Some years ago I was standing at a pedestrian crossing in the town of Echterdingen, near Stuttgart in Germany. It was a Sunday morning. The crossing light was at red. I looked quickly left and right, there was no car... continue

INTRODUCTIONReformed Christians are indebted to the Puritans for a variety of reasons, not the least of which for their contribution to preaching.  In many ways, Puritan preaching was the very heartbeat of the Puritan movement.  It would be no exaggeration... continue

The great Danish theologian and philosopher, Sǿren Kierkegaard, is probably best known in Christian circles for his haunting reflections upon God's command to Abraham to sacrifice his son, Isaac.  While I am guessing many of us would question the theology... continue

The most important truth about sin is the one least recognized in our day. It is this: all sin is primarily sin against God. Where sin is understood as merely a moral concept rather than mainly a religious one,[1]  where... continue

June 15 marks the tenth anniversary of the death of James Montgomery Boice, who was for thirty-two years the pastor of Tenth Presbyterian Church in Philadelphia, the dean of Reformed pastor-scholars in his generation, and my beloved pastor.  The enduring... continue

Relatively early in my preaching career I had the opportunity to preach the opening sermon at a conference.  The main conference speaker was a man that I consider to be one of the finest preachers of our times.  After hearing... continue

Miroslav Volf is a distinguished scholar. He is the Henry B. Wright Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School and he is the director of the Yale Centre for Faith and Culture. His theological trajectory includes being the son... continue

Augustine is read widely in the secular academy as a philosopher foundational to understanding the development of western civilization and for his relevance in the modern disciplines of literature, psychology, politics, ethics and aesthetics.  One gets the feeling however that... continue

None of the systematic theologies I own include `being as thick as two short planks' in their treatments of the divine attributes; but it appears that there is a trend today to rectify this neglected aspect of God's being.  ... continue

The Trials and Tribulations of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian ChurchThe Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARPC) is one of the smaller and lesser known Presbyterian bodies in North America.  With a stated membership of around thirty-five thousand, the ARPC is one... continue

Under-Powered PreachersLast year a member of my congregation gave my wife and me tickets to the U2 concert in Boston.  The seats were amazing, and the concert was even better.  Bono and company did not disappoint.  But almost equally incredible... continue

[The following article is taken from the book, Should Christians Embrace Evolution? (ed. Norman Nevin and published by IVP -UK, 2009).  The book it to be published soon in the USA by P & R. Permission to republish was kindly... continue

To twist a line from a church father, "What does Richard Dawkins have to do with Tertullian?" Or, to put it another way, "What do the Church fathers and new atheists have in common?" Answer: they ask the right questions.... continue

For the first time in a number of years I decided to attend the Wheaton Theology Conference. This year's conference title--"Jesus, Paul and the People of God: A Theological Dialogue with N. T. Wright"--obviously proved enticing to many. continue

Basic Christian: The Story of John StottBy Roger Steer288 pIVP (March 2010)Political writer and social commentator David Brooks once wrote of John Stott (quoting Michael Cromartie of the Ethics and Public Policy Center), "if evangelicals could elect a pope, Stott... continue

Festschrift, like schadenfreude and blitz, is reckoned to be an untranslatable German word. The OED has a go, however: a festschrift is 'a collection of writings presented to a scholar to mark an occasion in his life'. This leaves a certain amount of elasticity. Nowadays the person honoured may himself present a paper in his own festschrift. And - wait for it - the one honoured besides appearing in it himself may have planned the volume, as John Frame recently did his. continue

A friend of mine recently asked me when I was going to get back to writing on church history. You've done the Christianity and culture thing with the Jesus book and the blues book, when are you getting back to church history? continue

For many men of a certain age, the mid-life crisis is just that: a mid-life crisis, a time for despairing that youth, good looks and perhaps hair have gone, never to return. For me, however, the experience has been pretty positive so far: not only have I been able to hand on my old banger of car to my oldest son (thus making myself the greatest dad in the world), but I've also broken with my lifelong habit of driving pieces of junk until they disintegrate and purchased an inexpensive but decent sports car. continue

The recent comments by Professor Bruce Waltke, to the effect that Christianity risks becoming a cult, or at least being perceived as a cult, unless it embraces evolution, have provoked a storm of comment, pro and con.  I do not... continue

While the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church Synod, a confessional evangelical Presbyterian denomination, has worked for some years to gently turn around its increasingly secularized Erskine college, the reality of difference between the denomination's and the former board and present administration's... continue