Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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The following is an abstract for a conference paper that I will be presenting in January 2005. Church history has often been regarded by the professional historians as a quaint hagiographic outpost for the pious. Globalization, along with developments within the historical profession, suggest that the time is propitious for…
Here are some quotations from Clifford Ronan’s fascinating study of Roman plays in early modern England, Antike Rome (University of Georgia, 1995). “We moderns often overlook the playfulness and garishness of Antiquity, thinking instead of weather-beaten bleached marble Doric columns, gleaming in the noonday Mediterranean sun. But to the Renaissance,…
When, in the European consciousness, did the Roman Empire end? 404 or 476 make sense, but I wonder if the Reformation was the true end of imperial Rome. Protestants frequently saw continuities of some sort between the Roman imperial authority and papal authority, and what they saw opening before their…
J. H. Bavinck’s An Introduction to the Science of Missions (first published in English in 1960) is superb. Bavinck is flexible and balanced, yet principled, in dealing with the myriad complications of missionary work. He is aware of developments in cultural anthropology and other fields that give assistance to missionaries.…
Perhaps we could call it a sanctified form of paranoia. In his Introduction to the Science of Missions , J. H. Bavinck calls attention to Israel’s striking awareness of being watched by the nations around them. If Israel perishes at Sinai, flamed by Yahweh’s wrath, the nations will blaspheme (Ex…
Perhaps we could call it a sanctified form of paranoia. In his Introduction to the Science of Missions , J. H. Bavinck calls attention to Israel’s striking awareness of being watched by the nations around them. If Israel perishes at Sinai, flamed by Yahweh’s wrath, the nations will blaspheme (Ex…
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