Resources from 2024
Former President Jimmy Carter has entered the throng of the heavenly Zion. I’m pretty sure my grandmother—Bigmama—will find a way to snap a selfie with him. In my early teens, Bigmama and I would spar every time the evening news came on. A dyed-in-the-wool Democrat and Southern Baptist, she was ever at Mr. Carter’s defense. [...]
Love of the tender virgin mother,
Be Thou the love of all my heart.
Came as a babe to be my brother,
Pay for my sin, and heav’n impart.
Love of the tender virgin mother,
Be Thou the love of all my heart. [...]
“Long lay the world in sin and error pining, 'til He appeared and the soul felt its worth.” These lines from “O Holy Night,” first put to paper in 1847 by the French poet Placide Cappeau, seem to resonate a little more deeply each year I sing them. [...]
The Christmas holiday is a swirl of tinsel, market capitalism, cookie sheets, and, if Andy Williams is to be believed, “scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.” Yet, many of the attractions of the holiday [...]
As a teenager attending a theology conference, Mike Horton walked up to James Montgomery Boice, an influential pastor at Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, and said, “Dr. Boice, I want to be a reformer like you.” That moment in the late ’70s [...]
I thought I had almost finished writing my children’s book Church History when I discovered a brand-new world. As many had realized long before me, most books on the history of Christianity have focused on Europe and America, neglecting the rich account of God’s work in the rest of the world. [...]
When we truly love our spouse, or our child, or our friend, such love isn't simply a declaration of loyalty (although it is that). Real love fleshes itself out in embodied activity: showering them with praise, telling and showing them we care, treating them well, honoring them in conversation with others. [...]
Just as the Protestant reformation sought to restore doctrine and worship practice in accord with Scripture, so too a modern reformation must do the same. For a modern reformation to fully flower, there must not just be a return to biblical doctrine, but also [...]
Were one to judge by recent Protestant publications dedicated to the themes of catholicity and confessionalism, one could fairly conclude that the Anglo-American Protestant world is witnessing something of a “catholicity movement.” [...]
I can still remember the staircase I was sitting on when I was “born again . . . again.” Like many who discovered the Reformation after growing up in broad evangelicalism, I loved Jesus and knew my Bible, but I had very little assurance of salvation, nor did I really know how the story of the Bible held together. [...]
Every Advent, millions of Americans will at some point sit down and participate in a long-honored and nearly sacred ritual: watching The Christmas Story. This classic holiday film—no, myth—is chock-full of moments that depict what Christmas means [...]
Modern Reformation magazine isn’t going away, but it is changing. That change is still in its early stages and primarily concerns our choice of media. We’re shifting from a print subscription periodical to a digital multimedia newsletter. Our website will be a bigger priority now. We’ll focus on publishing high-quality [...]
One of the advantages of living long enough is passing along stories. My grandparents lived with us until they died, telling stories that shaped me and my interest in history. Modern Reformation began in my living room, as a bulletin of sorts before it grew into an actual magazine. [...]
The projections are in: American consumers are set to spend over 11.6 billion dollars this year on Halloween. That’s larger than the Gross Domestic Product of some countries. And it should force us to wrestle with a question: why are we becoming increasingly fascinated with Halloween celebrations? [...]
When I attended Calvin College back in the early 2000s, students who believed in biblical inerrancy were roundly critiqued and mocked. It felt like an entire generation of future pastors were being wiped out in the Religion Department. By God’s grace, a rogue professor [...]
