can. This is a good thing, but it will only work if we, like Nehemiah, remain committed to resisting the dictates of our culture. In this short book, Pastor Douglas Wilson describes some of the most important ways to create and maintain countercultural Christian communities. Whether it's the need for kids to get calluses or the necessity of love and loyalty within churches, Wilson brings decades of wisdom.

It's election season - America's most lucrative sport - and there are no rules. When climate scientist Dr. Helen Gardner accidentally reads an email from the International Task Force on Climate Change which proves that global warming is a lucrative scam, she's shocked and horrified. But that's nothing compared to how she feels the next day when her boss (the head of the Task Force) tries to have her killed. Helen goes into hiding with the help of her neighbor, a "fundy" Bible college professor named Cody, and an anti-eco-activist lumberjack-writer.

Published almost twenty years ago, Douglas Wilson’s Case for Classical Christian Education is a call for parents and educators to do more than just teach kids how to read or to do math and science. Instead, parents and teachers need to educate children’s minds, hearts, and imaginations. Both homeschooling parents and Christians seeking to build schools will find a lot of guidance from this book. Wilson explains the benefits of an education that is both distinctively classical and distinctively Christian, and explains what such an education might look like.

This does not mean a withdrawal from politics to our own communities and churches. Instead, we Christians must take what we have learned from the wreck of secularism and build a Christendom of the New Foundation: A network of nations bound together by a formal, public, civic acknowledgement of the lordship of Jesus Christ and the fundamental truth of the Apostles' Creed.

This noble collection of verse on subjects great and small provides a window into how a Christian writer views the world: There is beauty, there is sorrow, but underneath it all beats the music of the heavens—and it is in the music of the heavens that we all will find our end.

Tom Collins, mild-mannered president of a dwindling southern Bible college, becomes a target when a drunk prankster swaps his campus's American flag with the Christian one, and Dr. Tom refuses to "fix" the situation. Big media, exuberant students, petty enemies, and pretty secretaries all play a part in this happy-go-lucky satire for the 21st century.

The Gospel should teach us to say "my life for yours." Our desire should be to have this love transform everything we do, room by room. This book works its way through every part of the house, examining each part in light of Scripture. The claims of God are always total, and this should be evident on the doorposts and in a sink full of dishes. Self-centeredness destroys in monotonously similar ways. Giving up life for another produces a harvest of kindness and mercy. Household questions should always begin with, "Is this my life for yours?"

Police shootings and protests have filled the news in recent years, leaving us with no illusions that America is free of racial problems. Skin and Blood invites us to look honestly at both White sins and Black sins…and to look hopefully at the red blood of Jesus, which is their only cure.