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Modernity, Pluralism, and Doubt Perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Charles Taylor’s monumental A Secular Age was the simple observation that modern believers and unbelievers experience the world in much the same way. Whether raised by a homeschooling family who taught you to be a six-day creationist, or the child of an irreligious couple in San […]
In the early-twentieth century, Europe underwent massive sociological and philosophical changes that drew the gaze of vast multitudes from the heavens into the heart, and—in a sense—from philosophy to psychology. Herman Bavinck thought this transition so significant that he considered engaging psychology part-and-parcel of engaging people. As a result, he wrote an entire book on […]
We are not far removed from the summer of 2020, yet it seems fair to say that this past year will serve as a landmark in the long and lamentable history of race relations in America. Cities from Minneapolis to Philadelphia to Los Angeles were shaken by unrest. Americans grappled with questions of racially motivated […]
In my late teens and early twenties, I was part of the early so-called, “young, restless, and Reformed” movement. This meant, among other things, that I had to read some Geerhardus Vos, whom everyone at the time recommended as a must-read. As an undergraduate student at a Bible institute, I was well-prepared to handle Vos’s […]
“Granted that most of us know some individuals who are remarkable prayer warriors,” writes D. A. Carson, “is it not nevertheless true that by and large we are better at organizing than agonizing? Better at administering than interceding? Better at fellowship than fasting? Better at entertainment than worship? Better at theological articulation than spiritual adoration? […]
“Religion is not in a robust state of health in modern civilization. Vast multitudes, particularly in industrial and urban centers, live without seeking its sanctions for their actions and die without claiming its comforts in their extremities.” Reinhold Neibuhr, quote on p. 156 The mid-20th century New York theologian Niebuhr’s concern for religion’s modern destiny […]
It is good to remind ourselves of the absolute basics of negative names and their use in theology proper, within the specialty of systematics, where we dare to utter what God is. Confusion on the negative names in systematics is unfortunately quite abundant today, and has been for hundreds of years if we are to […]
This latest work of Richard Muller, Grace and Freedom: William Perkins and the Early Modern Reformed Understanding of Free Choice and Divine Grace, is yet another title added to the very long list of his historical studies on early Modern Reformed Orthodoxy. As often noted by those who have engaged his research over the years, […]
The Cold War dissidents are currently hot commodities. Rod Dreher has been documenting their lives for years now, especially in his new book Live Not by Lies, which tells the stories of those who lived behind the Iron Curtain and found “within [themselves] and [their] community the means to live in the dignity of truth” […]
“The year was 2081 and everyone was finally equal.” So begins Kurt Vonnegut’s incredible dystopian short story, Harrison Bergeron. The short, fictional piece prophetically depicts the extremes to which an authoritarian government might go in order to create a society in which each and every individual is “equal” to all others on every conceivable plane. […]
Betray kind husband thy spouse to our sights… John Donne There we shall rest and see, see and love, love and praise. This is what shall be in the end without end. For what other end do we propose to ourselves than to attain to the kingdom of which there is no end? Augustine Psalm 46 […]
It would be no exaggeration to say that a proper understanding of the two most important covenants that God has made with the human-race is key to understanding the Biblical story, and especially for understanding the apostle Paul’s claim that Christians are not under Law, but under grace. The first of these covenants has become […]
