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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In a recent book on Roman images, Tonio Holscher notes that Roman artists borrowed from every phase of Greek art because all phases of Greek art were available simultaneously. According to the TLS reviewer of his book (May 12), “In Greece, these styles had evolved over time, from the stiff…
Given the importance of figures like Durkheim, Mauss, and Levi-Strauss in anthropology, it’s surprising to learn that “the French kept anthropology long under the umbrella of sociology, with the first degree in anthropology being awarded in 1968 and the first professional association of anthropologists founded in 1979.” By contrast, “The…
William St Clair (TLS May 12) makes the commonsensical point that a history of ideas requires an accompanying social history of reading, which is a history of the publishing trade: “When we read a book or essay called, say, ‘The Age of Wordsworth,’ should we not be concerned that, in…
In his novel The Seizure of Power , Czeslaw Milocz describes one Polish character’s preparation for life under the Soviets by telling the story of his school experience. At first, Peter wrote and thought for himself; he got bad grades and was the source of endless trouble. One day, he…
Who said this? “What I have said of America applies to almost all the men of our time. Variety is disappearing from the breast of humankind; the same ways of acting, of thinking and of feeling, the same pop songs and fashions, are encountered in all corners of the globe.…
2 Kings 24:4: also for the innocent blood which Manasseh shed, for he filled Jerusalem with innocent blood; and Yahweh would not forgive. Manasseh’s reign, as we saw some weeks ago, was the turning point for Judah. After Manasseh’s idolatries and violence, Yahweh determined to destroy Judah, and no amount…
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