Reformation21

The Welsh have not (generally) adopted that legacy of Platonism in post-Renaissance culture, commonly called "the stiff upper-lip." The Welsh, you see, give voice to their complaints with reckless abandonment. Typical here is Wales's most famous twentieth century poet and writer, Dylan Thomas, in...

Along with The Epistle of Barnabas , 1 & 2 Clement , The Shepherd of Hermas , The Epistles of Ignatius and Polycarp , Te Epistle of Diognetus , and The Martyrdom of Clement, Ignatius and Polycarp , The Didache comprises one of the documents of the "Apostolic Fathers" - documents written in the...

I've been reading just about everything Paul Helm writes with great enthusiasm since I first encountered his The Varieties of Belief (1973) during my days as an undergraduate. Moreover, I almost always find myself agreeing with him, even when he champions positions that are no longer popular (e.g...

Introduction In the Fall 2005 issue of the Westminster Theological Journal, Dr. Nicholas Perrin published a review of my book, Justification and the New Perspectives on Paul ( J&NPP ). [i] The WTJ invited me to reply to Perrin's overwhelmingly negative review. This reply was published in the...

I thank Kevin for his kind personal references, and for his lengthy response to my piece. But it doesn't get to the point, does it? Of course Kevin is not to be tarred with the brushes of Franke, Grenz and Murphy. Each has his or her own theological picture to paint. Nevertheless they and Kevin ,...

I've been reading just about everything Paul Helm writes with great enthusiasm since I first encountered his The Varieties of Belief (1973) during my days as an undergraduate. Moreover, I almost always find myself agreeing with him, even when he champions positions that are no longer popular (e.g...

American President Theodore Roosevelt once said that "it is not the critic that counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and...

In recent times Charles Hodge has come in for a drubbing in connection with his remarks on the nature of what he calls theological science, as these are set out in the first seventeen pages of his Systematic Theology. (See, for example, Nancey Murphy, Beyond Liberalism and Fundamentalism: How...

This past week, the Russian President, Vladimir Putin, kissed a seven year old boy--on the stomach! Context: the President had bent down to ask the boy his name; the boy in embarrassment rolled up his T-shirt over his face thereby exposing his stomach; what else was a politician to do? Almost...

Waiting for a flight to Philadelphia in Heathrow Terminal 4 recently, I engaged in my usual ritual: buying my children copies of the Beano and the Dandy comics, and some chocolate that tastes like real chocolate (seemingly illegal in the USA), and finding a present for my wife. A couple of years...