Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
This is the second of a three-part study of Genesis 1. 1:3-5 – Light In God’s final actions of the first day, that He addresses the problem of darkness. In evaluating God’s giving of light, we should evaluate the order of events of His creative activity on the first day.…
“In the beginning God created…” With these words, God begins His self-revelation. We first catch God in the act of creation, and in so doing are ourselves caught up into the dramatic exposition of the Divine Life. To witness the Theo-Drama of the Creator is not an entry into the…
In order for Exodus 23:19b (“you shall not boil a kid in his mother’s milk”) to be interpreted properly it must be situated in its biblical context, which necessitates a proper understanding of Exodus 24:1-11. It is the primary contention of this paper that it is only through the lens…
Trinity House President Peter Leithart will deliver a paper on "Constantine the Pious" this week at an international symposium sponsored by the Universitatea Babes-Bolyai in Cluj-Napoca , Romania.
Through the prophet Isaiah, Yahweh threatens to send Assyria to Judah and Israel. He will swing Assyria as an ax to lop down the proud trees of Judah (10:33-34). He is going to lop off the branches of the trees, and cut down the tall trees. Trees are people, and…
Peter Leithart, President of Trinity House, will deliver a lecture a a conference on "Constantine: Religious Faith and Imperial Policy," which will be held October 4-5 at Richard Stockton College of New Jersey. The conference is co-sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Center of Hellenic Studies at Richard Stockton and the Orthodox…
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The Reformed Orthodox were entirely correct to discern a fundamental threat and challenge in the spread of Cartesianism, especially as regards the relation of philosophy and theology. But it’s hard to read about their responses without sadness. “Whatever reason brings out of its stinking heaps must be subordinate to the…
On the one hand: Method is a discipleship - a “following after.” And the Cartesian methodus is in conflict with the “following after” demanded of a Christian disciple. Here, Descartes offers a different way, a different truth and life. The Christian “method” of knowledge and wisdom is discipleship, not doubt…
Bizer again, on Melchior Leydekker’s summary of the Cartesian critique of Reformed orthodoxy: “The Cartesians reproach the orthodox to the effect that their theology is not scriptural, that they have re-introduced Catholic scholasticism into the Church; that they hinder every advance in knowledge and their work does not have scientific…
At several points, Bizer notes that the Reformed orthodox critics of Cartesian philosophy and its application to theology formulated their arguments to buttress their opposition to Lutheran ideas of the real presence. Peter van Mastricht “resists the proposition that God could do something contradictory; one of the reasons for this…
Reformed Orthodoxy failed to stop the spread of Cartesian philosophy, despite vigorous efforts. Why? Bizer suggests that the orthodox critique often adopted much of what it criticized. In Martin Schoock’s notorious response to Descartes, “there is no word . . . about the fact that the Cartesian proof of God…
Johannes Cocceius, a father of biblical theology, would seem to have little in common with Cartesian rationalism. But most of the Cocceians in the latter part of the 17th century were Cartesians. Ernest Bizer (in an article entitled “Reformed Orthodoxy and Cartesianism”) suggests that there was an affinity between the…
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