The Calvinist International
I grew up with a very normal American view of Halloween. It was a day where I dressed up like cartoon characters or cartoonish or campy monsters in order to have a few laughs and get some candy. There really was no weighty “significance” behind it. It was just good clean fun. As I got […]
I wrote a pastoral reflection on Reformation Day at my other blog. Here’s an excerpt: But why celebrate the Reformation now? There are various reasons to ask this question and various ways to answer it, but instead of trying to say everything (my typical flaw), I want to get right to the bottom line because the […]
All over the world, wherever evangelical Christians are few in number and persecuted, the memory of the 16th century, when believers reasserted the truth against all odds, is still fresh. For them, the Reformation is still ground to stand on, even to die on. And even in largely papalist Slovenia, where the Reformation was snuffed […]
This Reformation Day, it’s worth revisiting one of my favorite quotes on reformation, from the Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck: All good, enduring reformation begins with ourselves and takes its starting point in one’s own heart and life. If family life is indeed being threatened from all sides today, then there is nothing better for each […]
Halloween has been a controversial American holiday for conservative Christians for several decades now. Putting it that way might itself be a surprise for some. Wouldn’t it rather be the case that Halloween has been controversial for centuries? If it were really an ancient tradition, whether catholic or pagan, shouldn’t we expect a longer trail […]