The past two-and-a-half years of COVID-19 fears, restrictions, and dissensions have led to strenuous circumstances for many professions and vocations. The callings of pastors and ministers have been no exception. It has been especially difficult for sessions, consistories, diaconates, and congregations in . . . Continue reading →
After theologians the bishops took the floor, song speaking for two or more hours at a time. Some were well-versed in the subject. Their approach, like that of theologians, was generally framed by Scholastic categories, and, despite Pole’s words, they often seemed . . . Continue reading →
This is a fine little volume that makes a good entry point to the Reformation. Bob Godfrey published this several years ago. These chapters are based on his lectures, which he gave for decades as Professor of Church History at Westminster Seminary . . . Continue reading →
Martin Luther (1483–1546) is one of the most important figures in Western history. He is one of the most important figures in world history but the probabilities are that most Christians, including those of us in the Reformation traditions, who trace our . . . Continue reading →
…Yet I dissent from Chalk’s genealogy of modernity. He goes on to argue that this notion of the autonomous, emotivist self can be traced to Martin Luther. In part this is because Chalk depends upon Jacques Maritain’s Three Reformers: Luther, Descartes, Rousseau . . . Continue reading →
One of the most interesting bits of Oxford history is the story of the Oxford Martyrs and the statue by which they are remembered. The history of the monument itself is fascinating. In 1833, John Henry Newman (1801‑90), an Anglican priest, began . . . Continue reading →
Idelette was a young widow with two young children. Her former husband, Jean Stordeur, a cabinet maker from Liège (one of “those cities of the Netherlands in which the awakening had been most remarkable,” J.H. Merle D’Aubigne writes), contracted the plague in . . . Continue reading →
I had fun talking with Nick Fullwiler of the Guilt, Grace, Gratitude podcast about the history of the Reformation. What led to it and why did it happen? Is there a new Reformation under way today? Do we need a Reformation today . . . Continue reading →
It is Reformation Day 2020. As far as I know, magisterial (Reformed and Lutheran) Protestants have been observing October 31 as Reformation Day since the 17th century. Longtime readers of this space will may remember my critique of October 31 as Reformation . . . Continue reading →
Resources How To Subscribe To Heidelmedia The Reformed Churches Confess Luther’s Translation Of Romans 3:28: Allein Resources On The Reformation Solas
There are few figures more central to the history of the West than Martin Luther (1486–1546). Without him there would have been no Reformation, or at least it would have looked very differently. The confessional Protestant churches, i.e., Lutherans and the Reformed . . . Continue reading →
This past Friday and Saturday I had the pleasure of speaking at the conference, So You You Say You Want A Reformation? hosted by Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston, MA. This is the first session of the conference from Friday evening. . . . Continue reading →
The Reformation Still Matters Sometimes when we talk about the Reformation we give or receive the impression that it was purely a historical event with no continuing relevance or even that Reformation is one thing and mission is another. Here is an . . . Continue reading →
The Protestant Reformation was one of the most important theological, social, religious, and political episodes in Western history. It is reasonable to divide all Western history in two: before the Reformation and after. Nevertheless, in our time, the Reformation is not well . . . Continue reading →
Protestant churches, i.e., those that still believe and confess theology, piety, and practice recovered in the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, celebrate Reformation Day on October 31. This is the day, in 1517, that Dr Martin Luther (1483–1546), a German biblical . . . Continue reading →
In October of 1545, Heinrich von Wolfenbüttel (1489–1568), the Romanist Duke of Braunschweig-Lüneberg-Wolfenbüttel, in the process of a attempting to recover lands taken from him by the Protestant Schmalkald League (in 1542), was taken captive along with his sons. The Lutheran territories . . . Continue reading →
Because the Reformation began 500 years ago, because the Reformers are larger than life, because we often think of them as heroes, we might forget that they were once young men, college students, who were excited by new books, new ideas, and . . . Continue reading →
When Scripture uses the verb “to justify” (δικαιόω) as it does in Romans 3:20, “wherefore out of the works of the law will no flesh be justified before he, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin,” it means to say, . . . Continue reading →
Video courtesy the Lynden United Reformed Church (Lynden, WA) where Bob Godfrey and I spoke earlier this month for their Reformation Conference: Luther Nailed It.
