As the old carol proclaims: Heaven and earth in little space; res miranda. Wondrous indeed, but not an end in itself; as another carol says, the end of it was to save us all from Satan’s power, when we had gone astray and finally, as the famous hymn declares, God and sinners, reconciled. A reason […]
Year: 2012

Dr. Paul Helm has written some quite useful things on John Calvin and philosophical theology, but he also has his contrarian side, which yields some very unfortunate results. This latest post is a case in point, wherein Dr. Helm offers up a confused yet troubling articulation and application of the doctrine of the two kingdoms […]
The Capitalism for the People blog briefly discusses here an interesting essay by Gar Alperowitz on cooperative corporations (a model we think much more conformable to the idea of a Christian commonwealth and support of families than is the prevalent system) and the fact that oligarchic mouthpieces aren’t interested in talking about them. Perhaps the […]
Brad Littlejohn has a helpful follow-up post to the discussion of intellectual empathy, much of which intersects with our recent post on the mechanics and motivations of polemics. It is full of excellent observations, including our favorite topic, the definition of words. Mr. Littlejohn points out that “irenic” and “polemic” are not actually opposite terms, […]
Visual Eisegesis

Dr Matthew Milliner offers some interesting reflections here on the increasing currency of visual exegesis, by which he seems to mean pictorial art derivative from Biblical themes. Frequenters of this forum will know that one of our special concerns is clarity of expression and would therefore be able to predict that we would want to […]
The history of both Eastern and Western Christendom has been bound up with the academy, but in the West this has especially been the case. From the rise of the university system of the feudal period to the development of the great evangelical renewal of learning in Germany and England, to both of which the […]

Recently some of our friends and associates got into a minor dust-up over women bishops, intellectual empathy, and the overall posture which conservatives ought to take towards middling-to-liberal evangelicals in their midst. We think there’s something to all of this, but first a little bit of a summary of the events which lead into it.

This past Sunday, Ross Douthat started a truly astounding conversation about babies, decadence, and the American social conscience. A strong but partially appreciative criticism was offered by Matthew Yglesias at Slate, and a qualifying but supportive essay was written by Samuel Goldman. Rod Dreher has made steady commentary throughout the week, with a suggested definition […]
One could elaborate the details, and add a thing or two, but this analysis of the Milbank school, posted over at Inhabitatio Dei, says exactly what needs to be said- and something which we, incidentally, have been saying too for some time now. As Mr McCarracher notes, the Milbank school seems incapable of talking with opponents, […]
Pastor Danny Hyde gave an address to NAPARC a few weeks ago, arguing for the relationship between church unity and personal piety. His argument was that the Reformed churches stand in need of spiritual revival so that they can grow in personal charity before they can ever hope for church unity. At one point, Pastor […]