On the small table in the corner of my office at Westminster there is an icon of the man who became known simply as `The Theologian,' Gregory of Nazianzus, one of the most important Christian thinkers of the later fourth century. The icon is, of course, a classic piece of Orthodox artwork: Gregory...

As noted the other day, I have for years argued that you need reasons not to be Catholic. Prime among them for me would be justification by grace through faith and repudiation of papal authority. Arguments in favour of Rome, on the other hand, would include a disregard for being trendy for the sake...

James Anderson, over at RTS, has posted an interesting critique of Stephen Hawking here .

Francis Beckwith helpfully links to this piece on the logical problems in Stephen Hawking's claims about gravity and the non-existence of God. The author is a Catholic (which may distress the staff of the National Catholic Reporter) but the argument is not, I think, restricted in its usefulness to...

John L. Allen Jnr., a columnist for the National Catholic Reporter, has written an interesting, and long, review of a new, highly critical biography of Benedict XVI. The review makes for fascinating reading. Anyone unfamiliar with Allen's writing is missing a treat -- he writes well, is always...

It is a pleasure to report that the excellent website Beginning with Moses is back up and running. Not so much revival as resurrection, I suspect -- the UK was rife with dark rumours earlier this year that somebody (who shall remain nameless for his own protection and to save his wife and children...

The recent criticism from a member of the Missouri Synod, concerning Reformed church planting in Germany, was rooted in part in what the critic (in the comments section) articulated as a frustration with the constant attempts of the Reformed to claim Luther as their own. To the uninitiated, this...

As a brief postscript to yesterday's posts on pastors, I received an email last night from Danny Hyde, the URC minister in Oceanside, CA, drawing my attention to Acts 20:20, where Paul describes his ministry among the Ephesians. It provides precisely the historical picture which his letters would...

As a brief postscript to yesterday's posts on pastors, I received an email last night from Danny Hyde, the URC minister in Oceanside, CA, drawing my attention to Acts 20:20, where Paul describes his ministry among the Ephesians. It provides precisely the historical picture which his letters would...

A good point, Justin, which has been made to me in a few emails I've received this morning. I would respond as follows: 1. The pastor is the full time person and therefore the buck stops with him. Elders have duties too, of course, but most of us are occupied with our earthly callings until early...

Russell Moore has written a great piece which exposes the idolatrous nature of Glenn Beck's ghastly self-promotional pantomime on Saturday, and the evidence this provides of the woeful state of an evangelicalism that, to put it bluntly, greets blasphemy as truth, as long as the flag is being waved...

A friend who works at a seminary told me the other day of an incident which he described as `personally very instructive.' Somebody called his institution, wanting to know about the state of the soul between death and resurrection. The person was transferred to my friend who was able to open up the...

Having bored you all silly over the last three weeks with Luther material, here's a video about an exciting new venture being pioneered in Germany by Sebastian Heck, a Reformed pastor who wants to see Luther's gospel once again preached in his homeland. The video has some great shots of key German...

In yesterday's post, I pointed to the fact that, while we today find Luther's 1543 work, On the Jews and their Lies , extraordinarily vile and offensive, it was, sadly, in many ways a rather conventional piece for the time. I also noted that Luther was also not operating with racial categories: he...

I've never thought of myself as a TR, but Darryl Hart's take on recent comments on myself and David Bahnsen place me explicitly in that camp and, frankly, capture the points at issue. Anyone interested can find DG's post here . If the cap fits, I guess the Lord Protector should wear it.

In my last post, I tried to summarise what we might call `the Shirer thesis' which posits tight connection between Luther and the Holocaust. In this post, i want to start to offer an avenue of critique. The first thing any historian needs to do when looking at a text is ask: `Is this text typical...

Most preachers and teachers have what one student of mine calls `the candy cane class' -- that sermon or lecture which is in the back pocket, so to speak, committed to memory and there to be pulled out at a moment's notice if, on a Sunday morning, somebody requests that you preach or teach at the...

Anyone interested in John Henry Newman should check out the following link to a BBC Radio 3 program on his life and influence (though you'll need to be quick -- it's being pulled off the web in 4 days). You'll find it here . It's well worth a listen. Newman should be of interest to thoughtful...

Lest my recent comments on mere Christianity be seen as the sad ramblings of a lone nutter, it's worth checking out the thoughts on much the same thing by Francis Beckwith here .

Regarding my recent comments about events at The King's College in New York, there seems to be some confusion about what I was actually trying to say. The confusion is at least strongly implied in the Christianity Today web report, and has also been suggested in private -- and, I should stress,...

In 1998, whilst on faculty at the University of Nottingham, UK, I was invited by my late and much missed mentor, Bob Horn, to become the editor of Themelios , the UCCF/IFES theological journal. It was a key moment for me, the point at which I decided that, in addition to my more academic work, I...

This week, I want to focus on a few good books that have recently been published or are about to hit the bookshelves. I also want to address the tricky question of Luther and the Jews: both in virtually every Sunday School class I have ever taught on Luther, and in my own recent work on Holocaust...

This week, I want to focus on a few good books that have recently been published or are about to hit the bookshelves. I also want to address the tricky question of Luther and the Jews: both in virtually every Sunday School class I have ever taught on Luther, and in my own recent work on Holocaust...

The announcement that The King's College, New York, has appointed Dinesh D'Souza as its new President is interesting for a number of reasons. D'Souza undoubtedly makes a good choice for an institutional president -- articulate, dynamic, and learned, as well as being a public figure of considerable...