Richard Muller’s lost lecture on Jonathan Edwards’ doctrine of free choice. Continue reading →
Richard Muller—Jonathan Edwards And The Absence Of Free Choice: A Parting Of Ways In The Reformed Tradition
Lost Audio Recovered
History of Ideas
Muller: Rethinking The Relation Between Kuyper, Bavinck, And Scholasticism
One writer notes that “Kuyper reflected critically on what he perceived as an increasing emphasis on natural theology through the early centuries of the Reformed tradition,” while another indicates that Kuyper’s views on common grace opened up a place for natural theology. . . . Continue reading →
Heidelcast 215: Behind The Scenes Of The Collapse Of The West
We are interrupting our series on prayer, Our Father, to air to a talk I gave yesterday to the Escondido URC Adult Sunday School class. We also got an interesting question on the Heideltext line about the nature of the presence of . . . Continue reading →
Created for Union: John Williamson Nevin And The Supper
On June 9, 1886, a funeral was held in a church in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The deceased, John Williamson Nevin (1803–86), was a pastor, professor, and theologian in the German Reformed Church. Friends and family were in attendance as well as several theologians and professors of differing fame and reputation. None of this was unusual for a theologian’s funeral in nineteenth-century America. There was, however, at least one irregularity: A. A. Hodge (1823–16) gave one of the eulogies.1 Hodge’s late father, Charles Hodge (1797–1878), and Nevin were involved in one of the most prominent sacramental controversies in nineteenth-century America, yet the younger Hodge eulogized the very man who contested with his father decades before. Even now, the controversy and theologies that gave rise to it live on long after the death of the major figures. Continue reading →
William Perkins On Justification (2)
In connection with Trent and Bellarmine’s stance on purgatory and the sacrifice of the Mass was Rome’s doctrine of a second justification. Bellarmine’s Scriptural basis for a second justification was Romans 3—which he saw as the first justification, and James 2—which he saw as the second justification. For Perkins, James 2 was for the justified because of Christ, “outward testimonies of the truth of our faith and profession, proving that the grace of our hearts is not in hypocrisy, but in truth and sincerity.” In other words, James 2 spoke not of justification in the same sense as Paul in Romans, but in a completely different sense, scope, and design, James 2:21 is in the demonstrative for Abraham’s “works did testify that his faith was true and sincere. Continue reading →
William Perkins On Justification
Perkins objected to Rome’s sacrifice of the Mass. For Perkins, this doctrine was attached to erroneous views of Christology, Christ’s propitiatory suffering unto death, and in turn the doctrine of justification. One of Perkins’s clearest Christological statements is found in his treatise, A Warning Against the Idolatry of the Last Times (1601), where he wrote, “For He in one person is perfect God and perfect man, our only Redeemer all-sufficient in Himself, and therefore perfect king, priest, prophet; without either partner or fellow in the work of man’s salvation.” Continue reading →
Does The Analogy Hold Or How Does Science Work?
I am in the throes of trying to finish the third draft of the commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism (Guilt, Grace, and Gratitude), so I have not been listening to a lot of my podcasts. Mostly these days I hear myself say, . . . Continue reading →
The Role Of Philosophy In Theology: Ministerial Not Magisterial
Cards on the table: I am a little concerned by a trend that developing among evangelicals.
Why “Settled Science” Is A Myth (And Why Just A Little History Shows That)
To see how science can change and evolve, look at 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, and . . . Continue reading →
New Resource Page: On Amyraut, Amyraldianism, and Hypothetical Universalism
One of the more important debates that rocked the French Reformed Church in the 17th century was that concerning the doctrine of Moises Amyraut (1596–1664). He was part of a broader movement to revise Reformed theology among the French in a variety . . . Continue reading →
The Post-Sacred Order Is A Post-Historical Order
Forgetfulness is now the curricular form of our higher education. This form guarantees that we, of the transition from second [sacred] to third [post-sacred] worlds, will become the first barbarians. Barbarism is not an expression of simple technologies or of mysterious taboos; . . . Continue reading →
Doubts About Political Theology And The Church As A Lever Of Cultural Influence
Tish Harrison Warren, a priest in the ACNA (a denomination in the Anglican tradition), writes in Christianity Today, We have an impoverished and inadequate political theology. It took us generations to get here, and this one election, regardless of the results, will . . . Continue reading →
National Association Of Scholars: Revoke Pulitzer Prize For 1619 Project
The Project as a whole was marred by similar faults. Prominent historians, most of them deeply sympathetic to the Project’s goal of bringing the African American experience more fully into our understanding of the American past, nevertheless felt obliged to point out, . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours With Michael McClymond Against Universalism
Since the arrival of the capital M Modern world, beginning in the mid-17th century, one of the persistent points of friction between orthodox Christianity and Modernity has been the Christian doctrine that Jesus is the only way to heaven and eternal life. . . . Continue reading →
Turretin: What We Mean When Call Mary Theotokos, The Mother Of God
XI. Mary is rightly called the Mother of God (theotokos) in the concrete and specifically because she brought forth him who is also God, but not in the abstract and reduplicatively as God. Although this is not expressly stated in the Scriptures, . . . Continue reading →
Justification In The Earliest Christian Fathers: 1 Clement
Perhaps the first post-Apostolic use of the New Testament verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) occurs in 1 Clement, written just after 100 AD to the same Corinthian congregation to whom Paul had written half a century earlier. There is no claim of authorship . . . Continue reading →
Office Hours: Aquinas Among The Protestants
Thomas Aquinas (c.1224–74) was one of the most important Christian teachers in the period and though he was eclipsed in the centuries after, his work returned to prominence in the 16th–19th centuries particularly among Roman theologians, for whom Thomas became the theologian . . . Continue reading →
Theology And The University In Nineteenth-Century Germany
The history of modern German theology is dominated by two figures, Friedrich Schleiermacher (1768–1834) and G. F. W. Hegel (1770–1831) but there is more to the story. If Schleiermacher and Hegel formed the skeleton, a series of lesser-known figures and institutions formed . . . Continue reading →
Identity Markers: Why Some Axioms Persist
Peter Berger has been an influential and important sociologist of religion for more than 50 years. He is presently Professor Emeritus of Religion, Sociology and Theology and Director of the Institute on Culture, Religion, and World Affairs at Boston University. To review a . . . Continue reading →
Inventing Grievances
As Riley-Smith explains, however, the Muslim memory of the Crusades is of very recent vintage. Carole Hillenbrand first uncovered this fact in her groundbreaking book The Crusades: Islamic Perspectives. The truth is that medieval Muslims came to realize that the Crusades were . . . Continue reading →