The Calvinist International
In Leviathan Thomas Hobbes writes that faith in Jesus Christ is not attainable, except by the sovereign gift of God. He says the following, in the context of a discussion about the role of the Christian person in a Christian commonwealth: It is the doctrine of St. Paul concerning Christian faith in general, “Faith cometh by hearing,” […]
Augustine, commenting on 1 Tim. 1.15, gives what he believes is the cause of Christ’s Incarnation. Just as we saw in the cases of B.B. Warfield and Irenaeus, here too the cause is human sin; that is, the Incarnation is soteriologically motivated. Text and Translation 1. 1. Quod lectum est modo de sancto Evangelio, hoc […]
In 1 Corinthians 2:6, Paul writes, “But we speak wisdom among the perfect.” What is this “wisdom” (σοφίαν), and who are “the perfect” (τοῖς τελείοις)? John Chrysostom thinks that the “wisdom” referred to is nothing other than the Gospel, and that the “perfect” are simply believers in that Gospel. In other words, for Christians there […]
Pierre Bayle provides his reading of the status quaestionis regarding the reception of Augustine, particularly with respect to the bishop of Hippo’s soteriology, among the Calvinists, Dominicans, Jesuits, and Arminians in the Reformation and post-Reformation era: The approbation which councils and popes have given St Augustin, on the doctrine of grace, adds greatly to his glory; […]
Derek Rishmawy shares an excerpt from the ancient Christian work, and notes how similar it sounds to the fathers of the Reformed faith.
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, […]
Origen was not a universalist, at least not in the popular sense of a “universalist” as one who believes that all religious paths lead to the same summit, nor in the specific doctrinal position that the goodness of God demands the ultimate restoration of all things and the salvation of all creatures without exception. On the […]
Last week I posted some comments from Cyril of Alexandria on Romans 6:5 (“For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his”). John Calvin’s comments on the verse are noteworthy as well. He sees an intimate union between the believer and […]
Dr. Hauerwas occasionally writes against various aspects of Magisterial Protestantism from his Yoderian/postmodern perspective on theology. Today Dr. Francis Beckwith shared an excerpt from a lecture he gave on the topic of Reformation Sunday. Two paragraphs, at least, deserve a little comment: Reformation names the disunity in which we currently stand. We who remain in […]