The Calvinist International
When going through some old papers recently I had occasion to revisit the following, which was given as a brief talk at New St Andrews College last year in commemoration of Reformation Day. I haven’t done anything with it since, and had no plans to, and thought it might be useful to post it here. […]
Commenting on Genesis 2:15, John Calvin offers a general philosophy of the goodness of labor and the duties of cultivating the earth. He says that this is a “natural” duty for all men, and he includes the themes of activity, frugality, and legacy. This is often summarized simply as “stewardship.” Calvin explains: And the Lord […]
Are all lawful vocations (even so-called “common” ones) holy before the Lord? Yes. Does this mean that there is a “Christian” version of everything (e.g., Christian math, Christian bicycle repair, Christian spelling)? No. Well, mostly no, and sort of yes, in a way. Niels Hemmingsen gives a good summation of the Reformational view of the […]
A. G. Sertillanges, O.P., The Intellectual Life: Its Spirit, Conditions, Methods, trans. Mary Ryan (1987; repr. Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press 1998). How does one acquire the treasure of knowledge?1 What duties, habits, virtues, and practices ought to order the Christian intellectual’s soul in his pursuit of truth? What does daily life […]
Rod Dreher’s “Benedict Option” seems to be picking up more and more attention, and I expect that we will see a future book from him laying out its distinctives in more detail. Perhaps the best single summary of its features can be found in an article just put out by Damon Linker. Mr. Linker is […]
Writing at the Acton blog, Dr. Anthony Bradley explains how the “missional” and “radical” emphases are becoming a new legalism within Evangelical Christianity. The only thing that I would add to his observations is that these are not “slowly becoming” legalism, as he originally wrote, but have been decidedly legalistic from the beginning. There are […]