This is the final part of James Renihan’s essay on the scope of theology. Read part one here, and part two here. Scope as a Theological Tool There is another function of scopus, already alluded to, but which now deserves at least brief…
This is the second part of James Renihan’s essay on the scope of theology. To read part one, click here. The Scope of the Whole We have already cited the common language of the great English Protestant Confessions, Presbyterian, Independent…
Theology on Target The Scope of the Whole (Which Is to Give All Glory to God) Part 1 On October 16, 1845, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote these familiar lines in a poem titled “The Arrow and the Song”: I shot…
As we remember the Reformation this week, those who stop to think about the anniversary (too few of us, no doubt) will probably either celebrate it as the birthday of the Protestant churches, or lament it as the beginning of…
In part one of this series, the doctrine of middle knowledge was set forth and explained on its own terms. Its principal concern is to reconcile the sovereignty of divine agency and the liberty of human agency by inserting…
Middle knowledge, otherwise known as Molinism, derives its name from a 16th century Jesuit named Luis de Molina (1535-1600). There is evidence that within a decade of Molina’s death, his view of middle knowledge had a profound influence upon the…
Why do we recite the historic creeds of the church in our worship services? There are a few ways to answer this question. First, we believe these creeds are really just recitations of the content of Scripture. All we are doing…
If you were a Christian living in the great port city of Alexandria, Egypt in the year 320, your life would likely be full of excitement. Less than 10 years before, the great Emperor Constantine had defeated his enemies, ended…
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…
In the last post on the revitalization of the eighteenth-century Baptists, we considered the way in which prayer was a central cause. The passing years did not diminish John Sutcliff’s (1752-1814) and Andrew Fuller’s (1754-1815) zeal in praying for revival…
