Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Camping’s Attempted Substantiation Camping attempts to justify his hypothesis with several lines of argument, all of which are erroneous. 1. Gaps in Genealogies He first mentions the fact that in some of the "begatitudes" of the Bible, generations are left out for some reason or other. Matthew 1:8 and 11,…
I am often asked why I am not an Episcopalian, since I like liturgy so much. My answer is that if I had a call to serve in Episcopal circles, I would certainly entertain it. When I have looked into such groups as the Reformed Episcopal Church, however, I have…
For Part 1, click HERE . Now, what does this mean? Are we to believe that Adam was supposed to earn "merits" before God apart from faith ? Surely nobody wants to maintain this. The traditional explainers of the covenant of works always try to nuance their theology so as…
This issue of Biblical Chronology begins a second series of studies. The first series, Vols. I:1–V:4, concerned the chronology of the Bible itself. We saw, first, that the Bible is indeed concerned with chronology, contains much chronological information, and that the chronology in the Bible is complete from creation to…
David A. Weir, The Origins of the Federal Theology in Sixteenth-Century Reformation Thought (New York: Oxford University Press, 1990). A thorough reevaluation of the federal theology is desperately needed today. John Murray, in his introduction to The Covenant of Grace (1953) appropriately reminds us that it is of the essence…
An "essay" is a foray into a topic. It is not the last word. I hope that this essay or foray is a helpful word. This essay is designed as brief and suggestive. The doctrine of the covenant of works finds expression in the Westminster Standards, where it is also…
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The epigram to chapter 11 of Charles Freeman’s Closing of the Western Mind is from a letter of Constantine to the churches in Alexandria: “We have received from Divine Providence the supreme favor of being relieved of all error.” The footnote leads to Ramsay Macmullen’s Christianity and Paganism in the…
Yesterday, Hillary Clinton disappointed human rights activists by degrading the role of human rights issues in her discussions with Chinese. Differences on human rights will not, she said, interfere with the common interests of the US and China. Today, she commends the Chinese for bailing out the US by continuing…
Momigliano again, pointing out that the church had ways of dealing with the barbarian threat that were not available to pagans: “The educated pagan was by definition afraid of barbarians. There was no bridge between the aristocratic ideals of a pagan and the primitive violence of the German invader.” At…
Not not did the church draw the best men, men who otherwise would have been, Momigliano says, “generals, governors or provinces, advisers to the emperors,” but it drew popular enthusiasm and loyalty, and money: “Money which would have gone to the building of a theatre or of an aqueduct now…
Arnaldo Momigliano suggests that one of the key ways that Christianity contributed to the decline of Rome was by siphoning off the best and brightest to the church. The “central feature of the fourth century” was “the emergence of the Church as an organization competing with the State itself and…
Constantine’s legislation in the Theodosian Code includes several odd decrees that prohibit soothsayers and other magicians from “crossing the threshold” of a house under the pretext of friendship. Private soothsaying is prohibited. At the same time, Constantine says that soothsayers will be consulted if lightning strikes the palace, and also…
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