The Calvinist International
In the 1950 encyclical Humani Generis, Pius XII, relying on Pius IX, makes a rather startling claim about the duty of theologians in the church: It is also true that theologians must always return to the sources of divine revelation: for it belongs to them to point out how the doctrine of the living Teaching […]
Yesterday we saw that Tertullian was willing to go so far as to call the soul “naturally Christian,” just as, in a sense, one might say the universe–the cosmos that bears witness to divine order–is. And yet we do not apprehend God as we ought from nature. The impossibility of our absolute ignorance of him leads to […]
Once again, on Tertullian. This post might be read together with some of Pastor Wedgeworth’s remarks earlier today. In ch. 17 of the Apologeticus, Tertullian surprisingly exclaims: “O the witness of the soul, in its very nature Christian!” (O testimonium animae naturaliter Christianae!). Is Tertullian to be numbered among the universalists? As an advocate of the […]
In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the History of Religions/Comparative Religion/Comparative Mythology schools were often taken to have discredited the Christian faith by showing similarities between Christian narratives (such as that of the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus) and various pagan mythologies—most famous here perhaps is the treatment of the dying and rising god […]
Friend and associate Eric Parker has just translated Gisburtus Voetius’s recommended reading for, as Eric puts it, “the proper use of reason in matters of faith.” It’s a great find and helps to specifically illustrate the breadth of “catholicity” among irenic theologians.
In his commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharias Ursinus has a section entitled “From What Does It Appear That There Is A God?” where he lists 11 arguments for God’s existence. Many of these are familiar, the argument from creation, rational causality, and morality, but the 8th argument stands out as delightful. We might call […]
On the One Hand… Let’s take a statement out of context, shall we? Irenaeus, in Against Heresies 3.2, writes: But, again, when we refer [the heretics] to that tradition which originates from the apostles, [and] which is preserved by means of the succession of presbyters in the Churches, they object to tradition, saying that they themselves are wiser not merely than the presbyters, but […]
The tenth chapter of Ficino’s De Christiana Religione is one of the lengthiest. I have skipped over chapter nine, which is entitled, “The authority of Christ is not from the stars but from God.” In that chapter Ficino argues against certain extreme forms of astrology which are not very relevant to the modern reader. In […]
Marsilio Ficino’s argument in chapter 8 of his De Christiana Religione is quite similar to St. Paul’s argument in the first chapter of his Epistle to the Galatians regarding the origin of his Gospel message. There Paul argues that his preaching is not κατὰ ἄνθρωπον (from man) but δι’ ἀποκαλύψεως Ἰησοῦ Χριστοῦ (from a revelation of Jesus Christ). […]
In chapter five of his De Christiana Religione Marsilio Ficino defends the trustworthiness of the disciples’ testimony concerning Christ. It is impossible that the disciples intended to deceive their followers, Ficino argues, because their actions demonstrate that they possessed the highest virtue. The disciples must have truly believed what they preached since they received no […]