Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
One striking aspect of the recent “Federal Vision” conflict in the various conservative micro-Reformed groups is a debate over what older theologians really meant and said. Examining the credentials of various people who speak with great assurance on these matters one sees repeatedly degrees in church/theology history studies. In fact,…
The Worship of the English Puritans by Horton Davies really valuable book for gaining historical perspective on the American Presbyterian scene. (I will note for the record that I don’t believe there is an objective definition for “puritan” and I wish historians would stop using it and instead speak of…
This is the conclusion to Frame’s discussion about historical/covenantal election in his The Doctrine of God (pp. 329-30): Historical election and eternal election are distinct, but they cannot be entirely separated. Note the following: 1. Both historical and eternal election are aspects of God’s saving purpose. The election of Israel…
From John Frame’s The Doctrine of God : So although the election of Israel is by grace, there is an important place for continued faithfulness. Individuals can belong to the chosen people, yet lose their elect status by faithlessness and disobedience. Branches can be broken off “because of unbelief” (Rom.…
I’ve recently re-discovered an awesome theological resource, The Westminster Shorter Catechism Project . It is excellent, not least because it demonstrates the healthy diversity that has always been allowable in the Reformed Tradition until recently. For example, consider the sources attached to Question and Answer #94: Q: What is baptism?…
A friend recently asked if the frequent saying of the Pledge of Allegiance was a sign of American jingoism, or an attempt to inculcate “nationalism” of a bad sort. It seemed to him as a Canadian that that might be the case. That seemed to me to be probably backwards,…
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John 17 may provide some basis for developing the holiness of God along perichoretic lines. Jesus prays in vese 17-19 that the disciples would be sanctified. Jesus sanctifies Himself, so that the disciples too might be sanctified. The means by which the disciples are sanctified is through the “truth,” which…
Mark Heim has a fine piece on salvation as communion in the October 2004 issue of Theology Today . He begins by distinguishing various sorts of relations that human beings have with one another. It is possible for two persons to have an impersonal relationship (a man falls off a…
Roger D Lund has an intriguing article on wit in seventeenth century English literature in the January 2004 issue of the Journal of the History of Ideas . Lund quotes Hobbes, whose statement sets up the opposition that continued through the following century: “Those that observe . . . similitudes,…
Neuhaus provides an illuminating summary of Stephen Ozment’s history of Germany in the November issue of FT . This in particular: “‘The original motives for the war were completely self-centered, not Judeocentric or anti-Semitic. Germans wanted to avenge and repair, by total victory, the draconian reparations they had been compelled…
The November 2004 issue of First Things had a couple of pieces on Czeslaw Milocz, both emphasizing the religious, Christian ground of his poetry. I was particularly struck by this quotation from an article by Jeremy Driscoll: “To put it very simply and bluntly, I must as if I believe…
Robert Letham?s book, The Holy Trinity (P&R, 2004) is a superior introduction to Trinitarian theology, certainly the most complete, reliable, and best treatise on the subject to come from a Reformed theologian for I don?t know how long. It covers the biblical bases for the doctrine, provides a long and…
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