Blogs by Phil Ryken

A ref21 reader has written to remind me of another good use for apologetics.  According to Calvin, we need apologetics not so much "to convert the hearts of the ungodly but to stop their obstreperous mouths."  One wonders what Richard Dawkins would... continue

During Sunday evening (!) worship a few weeks ago, I was refreshed to hear again a hymn by Derek Thomas and Paul Jones.  The hymn is entitled "Our Father Bless'd, To Us Bestows."  I believe we may have posted it before,... continue

I don't know if the discipline of apologetics is overrated or not, but one aspect of apologetics seems to be underappreciated.  While apologetics may be useful in the exercise of evangelism (helping give people reasons to believe, which of course... continue

Readers who lament the undeserved popularity of Richard Dawkins's book The God Delusion will be heartened by the sharp criticism the book receives in the January 11 issue of The New York Review of Books.  While generally unsympathetic to biblical... continue

Previous posts have mourned the passing of Al Groves, who taught Old Testament at Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.  I was blessed by a letter Al wrote to his friends, to be shared at the time of his funeral.  The letter... continue

Lisa (full disclosure: a woman to whom I have been married for 19 years) received the following email this week from a distant friend: "Tell your husband that he is on my iPOD between the Doobie Brothers and Duran Duran... continue

In personal response to Derek's question: by celebrating their wives with tangible expressions of matrimonial affection.  But I hope it's not a day too late to sound a cautionary note arising from a healthy Calvinist doctrine of total depravity: "Many a... continue

From Makoto Fujimura's "Refractions" essay on a New York exhibit of letters from soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Here Fujimura is reflecting on the declaration of Jesus that wars will happen:"In Jesus' realism of 'these things must happen,' he was... continue

It is good to see John Tweeddale introducing the work of Richard Muller -- a world-class scholar who has done much to rehabilitate a healthy understanding of Reformed theology after Calvin.  I read Muller's works on post-Reformation Reformed dogmatics early... continue

From one of Makoto Fujimura's "Refractions" essays, writing in response to the Amish school girl who tried to offer her life for her classmates, with the implications for artists:"Here, in a miracle nobody noticed, is a bugle call also directed... continue