Shut It Down

Since its creation in 1979, the Department of Education has sent well more than $1 trillion to schools with the express purpose of closing the gaps between the highest and lowest performers. Today, those gaps are as wide as they have ever been, . . . 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 →

Some Kentucky Presbyterians Opposed Slavery

John Rankin (1793–1886) was another towering figure among Southern Presbyterian abolitionists, whose work in both Kentucky and Ohio had a profound impact on the movement to end slavery. Born in Tennessee, Rankin was raised in a devout Presbyterian family that instilled in . . . Continue reading →

The Importance of Being More Than Earnest

Doctrine. Theology. For many evangelicals these words are as pleasant as the phrase, “impacted tooth!” That theology is irrelevant to Christian life has essentially become a received dogma. Nevertheless, as much as indifference about Christian truth reigns among evangelicals, to the same . . . Continue reading →

Fisher’s Catechism On Distinction Between The Special And General Kingdoms

James Fisher published a widely-read (and oft-reprinted) Exposition of the Shorter Catechism (1753). Ebenezer Erskine and others of the “Marrow Men”—that is, those who were the gospel-men in eighteenth-century Scotland (as opposed to the moralists of the time)—were also associated with it. . . . Continue reading →

Review: Still Protesting: Why the Reformation Still Matters By D. G. Hart

In 2008, Mark Noll and Carolyn Nystrom published Is the Reformation Over? An Evangelical Assessment of Contemporary Roman Catholicism.1 The book was measured in its answer, but in an interview at the time of publication, Noll said, yes, the Reformation is over. . . . Continue reading →

What Is Love?

The book begins with one question:  “What is love?”  Our culture has its answers, but what does the Bible say?  Borg then proceeds to answer many other questions we might ask.  These include:  does God love everyone?  What about the love we . . . Continue reading →

The Cradle Of Christian Truth: The Apostles’ Creed (Part 2)—I Believe

As we start this series, the whole first line, “I believe in God the Father Almighty,” is too much to tackle in one go. As a way of introduction to the whole idea of studying the Creed, then, this article focuses on . . . Continue reading →