The Calvinist International
Peter Hitchens has written a rather remarkable essay on the difference between the religious persecution carried out by Queen Elizabeth I and that done by Bloody Mary. What’s more remarkable is that it was published by First Things. Mr. Hitchens’ essay attempts a number of things, but its most important point is that the character […]
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 […]
In a recent post at First Things, Archbishop Charles Chaput seems to want to appropriate Martin Luther’s image of “Babylonian captivity” to describe the situation of “believing Catholics and Protestants alike” over against the bugbears of modernity: for instance, consumerism, sex, technology, and sex (this last gets two mentions). In other words, “the world,” apparently, […]
Since our founding, TCI has been committed to affirming the natural family and varieties of “household economics” as essential components to any sort of Christian political vision. Given the confusions of our day, this has required us to interact with both the push for modern egalitarianism and the reactionary “recovery” movements that have arisen to […]
A striking feature of modern Christian gender debates is how extensively the tenets of social constructivism have unwittingly been imbibed, by the very people who might claim to be its staunch opponents. Even in arguments from the most conservative quarters, there is a remarkable forgetfulness or neglect of nature, a willingness to forfeit our claim […]
TCI has had its differences with Peter Leithart, some of them quite recent, but there is little doubt that his thought is provocative in general, and in some specifics very helpful. His piece some days ago on his First Things blog about the family (or household), productivity and fruitfulness was especially thoughtful. To begin with Leithart […]
Do Amish Romance novels find their origin in the Swiss Reformation? You may never have considered this question before, but it really is only fair to ask it. Martin Luther and John Calvin are regularly blamed for the enormities of the modern world. Why let Ulrich Zwingli off the hook? Well, alright, it might be […]
A few months ago David Bentley Hart kicked up quite the online controversy over in the comments of this blog. The original topic was universalism, but then it turned into a discussion of the status of Origen of Alexandria within Eastern Orthodoxy, and that in turn became a discussion about the authority of church tradition […]
The newly apparent aggression on the part of some proponents of same-sex marriage has many Christians worried, with some justice, about possible risks to religious freedom in America. But whenever cooler heads attempt to calm the room, the more outrageous progressive politicians find a way of confirming what had previously seemed like hysterical paranoia. The recent […]
In a couple of passages, Aristotle reminds his readers how important it is to get off on the right foot in any investigation or inquiry. Thus, he writes on first principles in Nicomachean Ethics 1.7: We must bear in mind, however, what was said above, and not demand the same degree of accuracy in all branches […]