Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A Brief Comparison of Calvin’s Institutes with the Westminster Confession and Catechisms regarding the shape of imputation This essay is a brief argument that the soteriology of John Calvin in his Institutes of the Christian Religion regarding union with Christ and the imputation of his righteousness is the same as…
The thoughts in this paper were largely prompted by a study of Walter E. Krebs, “The Word and the Sacraments,” Mercersburg Review (July, 1867), 366-383. The discussion in this paper presupposes my earlier studies of baptism, “Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future” and “Calvin on Baptism,…
Sometimes our systematic theology creates an illusion of precision. For example, we distinguish the ground and instrument of justification. Justification is grounded in Christ’s work alone, and is instrumentally received by faith alone. That makes good sense and guards us from thinking that faith itself is somehow meritorious. All the…
Whenever we participate in the Sacrament of the Eucharist, we remember Christ and His Work for us. We remember. And in remembering, we imitate God, as His creatures made after His image. God remembers. This is mysterious to us because we usually think of remembering in the context of our…
It is standard in paedobaptist circles to argue for the baptism of infants out of the Old Covenant system. Because there is no explicit command in the New Testament, we are left to the broader principles and patterns of Scripture. In the Old Covenant, we continually find that the children…
Luther popularized the law/gospel hermeneutic. Luther argued that any demands God made upon us fell into the category of “law” and could only condemn. By contrast, anything God gave us was “gospel” and came with no strings attached. Calvin paid lip service to this law/gospel antithesis, even though it was…
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1 John 1:6-7: If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He Himself is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus…
Pope Benedict’s remarks on Islam have sparked violent protests, and many have noted the irony: Muslims violently protests the Pope’s claim that they practice a violent religion. But the Pope’s main point in the address was about the detachment of God’s word from human reason; he traced efforts to deHellenize…
I’m wearing a green stole around my neck, and there’s a green tablecloth on the table. Why is that? For starters, these are part of the glorification of worship. Every place of worship in Scripture – the tabernacle, the temple, the heavenly court in Revelation – is adorned, and that’s…
Featherstone: “One important site where the various flows of people, goods, technology, information and images cross and intermingle is the world city. World cities are the sites in which we find the juxtaposition of the rich and the poor, the new middle-class professionals and the homeless, and a variety of…
In certain respects, Continental philosophy has a strong “Protestant” thrust: As Critchley describes it, the philosophical vocation is to produce crisis in a world where the crisis is that there is no recognition of crisis. Through critique of everyday praxis, the philosopher aims to create crisis that will lead to…
In certain respects, Continental philosophy has a strong “Protestant” thrust: As Critchley describes it, the philosophical vocation is to produce crisis in a world where the crisis is that there is no recognition of crisis. Through critique of everyday praxis, the philosopher aims to create crisis that will lead to…
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