The Calvinist International
Picking up from my previous post on the problem of gay-but-chaste Christianity, I want to talk about concupiscence. Jack Bates criticizes me for introducing concupiscence into the discussion in an over-generalized and therefore simplistic way. Bates writes: Wedgeworth’s treatment of concupiscence in relation to the queer Christian’s experience is the site of his most significant errors. […]
In his Commentary on the Heidelberg Catechism, following his commentary on Q&A #7, Zacharius Ursinus enters into an extended discussion of sin. He gives a basic definition and then makes several distinctions between varying kinds of sins. The first is the common distinction between “original sin” and “actual sin.” This is a distinction between that […]
Explaining Question and Answer 91 of the Heidelberg Catechism, Zacharius Ursinus explains why, if we are justified by faith in Christ’s works, we should then also do good works. More than just “should,” he explains why the Reformed maintain that good works are indeed “necessary.” Thus, his question is framed “Why good works are to […]
Steven posted the other day on Ursinus on the capacity of infants to have faith in Christ. Because I had been thinking about that post, I was struck this morning by the following passage from Matthew 21. After Jesus has entered Jerusalem and cleansed the temple of the buyers, sellers, and money-changers, Matthew writes: And […]
Zacharius Ursinus, the famed theology professor at the University of Heidelberg and author of the Heidelberg Catechism, took part in a public disputation on the sacraments at the Academy of Rostock in the year 1581. It is not clear from the text whether he was present at the disputation, but he apparently made annotations on the topics that were […]
Aristotle’s Organon was the essential logic textbook for most Christian educational institutions in the 16th century. Most editions of the Organon included Porphyry’s summary of Aristotle’s logic, the Isagoge. Zacharinus Ursinus, the author of the Heidelberg Catechism, produced his own version of the Organon along with Porphyry’s introduction to be used for teaching the basics of logic […]
In his Commentary on the 26th Question of the Heidelberg Catechism, Ursinus gives a brief explanation of differing views among the Reformers concerning the age of the Earth. He claims a “common reckoning” of Biblical chronology which allows a conclusion that the world was 5,534 years old. He writes: Lastly, God created the world, not […]