April 2013 Archives

Richard A. Muller, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition: On the Work of Christ and the Order of Salvation (Grand Rapids: Baker Academic, 2012), 288pp., paperback, $39.99Richard Muller's latest book, Calvin and the Reformed Tradition, is the product of many decades... continue

This month, I thought I would use this column to indulge in a little thought experiment. What, I wonder, if the conservative evangelical church world came to be dominated by a symbiotic network of high profile and charismatic leaders (think more Weber than Wimber), media organisations, and big conferences? What if leadership, doctrine, and policy were no longer rooted in the primacy of biblical polity and the local church? What if, in other words, all of this become a function of an Evangelical Industrial Complex? continue

A Truly Divisive PondA Review of Thomas Albert Howard, God and the Atlantic: America, Europe, and the Religious Divide (Oxford University Press, 2013) PB, $29.95One of the most striking differences between the USA, my adopted residence, and the UK, my... continue

"The beginning of wisdom is the definition of words" (Socrates). If you define a word in a certain way you make claims about reality. Our postmodern culture has stirred us to come to terms with the fact that words do not have stable meanings but exist in an flux that drives them in one way or another depending on the interests of their users. This is the current situation of the word "Evangelical". continue

Robert Letham, A Christian's Pocket Guide to Baptism: The Water that Unites. Fearn: Christian Focus, 2012. Paper. $7.99.Baptism is one of the more regularly practiced rites in the church, but is likely one of the least understood. Though churches use... continue

The rise of gay rights, including, now, the all but inevitable legal support for same-sex marriage at home and abroad, has the effect of a tidal wave: better get out of the way, or be drowned in obscurity. Sure, there will be ups and downs, advances and setbacks. But things are moving fast. Two Presidents have changed their minds about the subject. President Obama, in a very public announcement last spring, declared that his views had "evolved," followed by his second inaugural address, where he actually called for gay marriages. And former President Bill Clinton has recently disavowed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which he had signed into law seventeen years previously continue

What I would like for us to begin to think about in this post is a Reformed theology of persuasion in apologetics. Possibly one of the more frustrating aspects of a Covenantal apologetic for some may be that, with any answer to any objection, there always remain questions that could have come up, issues that might have been discussed, objections that were not addressed. continue

The Devil and Pierre Gernet: Storiesby David Bentley HartEerdmans, 2012$25.00, paper, 176 pages My Dinner with D. B. Hart Though much has been written, and continues to be written, on the dramatic monologues of Robert Browning, far too few critics have celebrated, or even noticed,... continue

The need for church development, so acute in China, exists wherever the gospel is bearing fruit. Indeed, the proper goal of the church's mission is not just to announce the good news to those who have not heard or to call unbelievers to faith and repentance; the church's mission has always included establishing a well-ordered church in every land for the welfare of Godís people and perpetuation of the ministry. continue