The Calvinist International
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 Prayer, and the two sacraments, baptism and communion. The Catechism consists of brief sermons–more powerful […]
In the last post we looked at Samuel Willard’s discussion of the first of the “mutual duties” husbands and wives owe to each other in the context of his exposition of Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 64, which he calls “conjugal love.” In today’s post, he proceeds to the next of these shared duties, which flows […]
As I noted last time, Samuel Willard’s next order of business in his exposition of Westminster Shorter Catechism Q/A 64 is to discuss the mutual duties of husbands and wives–those to which they are equally obliged–before discussing their peculiar or proper duties–those to which they are unequally obliged. The first of these duties is what Willard […]
In the last post, we saw that Samuel Willard recognizes only one natural “order of superiority,” that of parents over children. All other relations of superior and inferior are what he calls “political.” We further saw that he divides the “political” into the two spheres of public and private, the former of which is called […]
In Politics 1259a-b, Aristotle distinguishes between the type of authority fathers have over children and that possessed by husbands over wives as follows: “Of household management we have seen that there are three parts—one is the rule of a master over slaves, which has been discussed already, another of a father, and the third of a […]
A bit later in the sermon to which I’ve referred a couple of times previously, John Cotton details what he thinks the phrase “help meet” in Genesis 2 means. I suspect that the simple act of copying and pasting this is enough to make most contemporary Christians, including not a few who classify themselves with […]
Yesterday’s post on John Cotton’s wedding sermon tells us something else worth remarking on, which I did not include yesterday. If one wished to come up with a taxonomy for different ways of looking at marriage, one might call the view expressed in the Cotton excerpt the “social solidarity” view of marriage. That is, it […]
It’s 2017, and so we should remember that there were several, not just one or two, important facets of the project of Reformation undertaken in the sixteenth century. One of these was to exalt the estate of marriage as a high and holy one, and not simply an option for second-class Christians who can’t control […]
The recent conversation about complementarianism and its relevance for “all of life,” reminded me of this great section from Robert Farrar Capon’s Bed and Board. I will have to leave readers to make their own connections, as I only have time to pass along the quote: Do you know why [sex] is ugly? Because it is […]
What is a friend worth? The Preacher taught us long ago: Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falls; for he has not another to help him up. […]