Reformation21

Despite the rumours, I am not a technophobe. True, I am no good at technology; but I do not particularly fear it, as I might fear, say, the revival of disco music as a popular cultural phenomenon or a government-enforced William Shatner season on Turner Classic Movies. Thus, I love my computer; I...

A few years ago I was attending a conference on behalf of the Seminary arranged by an organization which includes in its membership institutions from a wide variety of theological and religious perspectives. As the conference stretched over a weekend, there was a worship service arranged for the...

This year has witnessed a publishing event of real interest to many Christians: the publication of N.T. Wright's Justification: God's Plan and Paul's Vision. Wright is widely considered the most provocative writer on justification today and the arrival of this book has deservedly garnered much...

Recently, a friend quoted John Kennedy to me: `To lead is to choose.' It is not a quotation that I have been able to verify, but whether Kennedy said it or not, it is surely a piece of brilliant insight into the nature of leadership. One of the luxuries of having no power or influence is surely the...

It has been a good couple of months for the celebrating of life at memorial services. First, there was the celebration of Michael Jackson's life and then there was Ted Kennedy, enfant terrible turned elder statesman. Both men, in their different ways, were proof positive that, in modern America,...

In order to establish the doctrine of penal substitution we are not dependent on a few isolated proof-texts here and there in Scripture. The doctrine is woven indelibly into the very fabric of the account of the crucifixion, with numerous threads drawn from the Old Testament. Rather than...

"You're not going to preach right through Job are you? This is going to be so depressing!" Such, at first, was the reaction of one or two of my congregation at the church door on Sunday morning after I began a series of twelve sermons working through this great book. Not the most encouraging of...

Theology and literary flair. These days it seems never the twain shall meet. The former often suffers from clunky constructions and idiosyncratic pedantry; but when mixed with the latter, however, it turns sweetly succinct and yet able to ply the heart, catapulting it upward. It's no mistake that...

In last month's Wages column, I reflected upon my experience in Rome and Padua shortly before Christmas, a week that involved both the awesome beauty of the Vatican, the dazzling intellectual accomplishments of Catholic theological education, and the weird folk religion that surrounds relics such...

On the whole, I have always taken the position that I do not respond to hostile reviews, simply on the grounds that the reviewer is entitled to his or her opinions, and the reading public is entitled to weigh the arguments and come to its own conclusion; but the recent review by Iain H. Murray in...