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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God rests from his labor because He has completed it ( kalah , used in Genesis 2:1-2). He rests because there’s no more to do. Yahweh’s rest is satisfaction in work done, work that He pronounces “very good.” The rest God enters isn’t simply cessation, but satisfaction, happiness, completion. Reformed…
Andrew Kuiper offers a superb, exhilarating summary of Sergei Bulgakov’s Philosophy of Economy . Kuiper begins by summarizing Bulgakov’s case against “economism,” the assumption shared by free marketeers and Marxists that human beings are motivated above all by economic drives. For both, man is homo economicus . Bulgakov had read…
The description of the rite of the ascension offering for herd-animals (Leviticus 1:3-9) includes twelve verbs that describe distinct actions. Verse 3 uses the verb qarav (come near; bring near in hiphil) twice, but these two uses describe the same action, namely, bringing an animal near to the tent for…
Terry Eagleton's sharp critique of Rene Girard ( Radical Sacrifice , 54-58) is worth a look, especially for those (like me) who appreciate Girard. For starters, Eagleton points to the discrepancy between Girard and "the clear endorsement of sacrifice to be found in Hebrews." In fact, Girard "issues a stern…
My recommendation to theologians: Be un-professional. That, I suspect, requires some clarification. I don’t mean, “Be sloppy” or “Be rude” or “Be vulgar.” I mean that theologians must resist the deadening pressures of professionalization. Jeff Schmidt’s Disciplined Minds examines these pressures, and the conformists that these pressures produce. Professionalization rewards…
In his recent collection of Essays, Slouching Toward Utopia , George Schialabba summarizes the work of Ivan Illich, including Illich's 1971 book, Deschooling Society . With that book, Illich entered a debate about the state of American schools, most of which centered on the disparity of resources between rich and…
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