History of Reformed Theology

Post-Thanksgiving Cartoons: Reply to James White

by on November 27, 2009 | 191 Comments

Yes, I’m aware that James White has posted a caricature of my views. Thanks to everyone who wrote to make sure I saw that. Rather than trying to respond to all of his claims, let me focus today on just one to . . . Continue reading →

Was the Covenant of Works Gracious?

by on November 18, 2009 | 72 Comments

It is widely held in the modern period that it was. To deny that strikes many today as absurd, as impossible. The 16th and 17th century Reformed writers were not so troubled by that idea since they had much less difficulty than . . . Continue reading →

Calvin on Psalm Singing in Worship

by on November 17, 2009 | 6 Comments

As for public prayers, there are two kinds: the one consists simply of speech, the other of song…And indeed, we know from experience that singing has great strength and power to move and to set on fire the hearts of men in . . . Continue reading →

Post-Reformation Bonanza

by on October 29, 2009 | 14 Comments

One of the great problems in the study of post-Reformation Reformed orthodoxy (scholasticism) is the relative unavailability of primary sources. There is the Digital Library of Classic Protestant Texts, to which Westminster Seminary California blessedly has a subscription (thanks to our donors!). . . . Continue reading →

WSC Graduate Defends Oxford DPhil on Barth

by on October 20, 2009 | 43 Comments

Congratulations to Westminster Seminary California (’04) alumnus and sometime lecturer in Historical Theology at WSC, Ryan Glomsrud (MA, Historical Theology), on the successful completion and defense of his Oxford DPhil thesis on Karl Barth. Here’s a précis: Ryan D. Glomsrud, Karl Barth Between Pietism & Orthodoxy: . . . Continue reading →

On Arminius, Confessional Subscription, and the Limits of Tolerance

by on October 10, 2009 | 30 Comments

Jacob Arminius (d. 1609) thought of himself as Reformed. He wanted to be regarded as Reformed. He graduated from the seminary in Geneva. He studied with that stalwart of Reformed orthodoxy, Theodore Beza (d. 1605). He was a Reformed minister in good . . . Continue reading →

Antonius Walaeus De Natura Dei (On the Nature of God)

by on September 14, 2009

Because, in our late modern, liquid, age, relational categories trump all others and because we’re given to nominalism now, it’s sometimes considered downright provocative to claim that God has a nature. The older Reformed writers, however, spoke this frequently. On the Heinrich . . . Continue reading →

Caspar Olevianus on Church and Kingdom

by on August 27, 2009 | 3 Comments

“The Kingdom of Christ in this world is the administration of salvation by which Christ the king himself, outwardly, through the gospel and baptism, gathers to himself and calls to salvation a people or visible church (in which many hypocrites are mixed).” . . . Continue reading →

Olevianus on Two Kinds of Holiness

by on August 11, 2009 | 1 Comment

As mentioned earlier in this space the older Reformed writers had a doctrine of forensic holiness or sanctification but rather than connecting it with union with Christ considered logically prior regeneration and faith, they tended to connect talk about it under the . . . Continue reading →

Of Calvin and Genevan Dogs

by on July 11, 2009 | 12 Comments

With no reference to our gracious Genevese hosts for the last 8 days I thought it would be fun to bring my experience of the 2009 Calvinpalooza to a close with a few more mundane observations. You know, of course, that Calvin . . . Continue reading →

Farel's Baptismal Form

by on May 28, 2009

William (Guillaume) Farel preceded Calvin in Geneva and worked alongside him in advancing the Reformation there and elsewhere in the Francophone world in the 16th century. Wes Bredenhof has a fascinating account of his baptismal liturgy, which features a strong emphasis on . . . Continue reading →