In this issue of Modern Reformation we encourage readers to ask some tough questions about the unity of our churches. We're raising a hot-potato issue: Do women get the short end of the stick when it comes to the study of theology? Scanning the evangelical landscape, it seems to us that women suffer from a […]
Dr. Kathleen Buswell Nielson has written numerous Bible studies as well as various articles, poems, and a book, Bible Study: Following the Ways of the Word (2011). Originally intended for women in her church, her Bible studies have now reached thousands. Kathleen serves as director of women's initiatives for The Gospel Coalition. She also serves […]
I recently moved (for the fifth time in two years) into a new apartment. My longsuffering brother, Mark, helped me schlep all fifteen of my book boxes. He's a good kid, but his appreciation for the literary arts is tragically underdeveloped. He was scanning my shelves when he stopped and pointed at The Brothers Karamazov. […]
When Rev. Sutjipto Subeno, senior pastor of the Reformed Evangelical Church of Indonesia (GRII) in Surabaya, invited me to visit him for two weeks, I thought he was just being polite’but I realized he was serious when he sent me a detailed plan for my stay. In addition to book presentations in Christian schools, he […]
Theology matters. Since God is love, the study of God produces a correct understanding of the source and nature of love (1 John 4:8; KJV). Many Christians avoid answering the nagging question asked by nonbelievers and believers alike regarding why a loving God allows afflictions if he is indeed sovereign and could stop all pain […]
Abraham Kuyper spoke of the danger of a moribund conservatism in his own movement: the separation from the national Reformed Church in the Netherlands. In a sermon preached in Utrecht in 1870, Kuyper complained that a generic conservatism had replaced a genuine Reformed impulse in the church. Gradually recovering from a befuddled spirituality that vaporizes […]
Adam had received much. Though formed out of the dust of the earth, he was nevertheless a bearer of the image of God. He was placed in a garden which was a place of loveliness and was richly supplied with everything good to behold and to eat. He received the pleasant task of dressing the […]
In my own experience in academia I have sometimes been asked, often in the context of an accreditation visit, “Are women’s voices being heard on campus?” or “Do you think that women’s issues are being addressed?” I have been puzzled by these questions. Do women speak with one voice? And what exactly are “women’s issues”? […]
I was once a member of a church whose senior pastor had retired. A search committee was appointed to do what was necessary to find a suitable successor. The task seemed daunting since the retiring pastor was a gifted preacher under whose ministry people of widely diverse nationality and social backgrounds had been incorporated into […]
I once heard of an elderly Christian woman who had difficulty walking due to chronic arthritis. Despite her condition, she faithfully attended morning and evening worship every Lord's Day. When asked how she always managed to come to both services, she responded with, "My heart gets there first, and my legs just follow after." Unfortunately […]
The number of young people leaving the church after high school is staggering’estimated somewhere between 60’80 percent. And yet, youth ministries across the nation continue to pack in more and more pizza parties, video games, and magicians’yes, magicians’to keep youth coming back, hoping that Jesus will somehow become the all-satisfying, all-glorious treasure of teenage hearts. […]
Among the contradictions of my childhood experiences in churches was the fact that, on one hand, there was the famous portrait of Jesus by Warner Sallman’meek and mild verging on the effeminate’and, on the other hand, the appearance of various sports figures to remind us that Jesus was not just male but a man's man […]
Simply Jesus is simply wonderful. This is N. T. Wright's best popular-level book since The Challenge of Jesus, eclipsing its sister publication Simply Christian in every way. As a precursor to the highly anticipated How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels (HarperOne, 2012), Tom Wright first sets the stage with a full, […]
In a helpful addition to the growing evangelical literature on poverty, Steve Corbett and Brian Fikkert argue persuasively that many well-meaning attempts to help the poor end up hurting them, as well as those trying to help. The book's title is unfortunate, connoting an overall pessimism toward helping the poor, when the authors are clearly […]
In 1826, the Princeton theologian Charles Hodge traveled to Europe because he felt his facility in foreign languages was terribly deficient. During Hodge's visit, Archibald Alexander warned him to "remember that you live in a poisoned atmosphere," because of the rising tide of liberal Protestantism. "If you lose the lively and deep impression of divine […]
