*** Eerdmans | 2021 | 366 pages (hardcover) | $50.00 John Webster has been called “the theologian’s theologian” for his incisive style and project of “theological theology,” which responds to the revelation of the Triune God in faithful speech and action. Theology in the hands of Webster is always a vital act, coram Deo, marked […]
This is a very helpful little treatise that accomplishes its goal of providing a clear and orderly theological account of Holy Scripture. There are, in my opinion, too few of these kinds of serious and yet generally accessible books, and the author, John Webster, is a significant voice in contemporary theology. Webster is well aware […]
A Companion to the Theology of John Webster Edited by Michael Allen and R. David NelsonEerdmans, June 2021336 pages (hardcover), $50.00 When it comes to the late John Webster, my general philosophy is that if he wrote something, you should read it. While Webster’s sudden death in 2016 was a great loss for the church, […]
Some opening sentences address readers similarly to when the door knocks but you know that it is only the UPS worker dropping off a package—there is no urgency to open the door; there is no urgency to keep reading, other than the commitment you already made to reading a book you purchased. Other opening lines […]
If Christian theology today is sometimes in disarray—as, indeed, I believe it is—then one of the major reasons is…its lack of roots. There can be few things more necessary for the renewal of Christian theology,” said John Webster, “than the promotion of awed reading of classical Christian texts, scriptural and other. John Webster Evangelicals are […]
When I attended seminary, I learned not only that eschatology precedes soteriology (Vos), but also that ontology precedes epistemology. Ontology is the study of being, epistemology, the study of knowing. Before we can ask how we know, we need to consider who we are. My former professor Michael Horton puts it this way: “The widest […]
John Webster writes that, “Holy Communion proclaims the Lord’s death as it testifies to, points to, indicates, what was done once when Jesus the Servant of the Lord was put to death” (Confronted by Grace, 76). Correspondingly, Matthew 26:1-30 highlights Holy Communion’s formal installation by Jesus, and concludes with a hymn and a shift of […]
British theologian John Webster has noted, "To confess is not to reflect, even to reflect theologically; it is to herald the gospel…. To confess is to testify-and to testify with a bit of noise." It would be surprising if such noisy testifying did not at times lead to unrest and even division within the churches […]
John Calvin complained of being assailed by "two sects"—"the Pope and the Anabaptists." Obviously quite different from each other, both nevertheless "boast extravagantly of the Spirit" and in so doing "bury the Word of God under their own falsehoods." (1) Both separate the Spirit from the Word by advocating the living voice of God with […]
The executive editor of Modern Reformation, Joshua Schendel, recently talked with Dr. Michael Allen, who is the John Dyer Trimble Professor of Systematic Theology at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida. Dr. Allen is the author of many articles and books, including Reformed Theology (T & T Clark, 2010) and, with his colleague Scott Swain, Reformed Catholicity: The […]
Has the church lost the conviction that God speaks through his Word? I’ve heard far too many anemic sermons, and surely preached my share—sermons that present information, even connecting the dots of doctrine and application—but without addressing the hearers with the authority of the God who still speaks. We hear Christ speaking when the Word […]
When I went off to test myself in the academy, I was full of aspirations of becoming a real scholar: studied, cultured, erudite. But I was not quite so full of intellectual capacity (though I secretly hoped that I would uncover latent capacities with much reading—it didn’t happen; instead I found a quite contrary capacity: […]