22 Jul 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
We’ve treated the Protestant educational legacy at various times here in the past: see, for example, this; or this; or this. One aspect we haven’t touched on is the premium that Presbyterians in particular placed on the education of women. This is arguably a legacy of the Ulster Presbyterianism...
Read more → 26 Jun 2019
Posted by Jordan Ballor 
Those who honor Christ only as their Mediator are easily tempted to call in his help as the physician for one’s sin-sick soul, but then, once that soul is conscious of its salvation and healing, to treat the Savior as we often do our earthly physicians — once healed, we let them go and head off again...
Read more → 12 Jun 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
In his famous "Third Theological Oration," Gregory of Nazianzus gives this rule for interpreting biblical passages about Christ: To give you the explanation in one sentence. What is lofty you are to apply to the Godhead, and to that Nature in Him which is superior to sufferings and incorporeal; but all that...
Read more → 19 Mar 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Martin Luther’s Large Catechism, the current text for Reformed Theological Seminary’s Paideia Center reading groups, is a wonderful source of simple, practical, straightforward exposition of the essentials of the Christian faith, covering the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s...
Read more → 15 Mar 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Fyodor Dostoevsky’s characters, like Fyodor Dostoevsky himself (surprise!), often betray a hostility to Protestantism, and to Western Christendom in general. One can see this in The Brothers Karamazov. For instance, in “The Grand Inquisitor” Ivan refers to “a terrible new heresy” that “appeared...
Read more → 12 Mar 2019
Posted by Stephen J Hayhow 
“Article 36 of the Belgic Confession Vindicated against Dr. Abraham Kuyper”. by P. J. Hoedemaker Ruben Alvarado (Translator) Pantocrator Press (2019) Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) rightly stands as a towering figure in late 19th and early 20th centuries. Moreover, he is known for key principles...
Read more → 18 Feb 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
Augustine is well known for the degree to which he was influenced by Neoplatonism in the first phase of his career. (It is sometimes assumed--incorrectly--that this makes his early works insufficiently “Christian.”) In the preface to his first completed extant work, for instance--the De beata vita,...
Read more → 28 Jan 2019
Posted by Michael Lynch 
This year marks the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort. Thus, I was not surprised to come across another article on its Canons. I am always one who is encouraged to find popular Reformed authors defending the Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries. In fact, if there is one document which...
Read more → 24 Jan 2019
Posted by Steven Wedgeworth 
Anyone familiar with the Simpsons' Groundskeeper Willie, knows that old-fashioned Presbyterians did not celebrate holidays. Even Christmas was seen as illegitimate, and Christmas was not celebrated in early Puritan America. This stance has given way pretty decisively, and in the present day, the overwhelming...
Read more → 24 Jan 2019
Posted by E.J. Hutchinson 
In Herman Melville's Moby-Dick, the Pequod's journey gets underway on Christmas Day. Captains Peleg and Bildad accompany the ship out of harbor. Bildad takes the first watch. As he does so, he sings. Ishmael, the narrator, describes it, in Chapter 22 ("Merry Christmas"): Lank Bildad, as pilot, headed...
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