Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
“And it shall be in those days when you are multiplied and increased in the land,” declares the Lord, “they shall say no more, ‘The Ark of the Covenant of the Lord.’ And it shall not come to mind, nor shall they remember it, nor shall they miss it, nor…
Elsewhere, I have argued that there is grace in the so-called covenant of works (see, e.g., my colloquium essay, “A Response to ‘The Biblical Plan of Salvation,’” in The Auburn Avenue Theology: Pros and Cons , edited by Calvin Beisner (pages 118-148). It may be equally surprising to find justice…
Years ago, as a layman, I had the privilege of attending a Bible study led by a gifted teacher. His story was interesting: back when he was a student he had been severely sanctioned for affirming that one must repent in order to be saved, that one must trust Jesus…
Believing that God really exists Defining “faith” is sometimes made too complicated. The theologian, Louis Berkhof, for example, distinguishes “faith in general” from “faith in the religious sense and particularly saving faith.” Berkhof’s core definition of saving faith is not so bad. He says that it is “a certain conviction,…
It is generally acknowledged that when Paul wrote letters to churches, he expected his letters to be read in the worship service to the congregation. It is interesting, then, that when Paul wrote letters to a congregation he could feel free to address children and tell them to obey their…
Book 4 of Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion is a classic work of ecclesiology. This book is the longest section of the Institutes , showing Calvin’s deep interest in and love for the church. Among its many salutary features is a full scale exposition of those ecclesiastical leaders Calvin…
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V irginia Ramey Mollenkott is mistaken in her general conclusion to The Divine Feminine , recently reprinted by Wipf & Stock. She writes, “it is perfectly natural for the Bible to contain a vast predominance of masculine God-language, springing as it does out of a deeply patriarchal culture. . .…
John ascends to heaven at the bidding of a trumpet-voice (4:1); an angel ascends from the east with the seal of God in his hand (7:2); since and the prayers of the saints ascend to heaven from the censor (8:4); the two witnesses ascend to heaven (11:12, 2x). There are…
P eter Kreeft’s Practical Theology isn’t quite an introduction to Thomas’s Summa . It’s too repetitive, too selective, to be that. It functions better as an introduction to Thomas— a mystical, jolly Thomas not unlike Chesterton’s. Most of all, it’s just what Kreeft says it is, a tour through the…
One of the most profound passages from the Summa quoted in Peter Kreeft’s Practical Theology is this (p. 97), from ST I-II, 289, 5: “Four proximate effects may be ascribed to love, viz. melting, enjoyment, languor, and fervor. Of these, the first is melting , which is opposed to freezing.…
In one of the essays in Word and Church , John Webster acknowledges that there is a danger of “spiritualizing” the church when the “asymmetry of divine and human action” is emphasized. He thinks the claim that Protestantism is pure subjectivism is a “caricature,” but the charge “identifies a potentially…
Gregg Allison is well-positioned to offer an “evangelical assessment” of Roman Catholic Theology & Practice . Now a professor of theology at South Baptist Theological Seminary, he spent a number of years as a Campus Crusade minister at Notre Dame, has interacted with clergy and lay Catholics over many years…
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