Last week, Avengers: Endgame, the final blockbuster Marvel movie, was released, smashing box-office records. The movie is the culmination of an ambitious story arc encompassing 22 movies that Marvel Studios began planning 14 years ago. Endgame brings that plan to…
As I’ve been reading through G.K. Chesterton’s book Heretics, I was interested to happen upon his treatment of dogmatism and the arts. Reflecting on his consideration of the life and work of Rudyard Kipling, Bernard Shaw and H.G. Wells, Chesterton…
Many years ago, at one of the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, Allan Fisher gave me (a poor doctoral student at the time) one of the best gifts that an aspiring student of theology could ever receive: a…
The recent New York Times interview with Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary, is one for the ages. Indeed, critique is almost pointless as the interview itself begs not so much questions as gasps of amazement at the breathtaking…
Since the early 19th Century the American church has largely taken for granted the necessity and legitimacy of mission agencies, both church and para-church. By the mid 20th Century they were as firmly entrenched as any feature of American church…
In his remarkable book, The Suffering Savior, Frederick Krummacher made the astonishing observation that by Jesus’ prayer for mercy from the cross for those who crucified him, we can conclude that “while offering up the Lord Jesus, [those crying out for…
In the first post in this short series on the theology of the seventeenth Anglican poet, George Herbert, we considered the centrality of salvation by grace in the altar poem. It shows up throughout his other poems as well. But…
In my first article on the topic of theology proper, I discussed why we must know the God who created us. I will now explain how we can know that God whose ways are higher than our ways, and his…
Preaching on Sunday for my friend, Jeff Stivason, at Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church I was reminded of how beautiful unaccompanied psalm singing can be. While I am not an exclusive psalmodist, I was first ordained as ruling elder in a…
Isaac Watts wrote nearly 600 hymns in the 18th Century. Churches around the world still sing many today. For instance, if you visited a congregation on any given Sunday in the English speaking world, it would not be a surprise…
