From 1987–93, I was co-pastor and then solo pastor of a small congregation in Kansas City, MO. We were surrounded by Baptist, Pentecostal, and Roman Catholic congregations. I was there during the so-called Kansas City Prophets movement. The excitement of revival and . . . Continue reading →
American Christianity
New Resource Page On Revivals And Revivalism
The nature, origins, and status of revivals and revivalism is a contested issue among scholars and popular writers on these topics. It is a question even whether revivals and revivalism are properly distinguished and if so how? There are narratives about revivals . . . Continue reading →
Asbury Is Having A Revival (Again)
A spontaneous marathon revival among students and faculty at Asbury College in Wilmore, Kentucky, resulted in a week-long shut-down of classes and reached out to other colleges and communities from coast to coast this month. Students, faculty, townspeople, and visitors wept, and . . . Continue reading →
A Faithful Elder Stands Up For The Sheep
Last year, Hohn Cho concluded Grace Community Church had made a mistake. The elders had publicly disciplined a woman for refusing to take back her husband. As it turned out, the woman’s fears proved true, and her husband went to prison for child . . . Continue reading →
Brothers In Christ Or In Class?
There are a number of ways to look at the current divisions that are emerging in traditional Protestant and evangelical circles in the United States. The old fault line between those who affirm and those who deny the reality of the supernatural—the . . . Continue reading →
“Do You Know Of A Good P&R Church Nearby?”
It happens often—a friend or listener sends a message with the question: “Do you know of a good confessional Presbyterian or Reformed church near X?” All too often, after searching online, consulting denominational websites, even asking other friends, the answer is no. . . . Continue reading →
Review: Bully Pulpit: Confronting the Problem of Spiritual Abuse in the Church by Michael J. Kruger
Michael Kruger has written a gem of a book, addressing one of the most prominent issues troubling the church today. Increasingly, we are faced with stories about pastors who misuse their position of authority to achieve their own selfish ends to the . . . Continue reading →
American Presbyterians’ “Bible-onlyism”
THE POINT HERE IS NOT SO much the problems of recent Catholic and evangelical statements (though we do dissent from those affirmations). Rather our concern is with the understanding of religious traditions and their truth claims that undergirds not simply such statements . . . Continue reading →
One Major Difference Between The Reformed And The Evangelicals
American evangelical religion, whether one traces it to Edwards, Whitefield, and Wesley or to the nineteenth-century revivalists (e.g., Charles Finney), has always been oriented around personalities. Reasonably, American evangelical Christians nurtured in the personality-oriented tradition assume that pattern as the norm when . . . Continue reading →
Review: Lane Tipton’s The Trinitarian Theology of Cornelius Van Til
We live in an age that has lost the plot. In this case it is not the world at large, but rather the broadly Protestant/evangelical world in the West—many things taken almost for granted by previous generations of Christians are met with . . . Continue reading →
Remembering Meredith Kline
Princeton Theological Seminary was established with the intention of combining excellent scholarship with an intelligent, hearty commitment to the Reformed theology, piety, and practice summarized in the Reformed confessions. It has not always been easy to maintain that marriage. Princeton Seminary was . . . Continue reading →
Register Now For D. G. Hart, “Roman Catholics In America” (August 2–5, 2022)
D. G. Hart, Distinguished Associate Professor of History at Hillsdale College and visiting Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary California, will be giving a course on Roman Catholics in America (CH555), August 2–5, 2022 | 1:00pm–4:15pm (PDT). This course covers the . . . Continue reading →
Secular When It Should Be Sacred
A significant part of the process of recovering and applying classical Reformed theology to our contemporary situation (sometimes called ressourcement, a French word which refers to getting back to original sources) is recovering the distinctions that we lost in the 19th and . . . Continue reading →
Understanding The Times: Did Christianity Become Marginal In America In 2014?
To refresh, my framework posits that during the period of secularization post-1965, America has passed through three distinct phases or worlds in terms of how secular culture views Christianity. Positive World (Pre-1994). Christianity was viewed positively by society and Christian morality was still . . . Continue reading →
BOLO (Be On The Lookout)
A former pastor of the nation’s largest Independent Fundamental Baptist congregation has been released from federal prison, records show. He had pleaded guilty to taking a 16-year-old across state lines for sex. Jack Schaap, 64, was released Wednesday from the federal prison . . . Continue reading →
The Beginning Of The End Of The Megachurch Era?
In a May 9 video message to the congregation, Pastor Dave Dummitt said the church was “about half the size we were before COVID . . . and as you can imagine that has financial implications.” He said leadership would be working . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On Mainline (Liberal) Christianity In North America
The expression “mainline church” is drawn from an old-money neighborhood in Philadelphia known as “the main line.” The mainline churches were what are sometimes called the “tall steeple” church along the mainline. Scholars of American Christianity sometimes speak of the “Seven Sisters . . . Continue reading →
The PCUSA Continues Its Slide Into Oblivion
Hart Reviews Noll—America’s Book: The Rise And Decline Of A Bible Civilization, 1794–1911
Many Americans born after 1960 have trouble imagining that for much of the country’s history the Bible was a chief source of national identity. Older Hollywood directors sometimes get it right. Take “Liberty Heights” (1999), written and directed by Barry Levinson (born . . . Continue reading →
Is Your Religion Ben Franklin’s Or Paul’s (And Can You Tell The Difference)?
Locke and Shaftesbury opened an intellectual world firmly in the deist camp, even though deism itself was more an outlook and reading list than a card-carrying affiliation. Franklin later described his religious sensibility as the sort of minimalist belief he found in . . . Continue reading →