Part two of this series is here. ___ Kim Riddlebarger is working his way through the Canons of Dort. He’s covering the Rejection of Errors. The RE was the Synod of Dort’s way of re-asserting the anthesis between the Reformed faith and . . . Continue reading →
modernity
Back on the Table Again
Martin Downes has been blogging the renewed controversy over the inerrancy of God’s Word. This is a discussion that many have not wanted to have for a long time. When I started seminary in 1984 the sounds of the last “Battle for the Bible” . . . Continue reading →
Covenants, Adam, Modernity, and Context Pt 1 (HC 15)
15. What kind of a mediator and redeemer then must we seek? One who is a true1 and righteous man, 2 and yet more powerful than all creatures, that is, One who is also true God.3 11 Cor 15:21, 22, 25, 26. . . . Continue reading →
Out Now: Sober, Strict, and Scriptural (Updated)
The Calvinpalooza continues for 2009. Sober, Strict, and Scriptural: Collective Memories of John Calvin, 1800–2000 is a collection of essays considering how Calvin’s life, theology, and legacy were received in the modern period. Contributors include, in alphabetical order, R. Bryan Bademan, Patrick Cabanel, R. Scott . . . Continue reading →
Will Christianity Survive?
Machen from 1936.
WSC Graduate Defends Oxford DPhil on Barth
Congratulations to Westminster Seminary California (’04) alumnus and sometime lecturer in Historical Theology at WSC, Ryan Glomsrud (MA, Historical Theology), on the successful completion and defense of his Oxford DPhil thesis on Karl Barth. Here’s a précis: Ryan D. Glomsrud, Karl Barth Between Pietism & Orthodoxy: . . . Continue reading →
Anne Rice is Right (and Wrong)
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 →
Brian Lee on the Real Problem with the Statement by the American Embassy in Cairo
But the real problem with the statement is its failure to grasp the inherently offensive nature of most religious belief. It belies the widely held belief that “good religion” must be utterly private, banal, and non-offensive. Read more
The Myth Of Diversity
For all the talk of diversity, today’s politics are extraordinarily uniform. The West lives under a single political regime, managerial liberalism, that combines an emphasis on individual choice and democratic values with domination of social life by experts, functionaries, and commercial interests. . . . Continue reading →
Did the Reformation Spawn A Million Churches?
Or Who's The Modernist Here?
Note: This post first appeared 5 years ago. The links to the original posts at Emergent Village and Daily Scroll are gone. I searched for the original post on the EV sub-site on Patheos.com but did not find it. What I did . . . Continue reading →
A Rebuke To Hubris
The Modernist creed was 1. The universal fatherhood of God 2. The Universal brotherhood of man 3. Human perfectibility I remember hearing a teacher say, perhaps ironically (it was 4th grade after all), “We’re getting better every day, in every way.” Then . . . Continue reading →
Modernity: The Story Without Its Author
If there is little mystery about where the West got its faith in a narratable world, neither is there much mystery about how the West has lost this faith. The entire project of the Enlightenment was to maintain realist faith while declaring . . . Continue reading →
Heidelberg 58: Bored By Heaven? (2)
58. What comfort do we have from the article of “life everlasting”? That, inasmuch as I now feel in my heart the beginning of eternal joy, I shall after this life possess complete bliss, such as eye has not seen, nor ear . . . Continue reading →
Audio: With Bill Feltner (Pilgrim Radio) On Why So Many Denominations? (pt 2)
It is always good to talk with Bill Feltner, host of His People on the Pilgrim Radio Network (covering Northern California, Nevada, and Wyoming). Recently Bill called to ask the question: why are there so many church denominations? It is a big . . . Continue reading →
Demons In The Digital Age
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 →
Repenting Of Our Agnosticism
For a few months I have been thinking about a phrase I first encountered in 1995 when I was teaching an introductory course in theology at Wheaton. We were using Alister McGrath’s reader as the primary text for the class and he quoted Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906–45) as saying that, in Modernity, we must learn to live “etsi Deus non daretur” (as if God is not a given). Continue reading →
What’s Going on Right Now: Sex, Race, Politics, & Power with Dr. W Robert Godfrey (5)
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 →
Stop Blaming Your Problems On Luther
…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 →
What’s Going on Right Now: Sex, Race, Politics, & Power with W Robert Godfrey (7)
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 →
Bob Godfrey: What’s Going On Right Now? Sex, Race, Politics, And Power (10)—The Darwin Effect
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 →