If you have been in the Presbyterian and Reformed world long, at some point you have likely heard of Cornelius Van Til. He has had an enormous influence. For some people, Reformed and presuppositional apologetics are nearly synonyms. This may be surprising . . . Continue reading →
Books
Review: Reading Genesis By Marilynne Robinson
Within the bookstore of biblical studies, an alarming variety of works rest upon the shelves. Erudite tomes of philology and archeology, collections of sermons, thematic monographs, devotional series, and popular commentaries intermingle like diverse species in a rainforest. Arguably, each type has . . . Continue reading →
Review: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda By Megan Basham (Part 2)
In the responses to Part 1 of this review, many comments pointed out that I had not engaged much with the negative aspects of Shepherds for Sale. In this second part, I will include reflections on the less precise and more unhelpful . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast For November 10, 2024: Righteous by Design with Rev. Dr. Harrison Perkins
Dr Clark invites Rev. Dr. Harrison Perkins to the Heidelcast to discuss his new book, “Righteous by Design: Covenantal Merit and Adam’s Original Integrity,” part of the Reformed Exegetical Doctrinal Studies series published by Mentor. Continue reading →
Review: Shepherds for Sale: How Evangelical Leaders Traded the Truth for a Leftist Agenda By Megan Basham (Part 1)
The controversy surrounding Megan Basham’s Shepherds for Sale has somewhat died down by now, but the fault lines it has clarified in the Christian media world are still clear. There are those whose suspicions about progressive influences in Christian institutions have been . . . Continue reading →
Review: My Only Comfort: The Heidelberg Catechism For Devotional Reading By Amanda Martin
The Heidelberg Catechism (1563) is naturally suited for devotional use. Its devotional qualities have been recognized almost from the instant it was first published. How many people who know virtually nothing else about the catechism know all or part of the first . . . Continue reading →
Review: What It Means to Be Protestant: The Case for an Always-Reforming Church By Gavin Ortlund
Not many dates are worthy of remembrance over a century-and-a-half later. The beginning or end of a war or the death of a nation’s leader might be on people’s radar for a few decades, maybe a century, but eventually the slow decay . . . Continue reading →
Review: Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Christian Belief. A Revised and Enhanced Edition of Salvation Belongs To The Lord By John M. Frame (Part 3)
There are other, perhaps related questions that arise under this heading. For example, is the logical order of the application of redemption by the Holy Spirit (the ordo salutis) merely a “pedagogical device”? (229) Such a conclusion would surprise all the Protestant . . . Continue reading →
Review: Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Christian Belief. A Revised and Enhanced Edition of Salvation Belongs To The Lord By John M. Frame (Part 2)
We have considered his method, but what about Frame’s theological conclusions? Where the classic Reformed theologians typically defined theology as something that exists in God and which is accommodated to us creatures and revealed in analogues to us, for Frame, theology is . . . Continue reading →
Review: Concise Systematic Theology: An Introduction To Christian Belief. A Revised and Enhanced Edition of Salvation Belongs To The Lord By John M. Frame (Part 1)
This volume was originally published under another title in 2006. It began as a series of lectures given in 2004, and it carries a number of strong endorsements from Reformed and evangelical luminaries, not the least of which is the foreword by . . . Continue reading →
Review: Religion and American Foreign Policy, 1945–1960: The Soul of Containment By William Inboden
In early July 2024, at the fourth annual National Conservatism Conference in Washington D.C., Albert Mohler, President of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and Doug Wilson, Pastor of Christ Church in Moscow, ID, met to discuss Christian nationalism in America.1 During a panel, . . . Continue reading →
Review: David Clarkson’s Prizing Public Worship Edited by Jonathan Landry Cruse
Unless one is a reader of the works of Peter Martyr Vermigli (1499–1562) or a student of modern Canadian Presbyterian history one might not know of Mariano DiGangi (1923–2008). One reason for his relative obscurity is because as minister of Tenth Presbyterian . . . Continue reading →
Review: Praying with Jesus: Getting to the Heart of the Lord’s Prayer By Adriel Sanchez
I grew up outside of the Reformed tradition, though I have been a member of Presbyterian or Reformed churches for over a decade. Growing up, it was common to describe people in the church as “prayer warriors.” This is not something I . . . Continue reading →
Review: The Evangelical Imagination: How Stories, Images, and Metaphors Created a Culture in Crisis By Karen Swallow Prior
As of late, popular Christian culture has been saturated with books critical of evangelicalism—for supporting President Trump and Republicans as a voting bloc, for causing political divisiveness in the church, for being largely white, and for just generally supporting things that the . . . Continue reading →
Review: Fundamentalists in the Public Square: Did Fundamentalists Retreat After the 1925 Scopes Trial? By Madison Trammel
As someone who spends a lot of time in the online world, reading a work with a clearly defined goal and supported by real research the author did themselves is unusually refreshing. For that reason alone, I would give this book five . . . Continue reading →
Review: Reformed Theology By Jonathan Master (Blessings Of The Faith Series)
In the wake of the New Calvinist (sometimes called the “Young, Restless, and Reformed”) movement, the adjective Reformed gets slapped on seemingly everything. What does it mean to be Reformed? Is it simply people who hold to a Calvinistic soteriology? Is it . . . Continue reading →
Review: Retrieving Augustine’s Doctrine of Creation: Ancient Wisdom for Current Controversy By Gavin Ortlund
It was in seminary that a certain Church history professor (and President of the HRA) taught me about the technical theological distinction between lumpers and splitters. If you are unfamiliar, let me clue you in. There are people who group things together . . . Continue reading →
Review: A New Song: Biblical Hebrew Poetry As Jewish And Christian Scripture, Edited By Stephen D. Campbell, Richard G. Rohlfing Jr., And Richard S. Briggs
And thou, sweet Poetry, thou loveliest maid, Still first to fly where sensual joys invade; Unfit in these degenerate times of shame, To catch the heart, or strike for honest fame; 1 In general, it is accurate to notice that poetry has . . . Continue reading →
Review: Poetry Of Redemption: An Illustrated Treasury Of Good Friday And Easter Poems By Leland Ryken
For a long time I have noticed that I have two sides to my interests and personality. I can be very rational and analytical in my approach to faith and life. I also have a love of the arts, particularly literature and . . . Continue reading →
Review: Grounded In Heaven: Recentering Christian Hope And Life On God By Michael Allen
I remember seeing my first one. It was beautiful, and I could barely take my eyes off of it. There before me on a simple piece of paper lay the answers to so many of my questions. This was the secret, the . . . Continue reading →