Oh I Get It

It is precisely because of the Reformation doctrine of universal priesthood, as well as their eucharistic theology of the gathered ekklesia, that discipline cannot be a mark of the church.

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Calvin and Universalism

Here’s a good one:
For were it not that the reprobate, through their own fault, turn life into death, the Gospel would be to all the power of God to salvation, (Romans 1:16) but as many persons no sooner hear it than their impiety openly breaks out, and provokes against them more and more the wrath [...]

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Palin

This is a genius play by the McCain campaign.  This lady is younger than Barack Obama, more attractive, is a feminist “for life”- meaning prolife, she’s an outdoorswoman who wants to drill, and she has the sympathy card due to a disabled child.
But perhaps most of all, she’s just made the GOP ticket more interesting, [...]

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Paleoconservativism?

(I’m thinking about starting a series of posts that could be categorized as “Dear Peter” posts.  In this project, I would bait my friend Peter Escalante into leaving post-length comments, since it is so hard to get him to take the initiative in posting.  Others are free to chime in as well, but I will [...]

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Christian Classicists

Wilson discusses his views of “antithetical classicism” over and against North’s more straight-laced and scowling Van Tillianism here.  The contrast between these two men is instructive for the overall landscape of Reformed theology’s relationship to history and the rest of the world.
Van Tillianism has always had a tendency to simply lend a rocket booster to [...]

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Conditional Blessings

All the blessings we enjoy are Divine deposits, committed to our trust on this condition, that they should be dispensed for the benefit of our neighbors.
~ John Calvin

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Socrates’ Critique of Modernity

Marigold: Your work may conquer thoughts, but mine conquers nature.
Socrates: Why do you want to conquer nature? Why not befriend her instead?
Marigold: Her?
Socrates: Do not the poets tell us nature is our mother? Why would you want to conquer your mother? We conquer our enemies?
Marigold: Nature is not my mother, nor is it my enemy. [...]

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The Problem of Evil

Wilson’s blog-comments rage on.
Though I don’t agree with him, I believe that Matt Petersen has raised some worthwhile objections and points of discussion, and I do not believe that the various Calvinistic interlocutors are even giving Matt’s words any thought at all, which is a shame.
So what can we say about evil?
First, God is not [...]

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An A For Effort

I gave my new students reading quizzes on the summer reading they were given at the end of last year. A few of the students had read the books, but the various attempted answers from the rest were pretty witty. My favorite was this:
Q. What ethnicity was Cuthbert’s father?
A. Episcopalian

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9th Grade English

So I’m pretty impressed with my 9th grade English curriculum.  These are the books we’ll be covering:
The Screwtape Letters -This was assigned summer reading, so it looks out of order.
Genesis
The Epic of Gilgamesh
Exodus
The Odyssey
The Aeneid
The Theban Trilogy by Sophocles
Julius Caesar by Shakespeare- This one isn’t actually ancient literature, but its characters are.
The Best Things [...]

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