Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Book Review The Call of Grace: How the Covenant Illuminates Salvation & Evangelism by Norman Shepherd The Call of Grace is an excellent manual to put in the hands of laymen to teach them how to rest in God’s grace while taking seriously the prize of the upward call of…
My Role as a Parent in My Children’s Salvation Evangeline Jael Horne is our third child. My two boys were born while we were at seminary and we had the privilege of giving them to Jeff Meyers, our pastor at that time, for baptism. When Evangeline was born, however, I…
John Calvin writes in the Institutes about the possibility of admitting children to the Lord’s Supper by virtue of their baptism once and only once: At length they object, that there is not greater reason for admitting infants to baptism than to the Lord’s Supper, to which, however, they are…
The debate over paedocommunion does not seem to have made much headway on either side in recent years. Certainly both sides have made a solid effort to argue for their position. But no resolution seems to be forthcoming in the near future. As a convinced paedocommunionist, I find the church’s…
Lots of conservative Protestants want to answer “no” to this question. The problem with this position is that conservative Protestants are bound to believe what the Bible teaches. And the Bible says inconvenient things, like “baptism now saves you” (1 Peter 3.21), or “all of you who were baptized into…
This paper is something of a follow-up to my earlier study, “ Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition: Past, Present, and Future .” One of the more controversial aspects of that paper was my claim that Calvin held to a very high view of baptismal efficacy. Indeed, he was a…
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John Gray begins his Enlightenment’s Wake with a breathtaking dismissal of neo-liberal political philosophy (the chapter is “Against the new liberalism”). I found it thrilling, and not just because I have a weakness for titles that begin with “Against.” A few highlights: “It is arguable that the traditional of liberal…
In the introduction to his 2005 book, Cities of God , Augustine Thompson complains that medievalists have paid too little attention to the religious lives of orthodox laymen: “Heretics, popes, theologians, Franciscans, and saints. Where is everyone else?” His book studies the communes of medieval Italian cities partly to redress…
Reacting to my earlier post on the week of John 1-2, John Barach offers a (needed) lesson in counting: It seems to me that the wedding at Cana has to be taken as the eighth day for two reasons. First, the parallels with the seven days of creation make it…
A friend and former student, Aaron Cummings. offers more thoughts on the lot-scapegoat connection: 1) Saul cast lots for Jonathan when we he sinned. Saul sinfully saw Jonathan as a new Achan, a man whose sin affected the congregation. Saul like Joshua uses lots to root out the sin. 2)…
Cities dominated by commerce are offensive to many today, but historically a city of commerce is a city of peace, a city that has escaped the domination of military elites and interest. Weber wrote: “While in Antiquity the hoplite army and its training and military interests moved to the center…
Power and gift seem to be opposed to each other, but Milbank argues that true rule is always donative, always a gift of ruling. This is partly a matter of power-sharing, and obvious once the point is made: A ruler who does not share rule is, by definition, a tyrant;…
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