To see how science can change and evolve, look at the theory of eugenics, which held sway over much of Western thought from the 1870s through the 1930s and beyond. Eugenics held that good or bad characteristics were passed on through heredity, . . . Continue reading →
Author Archives: R. Scott Clark
Office Hours: A Conference Preview—The Church In Exile
2 Kings 17:1–23 gives an overview as to why Israel and Judah were exiled. The very short story is that the Old Testament church turned their back on the God who had delivered them out of Egypt. Nevertheless, the same gracious and . . . Continue reading →
Are Confessions Themselves QIRC-Y?
A correspondent to the Heidelblog writes: …I have been living in the Heidelblog lately, and have been challenged to rethink so many previous convictions. Thank you for this resource! I especially have been edified by the QIRC/QIRE idea, but thinking through it . . . Continue reading →
Bringing In 2021 With the Presbycast
New Years Eve was noisy in Escondido but the fireworks really started when I joined Chortles Weakly (Brad Isbell) to help bring in 2021 with the Presbycast. We had fun with sound effects and general goofiness as our dogs both cowered (and . . . Continue reading →
A Little Wisdom Might Help Us Love Our Neighbor
Two Albuquerque, NM megachurches are being fined by the governor for disobeying regulations on gathering for worship. Both held Christmas Eve services with crowded auditoriums. In one video there are few masks evident. KOAT has the story. One congregation claims to have . . . Continue reading →
Top Ten Posts Of 2020: Happy New Year From the Heidelblog
Happy New Year from the Heidelblog. Whether we think about civil politics, Covid-19, or doings in the broader evangelical world, 2020 is not a year we will soon forget. This is the 13th year of the Heidelblog (including its progenitor) and the . . . Continue reading →
Crisp: Edwards Was A Panentheist
…Such a picture of God’s relation to the creation is undoubtedly striking, combining as it does aspects of classical theism, theological aesthetics, panentheism, and the doctrines of continuous creation and occasionalism (about which, more presently). Far from being the product of some . . . Continue reading →
More On Edwards, Affections, Romanticism, And Pantheism
If there is a prevailing commonplace about the Romantics it is to associate them with a close and tender regard for nature. And it is true that the relating of human being to being generally considered was so central in their minds, . . . Continue reading →
Criticizing Edwards On Religious Affections Does Not Lead To Dead Orthodoxy: There Is Another Way
In the wake of my latest essay, which cautions readers regarding Jonathan Edwards, has come questions about the role of affections and emotion in the Christian life. These questions signal how deep the Pietist tradition (see the resources below) runs in American . . . Continue reading →
Three Vital Questions For the PCA In 2021
There are three great questions to be faced by the PCA in 2021: Continue reading
Why Caution About Jonathan Edwards Is In Order
Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) is America’s most famous theologian and perhaps its most famous philosopher too. He is an important and influential figure and worth seeking to understand for those reasons alone. We should think about Edwards for other reasons, however, He is . . . Continue reading →
On “Safetyism”
But these same scenes present an affront to the organs of social control. There would seem to be an inherent tension between the spirit of play and “safetyism” (I parse this tension more fully in my book Why We Drive, which will . . . Continue reading →
A Tension That Does Not Exist
There were a number of issues that I might have taken up in my response to Crawford Gribben and Chris Caughey’s essay, “History, Identity Politics, and the ‘Recovery’ of the Reformed Confession” in the volume On Being Reformed which space did not permit. . . . Continue reading →
The Reformed Rejected Both World-flight And Earthly Golden Ages
The Swiss Brethren, who signed the Schleitheim, confessed (in article 6) that a Christian may not serve as a magistrate and the magistrate may not enforce religious orthodoxy and (in article 7) that Christians may not swear oaths for any purpose.60 The . . . Continue reading →
Did Abraham Kuyper Become An Anabaptist? Updated With A Postscript
Is theocracy, i.e., an state-established religion and the state enforcement of religious orthodoxy essential to Reformed theology, piety, and practice? That is the question asked and answered recently by Craig Carter, a former Anabaptist turned Particular Baptist theologian in response a recent . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: Christ And Culture
Apart from getting the gospel right and getting the gospel out, there is perhaps no problem more pressing upon the church than that of how to relate Christ to culture. H. Richard Niebuhr identified three approaches: Christ against culture (e.g., Tertullian), Christ . . . Continue reading →
Luther Delivered Us From The Doctrine Of Purgatory But Critical Theory Will Have It Reinstated
R. Scott Clark, professor of church history at Westminster Seminary California in Escondido, California, told Campus Reform that “Dr. Thompson calls Lutherans to repent for ‘systemic racism’ and takes for granted that we should all accept this new, rather radical redefinition of racism which, in her account, entails a new, decided un-Lutheran definition of repentance.” Continue reading →
Post-Christian Americans Are Not Less Religious, Just More Pagan
This trend can be observed on the basis of age cohort: Young adults, being less religious, are more inclined to believe in ghosts, astrology, clairvoyance and spiritual energy. But it also can be observed geographically: The parts of the United States where . . . Continue reading →
Santa Is Law, Not Gospel
Santa rewards those who meet the terms of a covenant of works: Continue reading
Critical Theory Is Not Neutral
Christian advocates of critical theory frequently claim that it is a neutral tool to help us think through issue. That is not true. Continue reading