Sometime back Howard wrote to ask, “How and when did Arminianism become the predominate view?” That’s a good question. First, we should distinguish between Jacob Arminius (James Hermanzoon) and the Arminians (or the Remonstrants). Relative to the conclusions Arminian/Remonstrant theology later reached, Arminius . . . Continue reading →
I understand why Anne Rice has renounced (HT: Aquila Report) the visible, institutional church. She’s a modern and she’s an American. She might also have some “authority issues” (she was born “Howard Allen O’Brien“) but I digress. Yes, she’s Romanist but she’s . . . Continue reading →
Readers and others sometimes ask which books have influenced the way I look at this or that. Sometimes I can answer, sometimes I can’t. One influential book that I read early in my academic career, while I was a graduate student, was . . . Continue reading →
One of the myths that has been exploded in late modernity is that we Westerners are an “Enlightened” people, who have moved beyond demons, ghosts, and religion. We are not and we have not. I am not saying that we have not . . . Continue reading →
In this fifth session of Dr. Godfrey’s Sunday school class at the Escondido URC, he traces the long period of challenges to Christendom within Christendom, and the rise of the Enlightenment, which thought Christianity to be too focused on the world to come, . . . Continue reading →
In the sixth session of Bob Godfrey’s Sunday school class at the Escondido URC, he traces the effects of the Enlightenment upon the West. Drawing upon Carl Becker’s work he highlights four key tenets of the movement: (1) that man is not natively . . . Continue reading →
This is the seventh session of Bob Godfrey’s Adult Sunday School series at the Escondido URC. In this session he explores the challenges faced by Christendom due to the Enlightenment and how it took shape in America. He argues that Christianity as . . . Continue reading →
In this session, Bob Godfrey turns his attention to the effect of Darwin’s theory. You might think of it chiefly as a scientific theory but it did not remain confined to science (e.g., origin of the species etc). Darwin’s theory occurred in . . . Continue reading →
In this session, Bob Godfrey turns his attention to the effect of Marxism upon Modernity. Today few people believe in hell. Under Christendom (as he has been defining it) a much larger percentage of people would have said that they believed in . . . Continue reading →