History of Ideas

Who Was The Real Santa Claus?

by Andrew Menkis on December 21, 2023 | Comment

Who was the real Santa Claus? We can’t say for sure. Separating fact from fiction is an impossible task in this case. Indeed, it’s likely that the stories we have about Nicholas of Myra contain much more fiction than fact. So, what . . . Continue reading →

Bartholomaeus Ziegenbalg: The Pioneer-Protestant Missionary

by William Thomas on October 17, 2023 | 2 Comments

In the wake of the Counter-Reformation and the increasing spread of the Jesuit missions movement, the King of Denmark, Fredrick IV (1671–1730), responded by launching the first Protestant mission. Franz Julius Lutkens, the chaplain to the king, founded the Danish Royal Mission . . . Continue reading →

From Science To Sophistry

by Heidelblog on June 30, 2023

One way to observe the death of scientific rationality is to watch the triumph of sophistry over empirical science. We see this everywhere these days and a recent article in Scientific American is a particularly egregious example of outright sophistry. This article asserts that “human sex . . . Continue reading →

Lordship Salvation, The Federal Vision, And The Covenant Theology That The Reformation Rejected

Or Why History Is Useful

by R. Scott Clark on January 9, 2023 | 14 Comments

More than twenty years ago, in the summer of 2001, Mike Horton and I were sitting beside a hotel swimming pool one evening during Synod Escondido, along with several ministers from our federation (denomination) of churches (the United Reformed Churches in North . . . Continue reading →

Irenaeus Did Not Teach A Romanist Doctrine Of Eucharistic Sacrifice

by R. Scott Clark on November 28, 2022

When the minister consecrates (i.e., sets apart for sacred use) the elements of the Lord’s Supper (i.e., bread and wine), what happens? Does the substance of the elements change? Does the bread become something other than it was? Does it become the . . . Continue reading →

Aquinas On The Source Of Truth

by Heidelblog on August 30, 2022 | 4 Comments

Aquinas did not view truths of reason and truths of revelation as incompatible or in need of synthesis. Underlying the theological project of Aquinas’ two Summas is the assumption that what is true is true whatever its immediate source, given that all . . . Continue reading →

Richard Muller—Jonathan Edwards And The Absence Of Free Choice: A Parting Of Ways In The Reformed Tradition

Lost Audio Recovered

by R. Scott Clark on August 9, 2022 | 5 Comments

Richard Muller’s lost lecture on Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of free choice. Continue reading →

Created for Union: John Williamson Nevin And The Supper

by Christopher Smith on February 14, 2022 | 1 Comment

On June 9, 1886, a funeral was held in a church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The deceased, John Williamson Nevin (1803–86), was a pastor, professor, and theologian in the German Reformed Church. Friends and family were in attendance as well as several theologians and professors of differing fame and reputation. None of this was unusual for a theologian’s funeral in nineteenth-century America. There was, however, at least one irregularity: A. A. Hodge (1823–16) gave one of the eulogies.1 Hodge’s late father, Charles Hodge (1797–1878), and Nevin were involved in one of the most prominent sacramental controversies in nineteenth-century America, yet the younger Hodge eulogized the very man who contested with his father decades before. Even now, the controversy and the theologies that gave rise to it live on long after the death of the major figures. Continue reading →

William Perkins On Justification (2)

by Inwoo Lee on December 15, 2021

In connection with Trent and Bellarmine’s stance on purgatory and the sacrifice of the Mass was Rome’s doctrine of a second justification. Bellarmine’s Scriptural basis for a second justification was Romans 3—which he saw as the first justification, and James 2—which he saw as the second justification. For Perkins, James 2 was for the justified because of Christ, “outward testimonies of the truth of our faith and profession, proving that the grace of our hearts is not in hypocrisy, but in truth and sincerity.” In other words, James 2 spoke not of justification in the same sense as Paul in Romans, but in a completely different sense, scope, and design, James 2:21 is in the demonstrative for Abraham’s “works did testify that his faith was true and sincere. Continue reading →

William Perkins On Justification

by Inwoo Lee on December 13, 2021

Perkins objected to Rome’s sacrifice of the Mass. For Perkins, this doctrine was attached to erroneous views of Christology, Christ’s propitiatory suffering unto death, and in turn the doctrine of justification. One of Perkins’s clearest Christological statements is found in his treatise, A Warning Against the Idolatry of the Last Times (1601), where he wrote, “For He in one person is perfect God and perfect man, our only Redeemer all-sufficient in Himself, and therefore perfect king, priest, prophet; without either partner or fellow in the work of man’s salvation.” Continue reading →

Does The Analogy Hold Or How Does Science Work?

by R. Scott Clark on August 4, 2021 | 9 Comments

I am in the throes of trying to finish the third draft of the commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude), so I have not been listening to a lot of my podcasts. Mostly these days I hear myself say, . . . Continue reading →

New Resource Page: On Amyraut, Amyraldianism, and Hypothetical Universalism

by R. Scott Clark on December 9, 2020

One of the more important debates that rocked the French Reformed Church in the 17th century was that concerning the doctrine of Moises Amyraut (1596–1664). He was part of a broader movement to revise Reformed theology among the French in a variety . . . Continue reading →

The Post-Sacred Order Is A Post-Historical Order

by R. Scott Clark on December 1, 2020 | 2 Comments

Forgetfulness is now the curricular form of our higher education. This form guarantees that we, of the transition from second [sacred] to third [post-sacred] worlds, will become the first barbarians. Barbarism is not an expression of simple technologies or of mysterious taboos; . . . Continue reading →