Paul F. M. Zahl
As the articles in this issue of Modern Reformation suggest, evangelicalism is experiencing a change in seasons: former evangelical statesmen are passing from the scene, new evangelicals don't seem to rally around the same issues and ideas as their forefathers, and it's increasingly difficult (if it was ever really possible) to identify clearly what an […]
It has been a long time since I have read a book that has portrayed such an important topic in such a progressive manor. I found myself stopping numerous times through the first 50 pages wondering if I had understood what the author was saying-not because this is a hard book to read, but because […]
It is a striking fact that one particular sentence from St. Paul occurs in three foundational documents of the Reformation. And it is not Romans 1:17! Moreover, each document uses this sentence to highlight some aspect of the doctrine of justification. (1) The sentence is from Romans 4:25. Martin Luther places it at the head […]
The English historian Patrick Collinson describes the Church of England in its founding decades as "putting down its anchors in the outer roads of the broad harbor of the Calvinist or (better) Reformed Tradition." (1) I hope it is possible to say that Anglicanism floats its ship even closer to the center of the somewhat […]
"Evangelicalism Divided: A Record of Crucial Change in the Years 1950 to 2000" by Iain H. Murray
This is an extremely important book. It presents a well-developed objection to two decisive turns in evangelical life over the last half century. The objection is almost unanswerable. While Iain Murray is somewhat unfair to a number of outstanding Christian personalities in England, he also forces the reader to decide between two opposing schools of […]
E. P. Sanders mistakes the semi-Pelagianism of Second Temple Judaism for Pelagianism pure and simple, and thus misunderstands Luther's critique of the Roman Catholic Church as well as his grasp of Paul. Sanders is reacting to something that doesn't exist. He has, therefore, founded a movement with an illusory raison d'etre! Let me explain: Sanders […]
In reading the literature of the New Perspective carefully, we see several glaring weaknesses that deserve attention. One of the catchphrases of the New Perspective is "solution to plight." The proponents believe that Paul underwent an experience on the road to Damascus that took place apart from any supposed inner struggle that we expect he […]
Another catchphrase of the New Perspective is "boundary markers." If Christianity were not about the Law in any fundamental sense, insofar as Judaism presented the Law in more benign terms than Christians thought it did prior to our time, then it was about the Law in a penultimate and less deep-reaching way. The real issue […]
"Homosexuality: The Use of Scientific Research in the Church's Moral Debate" by Stanton L. Jones & Mark A. Yarhouse
This very important book will strengthen the hand of all who seek to witness within the churches to a traditional ethic concerning homosexuality. It will also blunt the edge on the use of science-or, rather, pseudo-science-to intimidate proponents of the traditional view. This work reveals the face-behind-the-mask of the assault on the classical viewpoint that […]
In some ways, Christmas decontextualizes the historical Jesus more than any other time. We do not know at what time of the year he was born. There was almost definitely no snow on the ground in Judea. And there is no proof, beyond strong and early tradition, that Christ was born at Bethlehem. Even David […]
I was struck by an editorial in the Frankfurt (Germany) newspaper, which observed that the election of Cardinal Ratzinger to be the new pope was not a threat to Germany, a country that voted for the Reformation, even though Benedict XVI represents "the Counter-Reformation in person." First, I enjoyed the admission from a secular European […]
Long before George H. W. Bush spoke of a kinder, gentler America-almost fifty years before to be exact-American evangelicals had tried to fashion a less abrasive and more affirming version of their faith. The year was 1924 and a variety of fundamentalists assembled to put aside acrimony and mudslinging, and to put forward a positive […]
Within the Anglican context in which I serve, we are constantly offered up an insight from Romans 14, as the antidote to "fundamentalism." "Fundamentalism" is the word that liberal opponents of our evangelical school of thought within the church use to label our position. The stock argument deployed against theological conservatives in First-World Anglicanism is […]
The question of who Jesus was in world history and what he was really like can be unnerving for Christians. What if the view we have of him, as all-compassionate, universally and inclusively loving, embracing of every single sort of sufferer, the epitome of kindness and gentleness, were not a true one? What if the […]
