The Rise of Moralism in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Preaching: A Case Study

The twenty-first century is not the first to witness English-speaking theologians in the Reformed tradition expressing dissatisfaction with the Reformation’s doctrine of justification through faith alone on the ground of Christ’s righteousness and sacrifice alone. Continue reading →

To Obey Or Not To Obey, That Is The Question: An Examination Of Anthony Burgess’s Theology Of Law And Gospel In Vindiciae Legis: Part 2

Burgess used the similarities between the old and new covenants to refute Antinomian errors, but perhaps the most surprising facet of his broad distinction was that the gospel contains “commands.” The command for repentance, in a sense, belongs to the gospel, not . . . Continue reading →

To Obey Or Not To Obey, That Is The Question: An Examination Of Anthony Burgess’s Theology Of Law And Gospel In Vindiciae Legis: Part 1

After his suspension on June 25, 1629, by the High Commission for the charge of “doctrinal heterodoxy,” Robert Towne (1592–1663) desperately sought to meet with those “godly opponents” who had been criticizing his preaching, perhaps to explain himself.1 He found a few . . . Continue reading →

Bates’s Recycled Errors

The gospel is central to Christianity. Protestants and Roman Catholics have been reflecting on and debating the gospel’s content for centuries. However, Matthew Bates argues that most of Western Christianity to date—Protestant and Roman Catholic—has completely misunderstood the gospel. In Beyond the Salvation . . . Continue reading →

Review: Swing Low: A History of Black Christianity in the United States By Walter R. Strickland

The earliest church experience I remember was in my hometown of Shreveport, LA. My mother made sure my brothers and I were dressed in our “Sunday best,” then loaded us into the car and drove us to a small white church building that could not have held more than sixty people. Continue reading →

Review: The Great Dechurching: Who’s Leaving, Why Are They Going, and What Will It Take to Bring Them Back? By Jim Davis and Michael Graham

According to recent Gallup polls, American churches are emptier today than they were twenty-five years ago.1 Church membership is falling in large numbers. In fact, over fifty percent of Americans rarely or never attend worship services—and if they do, it is usually . . . Continue reading →

Review: Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, And The Spiritual Mission Of The Church By Alan D. Strange (Part 2)

We pick up again with Alan Strange’s treatment of Hodge in Empowered Witness. There are some questions raised by this work that bear consideration in a review. A reader who is not already in sympathy with the essential argument or who perhaps . . . Continue reading →

Review: Empowered Witness: Politics, Culture, And the Spiritual Mission Of The Church By Alan D. Strange (Part 1)

The debate last year over the overture by Evangel Presbytery to the General Assembly (GA) of the Presbyterian Church in America (overture 12), which was adopted by GA, presented acutely the question of the spirituality of the church. Overture 12 asked GA . . . Continue reading →