The word “heart” is a truly important word in the English language. In the introduction to his new book, With All Your Heart: Orienting Your Mind, Desires, and Will Toward Christ, Westminster Seminary California’s Craig Troxel observes that one can have a . . . Continue reading →
In the wake of my latest essay, which cautions readers regarding Jonathan Edwards, has come questions about the role of affections and emotion in the Christian life. These questions signal how deep the Pietist tradition (see the resources below) runs in American . . . Continue reading →
The major—and expected—exception is Jonathan Edwards, whose view of faith no doubt stands behind Piper’s approach to this issue. Edwards believed that love is at the heart of faith: “That even faith, or a steadfastly believing the truth, arises from a principle . . . Continue reading →
Justifying faith is properly that which is defined in the catechism; according to which definition, the general nature of saving faith consists in knowledge and an assured confidence; for there can be no faith in a doctrine that is wholly unknown. It . . . Continue reading →
Kim Riddlebarger, who did his doctoral research on Warfield, has a nice set of quotations from him on the nature, character, and definition of faith in the act of justification. Continue reading
What are the different opinions as to the relation between faith and love? 1st. The Romanists, in order to maintain their doctrine that faith alone is not saving, distinguish between a formed, or perfect, and an unformed faith. They acknowledge that faith . . . Continue reading →
In one area, however, the treatise is problematic, namely his understanding of the nature of justifying faith. Gerstner acknowledged that Edwards did express the doctrine of justifying faith somewhat differently from his Calvinistic forbears, “…there can be little doubt that Calvinistic theologians . . . Continue reading →