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Archive Authors E.J. Hutchinson Nota Bene Reformed Irenicism Responsa

Clerihewing Mortara

In his 1960 collection Homage to Clio, WH Auden included a series of what he called “Academic Graffiti,” tendentious and silly, but despite (or rather because of) that fact nevertheless insightful, biographical poems on important figures. (The technical term for this genre, as a colleague of mine in the English Department pointed out, is “clerihew,” named […]

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Archive E.J. Hutchinson Nota Bene Reformed Irenicism Responsa

No, You Cannot Kidnap Your Neighbor for Christ

This article has recently been making the rounds. Though the bizarre defense of this truly bizarre case of the institutional-church-as-Child-Protective-Services is ripe for so much–SO MUCH–trolling (for it opens up a hole for church power wide enough to drive a truck full of hostage children through), I shall restrain myself, though, given that the article […]

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Archive Authors E.J. Hutchinson Nota Bene Responsa

Collect and Catechism (3)

The Collect for the third Sunday in Advent (1 is here and 2 here): O Lord Jesus Christ, who at thy first coming didst send thy messenger to prepare thy way before thee; Grant that the ministers and stewards of thy mysteries may likewise so prepare and make ready thy way, by turning the hearts of […]

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Andrew Fulford Archive Ecclesiastical Polity Reformed Irenicism Responsa Sacred Doctrine

All That the Prophets Have Spoken: A Rejoinder to Feser Pt. 2

This is part 2 of a two-part reply. The first part is here. In my previous post I indicated that it would be helpful to provide a model for how the Jews could know the OT canon without an infallible magisterium, and in the following I will suggest how this process occurred. Any explanation for how […]

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Andrew Fulford Archive Reformed Irenicism Responsa Sacred Doctrine

All That the Prophets Have Spoken: A Rejoinder to Feser Pt. 1

This is part 1 of a two-part reply. The second part is here. Dr. Feser has written two posts in reply to my earlier one, and I am grateful for him for the opportunity to further clarify my points. In the following, I will hazard potential confusion by reversing the order of the original Jesuit […]

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Archive E.J. Hutchinson Nota Bene Responsa Sacred Doctrine

On Perspicuity, Again

In response to my recent foray on sola scriptura and perspicuity, a commenter on Facebook asked, presumably rhetorically, whether Acts 8.31 didn’t disprove the idea of the clarity of Scripture. I answered, “No.” I answered this way in part because the question presumed what it sought to disprove, viz., it presumed that I could read and […]

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Archive Peter Escalante Philosophy Responsa Steven Wedgeworth

Responsum: Defining First Principles

Pastor Benjamin Miller from Long Island, NY, asks: Can you define and distinguish: (1) W.W. Bartley III’s notion of “ultimate commitment” (which he regards as voluntaristic and finally arbitrary); (1) is something that is simply chosen or asserted: “I want to believe in X, or I have various reasons to believe in X, but it really doesn’t […]

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Archive Civic Polity Peter Escalante Philosophy Responsa

Responsum: Voluntarism and Early Modern Political Theory

Our friend Davey Henreckson, formerly of Notre Dame and now of Princeton, has posed some very helpful questions for us at his site, in response to our essay, occasioned by the polemics of Mr. Matthew Tuininga, on the ecclesiastical politics of John Calvin. His questions are excerpted here, and replies follow. But first, two terms might […]

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Archive Peter Escalante Philosophy Responsa

Responsum: First Things, Philosophy, and Theology Proper

Dr Andrew Sandlin is a friend of our forum, and, although we disagree with him markedly on a number of important political and theological points, we do esteem his honesty, intelligence, and his positive contributions to Reformed discourse- most notably, his influential essay Toward a Catholic Calvinism, and his excellent little treatise Un-Inventing the Church. […]