Basilica

Some friends and I have put together a new blog named Basilica.  The site will be touched up along the way, but there’s an introductory post already, as well as a description page.  Perhaps most exciting of all is the project of Reformed resourcement.  So far we’ve just mapped out some names, categories, and a [...]

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More Basic Still

I discovered Lewis late in my development, and I think this has made him all the more potent.  His critique of Christianity as a “means” to some other end, whether it be culture, civilization, or community, is quite poignant.  Having already noticed this in Screwtape Letters, I am finding Lewis again fielding the question in [...]

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Basilicon Doron

I’ve been reading a lot of King James lately.  He’s been the vicitim of some pretty nasty characterizations over the years, and I’m sure he had his faults, but what is becoming increasingly clear is that the fact and sincerity of his religion was not one of those faults.  Indeed, he is clearly an Evangelical [...]

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Orthodox Readings of Augustine Book Out

I attended the conference for no clear reason in particular.  Perhaps I wanted to become Orthodox.  Maybe it was just the fun of social Trinitarianism.  It might have only been the opportunity to wander the Big Apple with Joel Garver.
Whatever the reason for going, being a spectator at the event itself was instrumental in my [...]

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Calvin Is Good For Literature

In a Washington Post interview, Marilynne Robinson writes:
“These are my favorite books in here,” says the author of “Housekeeping,” “Gilead” and the recently published “Home” as she motions toward the bookcase that fills one end of the small space. “See, look: Calvin, Calvin, Calvin.”
Sure enough, here are the multivolume “Commentaries” of the great 16th-century Protestant [...]

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England and Orthodoxy in the 17th cent.

It is common to hear of ecumenical dialogue between Anglicans and Orthodox.  Today this usually means that a certain group of Anglicans are trying as hard as they can to become Eastern.  I have even seen citations of the Anglican Reformers’ dialogue with the Orthodox as evidence that the Anglicans were not “Protestant.”  The exact [...]

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We Establish the Law

I won’t lie.  I still don’t understand Romans.  Paul’s theology is greater than I am.  I think I get what he’s saying in Galatians.  I feel good about Hebrews.  Romans, however, is still beyond me.  I’m making progress though.
For instance, Romans 3:31 often gets used, in Reformed circles at least, to teach the fundamental continuity [...]

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Noahide Laws

Alan Segal has some interesting works on the state of Judaism just prior to the advent of Christ.  I am not sure what faith tradition Segal is coming from, and as one reads his works it becomes clear that he does not acknowledge any strict view of divine inspiration of the New Testament.  He will [...]

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Wisdom, Glory, and Women

Two of my latest sermons are up:
Proverbs 2: A Tale of Two Women
The Glory of God and the Glory of Man

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Anthony Hoekema and Justification

I’m listening to an old Mt. Olive Tape Library recording of Anthony Hoekema.  He’s talking, at RTS Jackson no less, about the need for Reformed Theology to broaden its definition of justification.  He says that we’ve tended to speak of “paying a bill,” when we need to speak of personal fellowship within mystical union.
He’s citing [...]

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