As we approach the end of 2022, it seems appropriate to reminisce. Looking back, 2022 has been an exciting year for Modern Reformation. We’ve celebrated thirty years with a redesign of the print magazine and website, we’ve published some significant content—tackling tough but important issues in a spirit of humility and fidelity—and we’ve engaged in […]
Tuesday, 01 November, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
The early chapters of Genesis have always been of extraordinary interest to the people of God. Attempts to plumb the depths of the origin accounts became a particular preoccupation in the commentaries, homilies, and letters of the Patristics. Augustine, inheriting this tradition, famously attempted an explanation of the Genesis creation account no less than five […]
Thursday, 01 September, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
*** Eerdmans | 2020 | 328 pages | (paperback) | $39.99 For the purpose of introducing the current dialogue between specifically Reformed theology and evolutionary theory (1), this book serves admirably. As to its purpose of demonstrating that Reformed theology and evolutionary theory are compatible (5–6; cf. 266–67), this book will encourage some while others […]
Thursday, 01 September, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
This is a special issue of Modern Reformation. With it, we are wading into new waters that—to many today—may seem quite turbulent, even perilous: the relation of science to the Christian faith. As with all the issues of MR this year, we’re taking a historical approach rather than a theoretical one. In particular, we’re looking […]
Thursday, 01 September, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
The image of the cross as self-sacrificing love has come under much scrutiny over the past half century. This is because, as James Cone remarked, “The cross can heal and hurt; it can be empowering and liberating but also enslaving and oppressive. There is no one way in which the cross can be interpreted.”[1] So, […]
Monday, 25 July, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
Throughout the great ecclesial conflicts that troubled England during its civil wars and the Restoration, John Owen (1616–1683) set for himself the task of specifying the terms upon which the English church could unite groups such as the Episcopalians, Presbyterians, and Independents, while also excluding such groups as the Catholics and Socinians. On one occasion, […]
Friday, 01 July, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
The Jesuit priest Clifford Howell has claimed that the very essence of Protestantism “is the principle of private judgement.” This means, Howell charges (as do many others), that Protestantism is at its core inherently divisive. Protestants have responded to this charge over and over again, as when Protestant historian Phillip Schaff remarked that the accusation […]
Friday, 01 July, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
From early on, Christianity has been “a religion of the book.” Writing in the latter part of the second century, Irenaeus claimed: We have learned from none others the plan of our salvation, than from those through whom the Gospel has come down to us, which they did at one time proclaim in public, and, […]
Monday, 02 May, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
In the late 1520s, Martin Luther wrote a letter to Henry VIII of England in which he responded to the king’s charges of “detestable heresies.” Henry was particularly outraged by Luther’s notion of “evangelical liberty,” by which he thought Luther was calling for a freedom from all law. To Henry VIII, Luther was the “man […]
Tuesday, 01 March, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
In the very first “In this Issue” of Modern Reformation, Editor-in-Chief Michael Horton lamented that both popular culture and evangelicalism had pushed aside attentive and careful consideration of God, seeking instead entertainment, amusement, and fun. “So in this issue,” Dr. Horton wrote, “we will be raising thinking to the top of the agenda.” Indeed, not […]
Saturday, 01 January, 2022 by Joshua Schendel
Thomas Cole’s The Voyage of Life gives striking artistic expression to what I presume is a fairly common human experience: the maturation process from childhood through to old age. The series consists of four paintings, Childhood, Youth, Manhood, Old Age, each depicting a person of the represented age in a boat, floating down the waterway […]
Friday, 31 December, 2021 by Joshua Schendel
Not contentedness but more power; not peace but war; not virtue but fitness.” So wrote Friedrich Nietzsche in his Der Antichrist. For most Christians, such a bold assertion will sit ill at ease for them, to understate the matter. This push for power by means of might and combat is not easy to marry with […]
Monday, 01 November, 2021 by Joshua Schendel