In the last year a flurry of churches have advertised "40 Days of Purpose" programs across the nation.  The 40 Days campaign is based upon Rick Warren’s best-selling book, The Purpose Driven Life.  Last year Warren’s book sold eleven million copies and remained on the New York Times best seller list for forty-four weeks.  What is the purpose driven life?

Warren argues that he has simply taken the Westminster Shorter Catechism’s first answer, "Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy him forever," and extended it into a devotional book.  There are positive aspects about Warren’s book, such as his emphasis upon the need to glorify God in all that we do.  He writes that the five purposes of the believer’s life are bringing glory to God by worshipping him, loving other believers, becoming like Christ, serving others, and telling others about him (pp. 55-57).  These five purposes constitute the overall aim of his book.  Generally speaking, these are noble goals.  Yet, there are considerable problems with Warren’s book that obscure the five goals.  There are four major areas that present problems: a self-centered focus, doctrinal errors, mishandling of Scripture, and self-promotion and marketing.

Contemporary Reformed theology has become gnostic in recent years, argues Douglas Wilson in his latest book entitled, Reformed Is Not Enough: Recovering the Objectivity of the Covenant (Moscow, Canon Press, 2002, 206 pp., $14.00, paper).  What does Wilson put forth in his book?  There are positive things about his book; he affirms various orthodox doctrines and interacts with historic Reformed teaching.  There are, however, negative things about this book.  Let us therefore first turn to Wilson’s case and then critique his arguments.