If I wanted to learn more about how the cultural values of 1950s and ’60s America have shaped contemporary literary fiction, I might ask Google or ChatGPT for an overview. The search results might present accurate and balanced information on America’s democratic tradition and the other community values prevalent during those decades, as well as how we see those themes in today’s fiction.

Yet I’d be more helped if I read a primary source, such as Marilynne Robinson’s compilation of essays When I Was a Child I Read Books. Robinson is uniquely qualified to answer my question because she grew up in rural Idaho during those decades and is now a celebrated American novelist.

Similarly, if I wanted to learn what influences from church history have shaped the way Reformed theologians describe the triune God, I could just search it up. Yet the better way would be to take up the work of German Reformed theologian Amandus Polanus (1561–1610). Polanus and other Scholastic theologians of the late 16th to 18th centuries lived and served on the heels of the Protestant Reformation.

Polanus’s perspective is invaluable because it draws from both the reformers and the broader Christian tradition in ways that help us understand Scripture and classical doctrines like the Trinity more accurately.Read more»

Sam Cheng | “Amandus Polanus: Classical Theism’s Reformed Ally” | May 31, 2026

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• Hot off the press! Beza, Polanus, and Turretin On Justification By Faith Alone
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