The 53rd General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) met this year in Louisville, KY. Hosted by the Ohio Valley Presbytery, a record number of commissioners (around 2,500, of which approximately 34% were ruling elders, a remarkably higher proportion than . . . Continue reading →
The church historian Eusebius declared himself in the strongest manner against images of Christ in a letter to the empress Constantia (the widow of Licinius and sister of Constantine), who had asked him for such an image. Christ, says he, has laid . . . Continue reading →
Previous to the time of Constantine, we find no trace of an image of Christ, properly speaking, except among the Gnostic Carpocratians, and in the case of the heathen emperor Alexander Severus, who adorned his domestic chapel, as a sort of syncretistic . . . Continue reading →
Garrison Keillor used to open his monologues about the fictional town of Lake Woebegon by saying, “It’s been a quiet week in Lake Woebegon” and then go on to explain how it had not actually been quiet. The way the news is . . . Continue reading →
The AP ran a story in October 2022 on the naming of seven new Roman “saints.” According to the story, “Two of the new saints were Americans: Kateri Tekakwitha, the first Native American saint from the U.S., and Mother Marianne Cope, a 19th-century . . . Continue reading →
Mrs. Smith: “But Jesus truly came in the flesh. Doesn’t forbidding images make Him seem less human?” Dr. Perkins: Not at all. For the disciples, seeing Jesus wasn’t sinful—it was God’s gift in history. But for us to recreate Him is presumption. . . . Continue reading →
Part of Saturday was spent trading tweets with Matthew Milliner, who teaches Art History at Wheaton College. We had a good, genial conversation from two different confessional traditions. I am not sure, but judging by his arguments, I inferred that Matthew may . . . Continue reading →
In recent decades, there has been a renewed appreciation for and embrace of a “Calvinistic” (i.e. Biblical) soteriology in which God is recognized as sovereign in all the affairs of men and even in salvation. Dr. T. David Gordon suggests this phenomenon . . . Continue reading →
Unless you view a state capitol building as a Christian house of worship, your level of concern for allegedly religious displays allowed therein (good, banal, benign, or evil) should be different than your level of concern for what happens in Christian churches.
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You also wrote me concerning some supposed image of Christ, which image you wished me to send you. Now what kind of thing is this that you call the image of Christ? I do not know what impelled you to request that . . . Continue reading →
Dr Clark answers questions about mental images of Christ and the sacred/secular distinction. Continue reading →
In this episode Dr Clark answers questions about the 2nd and 4th commandments. Continue reading →
If you are connected to the internet at all in 2023, you have surely seen a “new” thing: a profusion of images generated by so-called artificial intelligence (AI) prompted only by text descriptions and informed by the millions of images on the . . . Continue reading →
I am an artist, so my field does not often overlap with theological issues. In this case, however, it has caused me to evaluate what it means to live in light of the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself a . . . Continue reading →
Even pictures of Jesus can only hinder our understanding of God’s truth. For instance, no true picture of Jesus exists, so the ones artists do make merely reflect the artist’s own image of our Savior rather than what God has sovereignly revealed . . . Continue reading →
The apostles could hardly have forgotten the face of their Lord, yet their writings contain no description. They who worked hard to preserve Christ’s words were content to allow his appearance to be forgotten. It cannot have been mere practicality; if they . . . Continue reading →
As an artist, my field does not often overlap with theological issues but has caused me to evaluate what it means to live in light of the second commandment. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of . . . Continue reading →
Contemporary Judaism, like love, is a many-splendored thing. For our own convenience, we often refer to three types of Judaism: Reformed, Conservative, and Orthodox, but there are many variations even within these three. Nonetheless, practicing Jews of any brand have a common . . . Continue reading →
Within wider Christianity, Presbyterians are often labeled—and sometimes dismissed—as traditionalists. This label may seem to explain some aspects of Presbyterian piety, but not all. When Christians outside of Reformed circles learn about the Presbyterian passion for singing Psalms, keeping Sabbath, and rejecting . . . Continue reading →
When the Westminster Assembly (1643–52), which was composed of Episcopalians, Congregationalists, and Presbyterians, deliberated on the moral law of God, they agreed on with the church of all ages and times on the abiding validity of God’s moral law. In their Confession (19.5) . . . Continue reading →