Nature is an idol who has never gone out of fashion. In every generation, she is rediscovered and re-deified. She teaches us to decry fakeness in all things: crackers, detergents, personalities. She pressures us to buy organic, to be true to ourselves and our schools. Nature, in her idolatrous capacity, would rather have her devotees […]
Despite the existence in print of odd genres like Young Adult Fiction, Manga, or Online Harry Potter Fan Fiction, I suggest that perhaps the strangest literary genre today is something I call "Dramatic Clergy Fiction." Impossible, you say, that such literature could yield a profit in today's economy. Yet recent novels set in pastoral-sounding towns […]
One of the most significant decisions taken by the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA) was the action of the third General Assembly when the Assembly declared: "The Directory for Worship is an approved guide and should be taken seriously as the mind of the Church agreeable to the Standards. However, it does not have the […]
Merold Westphal writes in Whose Community? Which Interpretation?: "It is sometimes said, that one is not prepared to read any serious philosophical text until one has already read it at least once, and there is a lot of truth in this reminder that philosophy, like physics, takes serious, disciplined preparation. There are no cheap seats […]
Do not let your children do anything that makes you dislike them. Jordan Peterson The unjust stumble over you and are justly chastised. Augustine All I wanted to do was buy my sister the cereal she wanted. My desire was to give her what she desired. So I let her pick out the cereal, and […]
Part of the genius of the Pixar animated movies is the oftentimes grim back story that sets the stage for the main characters and their escapades. Consider Pixar's 2008 movie, WALL-E. After decades of over-consumption at the ubiquitous "Buy N Large" stores, the population of Earth is sent cruising on an intergalactic spaceship while robots […]
Dr. Phillip Cary is professor of philosophy and chair of his department at Eastern University in Pennsylvania. He’s the author of Good News for Anxious Christians (Brazos, 2022) and The Nicene Creed (Lexham, 2023). This interview has been edited for length and flow. Listen to an extended version online at modernreformation.org/already. Phil, this issue of […]
Not long ago, I taught an online apologetics course for a Christian college where class was held in a chat room. The students were required to attend for a specified period of time and then were free to leave, though they were also free to stay around if they wished. Often, two or three would […]
Catechism Training Hearts, Teaching Minds: Family Devotions Based on the Shorter Catechism by Starr Meade (P&R Publishing, 2000). Family devotions based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism.Catechism for Young Children (Christian Education and Publications; www.cepbookstore.com). Excellent start for very young children.Firm in the Faith: A Fifty-Two-Week Study Based on the Westminster Shorter Catechism by Dennis D. […]
In a current White Horse Inn roundtable discussion, Michael Horton (MH), Ken Jones (KJ), Kim Riddlebarger (KR), and Rod Rosenbladt (RR) discuss the book of Job. You can follow the rest of the discussion at www.whitehorseinn.org. Job was a man deeply devoted to God, and Satan chided God for Job's faithfulness: Why wouldn't he be […]
What are we doing on the Lord's day, especially when we are gathered as God's people in church? How do we understand Christian growth and discipleship-as chiefly corporate or individual, as nourished by the preached Word and the divinely instituted Sacraments or by self-approved "means of grace"? Would an outsider coming into our worship services […]
And when the hour came, he reclined at table, and the apostles with him. And he said to them, “I have earnestly desired to eat this Passover with you before I suffer.”—Luke 22:14–15 Google “last meals” and you’ll discover an online fascination with what people chose to eat when they knew it would be the […]