The word “calling,” or in its Latinate form “vocation,” had long been used in reference to the sacred ministry and the religious orders. Martin Luther was the first to use “vocation” to refer also to secular offices and occupations. Today, the term has become common-place, another synonym for a profession or job, as in “vocational […]
“But we urge you, brethren, to … aspire to live quietly, to mind your own business, and to work well with your hands, as we directed you, so that you may behave properly toward outsiders and be dependent on no one” (1 Thes. 4:11-12). At once simple and profound, the apostle’s common-sense approach to piety […]
The Scriptures declare that “God is love” (1 John 4:8, 4:16) and that he is “kind toward all he has made” (Ps. 145:17). But is this all that needs to be said about God and his posture towards creation? Recently, some evangelicals have been trying to revise some long-standing Christian convictions about God’s nature and […]
Abraham Kuyper (1837-1921) was one of the most remarkable Christian thinkers of the modern era. Though reared in the home of a Dutch Reformed minister, he did not experience a conversion to orthodox Calvinism until he was a minister himself. His work and thought then consciously flowed out of that orthodox commitment. Yet his thinking […]
In 1568, a prominent Heidelberg physician named Erastus wrote on the subject of the church, setting off a controversy that rages even to this day. The dispute centered on the various responsibilities of the church and the state, especially regarding the decision of who could and could not partake of the Lord’s Supper. Simply put, […]
Dare we think of death as a vocation? The author of Ecclesiastes thought so: “To everything there is a season, a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die” (Eccles. 3:1-2). Likewise the author of Hebrews: “And it is appointed for men to die once, but after […]
When I was a young scholar, I was given some excellent advice. “Choose one or two great thinkers,” I was told, “and make them your specialties. Live with them, reading them regularly, and you will become a better thinker for it.” I chose Augustine and Jonathan Edwards, and I have no regrets. No matter who […]
