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Archive Civic Polity Economics Natural Law Steven Wedgeworth

John Calvin on the Use of Goods and Money

Some of our friends are arguing about Capitalism and Marxism, so I thought we would do what we usually do– turn to the archives! What did the stuffy dead guys say about this? That’s a big task, though (and one that we have been doing piece by piece over time), and so, true to form, […]

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Archive Civic Polity Economics Reformed Irenicism Steven Wedgeworth

Law, Charity, and Politics

I appreciated Andrew Fulford’s recent essay on the relationship between the classic Protestant understanding of supererogatory works and civil polity. He gets down to the basic theological and philosophical distinctions that the older Protestant thinkers made regarding law, justice, charity, and the political life of the commonwealth. However, I was left feeling that Mr. Fulford had […]

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Archive Eric Parker Nota Bene Reformed Irenicism

Origen: Freedom not to Fall?

Origen, in his Commentary on Romans, poses an interesting solution to the question of what keeps the free will from falling away once it has been restored to God by grace: Now precisely what it is that would restrain the freedom of will in the future ages to keep it from falling again into sin, […]

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Archive Early Church Fathers Eric Parker Nota Bene Philosophy

Augustine’s Platonic Eroticism

Phillip Cary offers an informative summary of Augustine’s appropriation of the Platonic concept of love or eros (ἔρος) – the Symposium (a dialogue “περὶ τῶν ἐρωτικῶν λόγων”) is perhaps the most famous dialogue in this regard – and its relationship to his theology of grace and freedom of the will – for those who are interested in further examination […]

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Andrew Fulford Nota Bene

Practicing Irenicism

Ian Clary at City of God links to an old series he wrote on “Reading and Error”, which gives some practical advice for those interested in pursuing the way of Reformed Irenicism. One quote he provides: The best way to respond to erroneous teaching is to deal with the best of a person’s arguments, not […]