I’ve been reading Richard Wurmbrand’s Tortured for Christ, a book about the sufferings of Christians under the Communists, particularly Wurmbrand’s own suffering in Romania. This book puts some flesh and bones on what we read about suffering in 1 Peter, enabling us to see with our . . . . Continue Reading »
The assertion that “all truth is God’s truth” obviously doesn’t reflect a relativistic outlook on the existence or nature of truth. Those who express this sentiment truly do believe there is truth to be discovered. In a pluralistic context, however, where the epistemological . . . . Continue Reading »
In a Mars Hill Audio interview, Ellen Charry observes that the Protestant theologians of the seventeenth century, even before the Enlightenment, had a tendency to detach truth from historical reference. The truth of theology was seen in the coherence of the system of truth found in Scripture, . . . . Continue Reading »
Like our interpretations of ancient rabbinic debates, our interpretations of church historical debates often deal with theological content abstracted from the political circumstances that actually gave rise to the content. In his classic The Puritan Origins of the American Self , Sacvan Bercovitch . . . . Continue Reading »
God is a spring. So says Gregory of Nyssa: “As you came near the spring you would marvel, seeing that the water was endless, as it constantly gushed up and poured forth. Yet you could never say that you had seen all the water. How could you see what was still hidden in the bosom of the earth? . . . . Continue Reading »
The greatest truth ever known to man is quite obviously the Good News of our salvation. The Lord Jesus came to be our sinless substitute, providing the necessary payment for sin through his death, resurrecting three days later. Now, through the work of the Holy Spirit, those whom he calls may abide . . . . Continue Reading »
Luther explained the simile of Psalm 1, which compares the righteous man to a tree that “yields fruit it in its season,” with another simile, a comparison of Christian life to a loving marriage: “When a husband and wife really love one another, have pleasure in each other, and . . . . Continue Reading »
Jay Richards scores a heavy hit against Lindbeck’s theory of doctrine with this: “rule theory . . . seems to deny what almost everyone assumes the Creed and Definition - and the doctrines therein - are: claims about God and Christ. This definition of doctrines . . . doesn’t . . . . Continue Reading »
My volume on Athanasius, a contribution to the Baker series on Foundations of Theological Exegesis and Christian Spirituality, is now available from Amazon. Click the link to the right. . . . . Continue Reading »
In responding to Witherington the other week, I criticized what I called the “two-step” that is evident in a good bit of Christian political thought - the move from explicitly Christian norms that apply to the church and the private sphere to “natural” norms for the public . . . . Continue Reading »
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