In the aftermath of World War I, and during the 1918–19 Spanish flu pandemic, William Butler Yeats wrote the now nearly ubiquitous line, Things fall apart the center cannot hold. Borrowing imagery from Christian apocalyptic writings, Yeats’s poem “The Second Coming” conveys the sense of overwhelming disaster. Things are not just different. They are disintegrating. […]
(PART FIVE OF A FIVE-PART SERIES) How do you solve a problem like Maria?How do you catch a cloud and pin it down? Oscar Hammerstein wrote these words to introduce the character of Maria in The Sound of Music. It’s actually a song of frustration, sung by three nuns in the abbey where Maria is […]
Just as the work of Christ is predicated on human incapacity to earn our redemption, the work of the Spirit is predicated on human incapacity for holy living and spiritual formation. The nature of Christian ethics is that the demands it makes on the Christian are more than what one can fulfill in one’s own […]
by Herman Witsiustranslated by Joseph A. Tipton The following is part 2 of a translation of a portion of De Theologo Modesto, an inaugural address delivered by Herman Witsius (1636–1708) to the students and faculty of Leiden University (part 1 was published in the July/August 2021 issue of Modern Reformation). Witsius held positions at Franeker […]
Modern Reformation’s executive editor, Joshua Schendel, recently interviewed Dr. Gregg R. Allison regarding his latest book Embodied: Living as Whole People in a Fragmented World (Baker, 2021). Dr. Allison (PhD, Trinity Evangelical Divinity School) is a professor of Christian theology at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. Dr. Allison is also the secretary […]
When one moves beyond the few stereotypical doctrines and the solas of Reformation theology into its riches and depth, there can be many surprises and discoveries, even on points we as evangelical Protestants thought we knew and understood. A good example is the word of God as it is proclaimed, which Lutheran and Reformed traditions […]
Playwright Eugene O’Neill, who was reared on the road by actor/parents who were performing in various cities, lamented of his unstable life: “I was born in a hotel room and God-damn, I’ll die in a hotel room.” While O’Neill turned his tortured experience into great art, including the memorable Long Day’s Journey into Night, he […]
To Think Christianly: A History of L’Abri, Regent College, and the Christian Study Center MovementBy Charles CothermanIVP Academic, 2020320 pages (hardcover), $35.00 Evangelicals are familiar with well-branded campus ministries such as Cru (Campus Crusade for Christ), InterVarsity, Navigators, and Veritas Forum that have played significant roles in shaping evangelical youth during their college years. Evangelicals […]
Things Unseen: A Systematic Introduction to the Christian Faith and Reformed TheologyBy J. Gresham MachenWestminster Seminary Press, 2020486 pages (hardcover), $49.99 J. Gresham Machen (1881–1937) is well known in conservative Presbyterian circles, faintly known in some broader Reformed circles, and hardly known at all in the broader Christian church. This is a shame. His influence […]
Theology Is for Preaching: Biblical Foundations, Method, and PracticeEdited by Chase R. Kuhn and Paul GrimmondLexham Press, 2021416 pages (paperback), $29.99 Does theological acumen enable better reading and proclaiming of Scripture? If it does, then preaching has a theological element. A visit to an art museum with my artist mother teaches me far more than […]
I understand evangelicals when they wonder why we can’t communicate the gospel through methods more in tune with our culture. Preaching can seem boring or too formal and hardly able to compete with the entertainment we can so easily access. This, however, is not about novelty versus tradition. There is something much deeper in this […]
