Ask the Friar Book Giveaway....

We are starting a new feature here at Friar Tuck's Fleeting Thoughts. Each week, I am hoping to have you share your questions with me about Christian theology and spirituality. Each week I will be giving away one book to someone who has asked the question that we are going to deal with.

This week Eric Lundy asked several questions about Calvinism. Eric said:

In my blog reading today I came across this article from the Christian Science
Monitor about a resurgence of Calvinism within the Christian community. http://www.csmonitor.com/USA/Society/2010/0327/Christian-faith-Calvinism-is-back It was a fascinating article and this description of Calvin piqued my brain."When people today hear the name John Calvin, they think mainly of predestination – the controversial idea that God has foreordained everything that will happen, including who will and won't be saved, no matter what they do in life."My limited historical knowledge of Calvin, and my lack of knowledge about Calvinism in specifics, leads me to believe that the above statement is a fair representation of Calvin/Calvinism. So, I wonder if you would agree. Also, one of the churches featured in the article was a Baptist Church, which made me wonder if most Baptist Churches would fall into the Calvinism theological category or if just these particular ones talked about in the story do.

I ask because that paragraph immediately made me think about the television
show "FlashForward". The wife and I recently watched the first half of the show on Netflix and the most recent episodes on Hulu. Probably the most intersting (to me) thread within the show is that no matter what the characters try to do to prevent the (usually bad) events of their futures that they saw in their Flash Forward, they are helpless to stop the hands of fate.

This will be addressed in several articles in the next week. These include:

The Modern Neo-Calvinists and Openness Theology: The Contemporary Landscape
Calvin and Calvinism: How are they the same? How are they different?
Predestination v. Fate: How are they the same? How are they different?
Everyday implications of Calvinism for pastoral and personal spirituality
Calvin and Me: Where I stand

Eric--Your choices on books are:

66 Love Letters
Doctor Jesus
His Battle
What Your Son Isn't Telling You

So what are your views on Calvinism as a theology. What questions do you have that you would like me to discuss?