When there had been read in the holy Synod what had been done touching the deposition of the most irreligious Pelagians and Coelestines, of Coelestius, and Pelagius, and Julian, and Praesidius, and Florus, and Marcellian, and Orontius, and those inclined to like . . . Continue reading →
Patristics
A Cure For Romanticism About the Second Century
Each fall I teach a course on the ancient church and a seminar on patristics. For the first half of the seminar, we use Michael Holmes’s third edition of the Apostolic Fathers, a collection of texts mainly from the second century. It did . . . Continue reading →
Heidelminicast: Did Christians Teach Predestination Before Augustine?
In this episode Dr. Clark talks about predestination and Augustine. Continue reading →
Can Baptists Be Catholic? (Part 3)
My Baptist friends give two replies to the claim that they are not truly catholic. First, they appeal to their intent to be catholic. For example, in the introduction to the Second London Confession (1689) they say: “This we did the more abundantly to manifest our consent with both in all the fundamental articles of the Christian religion, as also with many others whose orthodox Confessions have been published to the world on the behalf of the Protestant in diverse nations and cities.” Continue reading →
Can Baptists Be Catholic? (Part 2)
When the ancient church began to use the adjective catholic (universal) to describe her theology, piety, and practice, and to distinguish herself from the Gnostic, Marcionite, and Montanist cults of the second century, the best evidence is that they did not read . . . Continue reading →
Can Baptists Be Catholic? (Part 1)
Whether Baptists can be catholic is a serious question that requires a serious answer. Before we proceed, however, we must define our terms. What is catholicity? Our English word catholic is really a Greek word, katholikos (καθολικός), borrowed by English. What does . . . Continue reading →
The Order Of Love (Ordo Amoris): Proximity, Not Ethnicity (Part 3)
So far in this brief series I have alluded to Aquinas’ discussion of the ordo amoris (order of love). It was by reading Thomas that I was sent back to Augustine but now we come to Aquinas’ own discussion of the order . . . Continue reading →
The Order Of Love (Ordo Amoris): Proximity, Not Ethnicity (Part 2)
Three times in his discussion of the nature of virtue Thomas Aquinas (c. 1224–74) referred to Augustine’s AD 388 treatise against the Manichaeans, On The Morals of the Church (De moribus ecclesiae) regarding the “order of love.”1 Even though it was a . . . Continue reading →
Tertullian On The Trinity
In the course of time, then, the Father forsooth was born, and the Father suffered,—God Himself, the Lord Almighty, whom in their preaching they declare to be Jesus Christ. We, however, as we indeed always have done (and more especially since we . . . Continue reading →
Tertullian And The Athanasian Creed
Bear always in mind that this is the rule of faith which I profess; by it I testify that the Father, and the Son, and the Spirit are inseparable from each other, and so will you know in what sense this is . . . Continue reading →
Tertullian On The Natural Knowledge Of God
For indeed, as the Creator of all things, He was from the beginning discovered equally with them, they having been themselves manifested that He might become known as God. For although Moses, some long while afterwards, seems to have been the first . . . Continue reading →
Augustine: Small Town Boy Makes Good
On this date, on the old calendar, Augustine of Hippo was born. Hippo is not his last name. It is the city where he served as bishop. The name of the town is funny in English, but it makes sense in Greek. . . . Continue reading →
Tertullian Anticipated Anselm On The Ontological Argument
The principal, and indeed the whole, contention lies in the point of number: whether two Gods may be admitted, by poetic license (if they must be), or pictorial fancy, or by the third process, as we must now add, of heretical depravity. . . . Continue reading →
What Tertullian Really Said About Jerusalem And Athens
These are “the doctrines” of men and “of demons” produced for itching ears of the spirit of this world’s wisdom: this the Lord called “foolishness,” and “chose the foolish things of the world” to confound even philosophy itself. For (philosophy) it is . . . Continue reading →
A Patristic Root In Reformed Theology Part 3: Interpretation Of The Descent
What do you do on a Sunday when you arrive at confessing the descent into hell in the creed? Maybe you say it loudly, or maybe you squirm. Or maybe your church omits it entirely.1 For those new to Reformed churches, confessing . . . Continue reading →
A Patristic Root In Reformed Theology Part 2: The Division Of The Creed
For Christians like me who grew up outside of liturgical and Reformed traditions, the first year of saying the Apostles’ Creed in worship can raise many questions and spur the need for study. One of those instances is the descent clause: “He . . . Continue reading →
A Patristic Root In Reformed Theology Part 1: What, Who, And Why?
Over my years of study, one essential thing I have learned is that the Reformation was a return to patristic roots not only in worship,1 but also in theology. It was not a wholesale repudiation of history; nor did it cast off the . . . Continue reading →
Did Christians Teach Predestination Before Augustine?
A reader named David recently wrote to the Heidelblog to pass along a question that someone else asked of him: “What do the church fathers prior to Augustine believe about free will? I was told that all of the church fathers prior . . . Continue reading →
Interpreting Scripture For Love: Augustine’s Threefold Hermeneutic (Part Three)
The final aspect of Augustine’s hermeneutic that we will observe is this: Augustine believed biblical texts could have more than one meaning or interpretation. Scripture, for Augustine, was not a one-dimensional black-and-white text filled with brute facts of history and bare propositions.1 . . . Continue reading →
Interpreting Scripture For Love: Augustine’s Threefold Hermeneutic (Part Two)
“Thou has pierced my heart with Thy Word, and I have loved Thee.”1 In the last article, we examined Augustine’s vigorous Christ-centered interpretation of Scripture. Another significant aspect of his biblical interpretation is love. For Augustine, the proper interpretation of Scripture leads . . . Continue reading →