Postcards from Palookaville

Postcards from Palookaville

A Friendly Correspondence

Carl Trueman
Jul 9, 2021
Note: The following is adapted from a letter sent in response to a gracious correspondent who was concerned about Dr. Trueman’s representation of the words of Rev. Greg Johnson . It is published here rather than First Things due to the intramural nature of the matter involved. Dear Friend, Thank...

Reflecting on a Broken Vow

Carl Trueman
Jan 25, 2021
Some years ago, I took a Nazirite vow never to write on race in America. Yet, persuaded by the editorial team at First Things, I broke that vow . Now it is time to offer a brief reflection on some of the responses. There were the predictable Twitter storms with the traditional aspersions cast on my...

A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance

Carl Trueman
Jul 18, 2020
Three events this week have given me pause both for thought, nostalgia, and hope. The first was the arrival of an email on Thursday containing the memoir manuscript of a well-known Welsh Baptist pastor who served only one congregation in his ministry, and that for over fifty years. He asked me to...

The Sundance Kid for President

Carl Trueman
Aug 28, 2019
Many congratulations to both Jon Master and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on his appointment as their new president, starting July 1 next year. Jon has all the qualities needed for a seminary president: a good churchman (twice on a Sunday -- a sadly rare thing these days), a fine...

Jones and the Stones

Carl Trueman
Apr 23, 2019
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 combination of leaps of logic, misrepresentations of...

Cultural Appropriation that is Pastoral Kindness

Carl Trueman
Apr 14, 2019
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 (then) psalms-only denomination (the Free Church of Scotland...

Constructing a Course...Constructively

Carl Trueman
Apr 3, 2019
I have been asked to put together an undergraduate elective course on the doctrine of God for Grove students for next year. There is, of course, a current (and most welcome) revival of interest in Protestant circles in classical Trinitarianism and the theology of the first four ecumenical councils...

Barry Brings It!

Carl Trueman
Mar 27, 2019
It was a real pleasure to see Barry York’s very kind interaction with my recent DenDulk Lecture. The lecture itself was, as I confessed, long on analysis of the manifold temptations to corruption and incompetence to which religious institutions are prone and rather shorter on solutions. Barry...

Machen, Confessionalism, and Seminary Education

Carl Trueman
Mar 18, 2019
In our ongoing discussion of the doctrine of God, it is worth reflecting on the fact that a church needs two things to be confessionally healthy: a sound form of words (a creed or confession); and a form of government by which the content of this can be preserved from generation to generation...

Confessional Christology: Catholic Definitions versus Congenital Defects

Carl Trueman
Mar 17, 2019
Given the positive response to our first two posts, and the fact that the doctrine of God is now emerging as a contested locus within our own denomination, we continue this ongoing series with some reflections on the type of questions that should be asked of candidates relative to the Christology...