Robert Strivens, Philip Doddridge and the Shaping of Evangelical Dissent, Ashgate Studies in Evangelicalism (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2015). 201pp. Hardcover. For many students of Reformed Orthodoxy (1560-1790), the eighteenth century “high orthodox” period is notoriously difficult to navigate. The scholastic…
There are many ways to think about God’s attributes. They can be divided between those that affirm something about God and those that deny something about God, those that are communicable to creatures (i.e. can exist in or be communicated…
Is the conversation about God’s attributes “old fashioned” and “western”? Regarding systematic theology, one often encounters the critique that the logical ordering of various topics is “western” or “Greek” or “academic”–all of which are really meant as synonyms for “bad”…
Previously I discussed how Petrus van Mastricht, in the recently translated prolegomena of his Theoretical-Practical Theology, taught me to submit to the Word of God (part 1), and how he gave me a biblical and balanced view of the use…
Books are marvelously powerful. Thomas Aquinas is said to have feared the “man of one book,” and no wonder: a great book has great power to transform the soul. And in my own life, the recently translated prolegomena volume of…
While reading through Petrus Van Mastrichts’ Theoretical-Practical Theology, I was intrigued to find his thoughts concerning scholastic theology. In his section on “the Nature of Theology,” Van Mastricht wrote: “It is asked, must theology be taught according to a certain…
If I had my way regarding theological training, I’d attempt to help students master the basic theological distinctions from the era of Protestant scholasticism. Those who think “scholastic” is a bad word probably don’t know much about scholasticism. Truth be…
