In all my theological study, I’ve never come across a better summary of the paradox of fallen human nature than Francis Schaeffer’s phrase “glorious ruin”: We are glorious because we were created by God for the noble purpose of being His image bearers; yet we are ruins because sin has marred the divine image we […]
September/October 2022 The September/October 2022 issue crackles with provocative thoughts about the relationship between science and religion. Some of them expressly reject an inherent conflict between the two, but some seem to assume the reality of the conflict. As a devoted MR reader, I offer three questions for reflection to the editors and to my […]
There is a myth about theology that it is written in open, expansive, even leisured times of quiet reflection. To write a commentary on a book of Scripture, or a treatise on some point of doctrine, or an entire system of theology, or an individual sermon—well, perhaps not a sermon—happens on its own schedule, taking […]
Modern Reformation magazine, along with its sister radio show, the White Horse Inn, has always been committed to engaging in conversational theology among the four confessional traditions of the Protestant Reformation: Lutheran, Anglican, Reformed, and Baptist. In that spirit, we’ve assembled the following harmony of confessional and catechetical excerpts on human nature as created, fallen, […]
Sherif A. Fahim is a lecturer at Alexandria School of Theology in Egypt and the general director of El-Soora Ministries in Egypt. He is currently a PhD candidate at Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary. Sherif is also an elder in a Presbyterian church in Alexandria. Sherif, you have an extraordinary breadth of experience. Having lived, studied, […]
*** Waiting at Gate 3 with my boarding pass and Birkenstocks, I noticed on the wall a matte moonrise over a zag of Badlands sandstone: the violet November vault, the cedars in the crags, every probability of a Peregrine perched somewhere in the shadows. And now I see it, rising on the nascent night, navy-winged, […]
*** The night’s the glory of the dawn As dawn’s the glory of the night. As woman is a man’s fair crown, So fair-crowned man is woman’s wreath. Great strength’s the laurel of the youth, And hoary hair is to the old What wrinkles are to joy; the truth Revealed, a sign of something seen […]
“I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.” (Job 42:5) The book of Job has been described as beautiful because of its artful structure and elegant poetry—but not often because of its stark display of terrible […]
Although all of God’s revelation sparkles with truth, goodness, and beauty, I often find that certain doctrines give off a peculiar flash. From the beginning, Christians have wondered at the doctrine of glorification from the vantage point of our participation in the Truth and Goodness of Christ. We hear a lot today about “my truth […]
*** I. We squatted among the cattails on five-gallon buckets flipped and flecked with cement older than me. The country pond winked in the moonlight as we waited for channel cats to fetch the chicken liver wound around our treble hooks. We waited with the crickets and the bullfrogs. We waited in the darkness of […]
For this issue exploring the goodness of humanity, we’ve decided to republish this classic article by Donald Matzat from Modern Reformation’s very first year of publication (the November/December 1992 issue). Here, Matzat addresses the twofold way we must think of our self-worth, whether before God or before others. If we want to affirm both, Matzat […]
*** Brazos Press | 2022 | 272 pages (hardcover) | $24.99 Today the “supply chain” is often a topic of daily radio programming, a reminder of our human interdependence. Despite constant clues of our dependence on others for the food we eat, the buildings we inhabit, the cars we drive, and the infrastructure of our […]
