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…
Quite a number of contemporary theologians have made the observation that J. Gesham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism is every bit as relevant today as it was when it was first released in 1923. Machen explained that he had written this…
I arrived on Faculty at Westminster in the summer of 2001. I had only been on campus for a couple of months before a group of students approached me one lunchtime and tried to recruit me to a most sinister…
I was a junior in high school when the Roseanne episode featuring a lesbian kiss aired on network television, and I can remember well the controversy that surrounded that episode. Recent conversations surrounding the presence of a nine-year-old character named…
This summer has been no different than those which proceded it. At this time of year, you are possibly continuing to see references to the usual litany of ‘Summer Reading recommendations for Pastors.’ As end-of-summer vacations loom, men in the…
Being fully committed to the Protestant Reformed tradition–especially as it is represented at Westminster Theological Seminary–I have developed a basic understanding of natural law theories over the years. If by “natural law” we mean a moral order that is (a)…
“We keep our preaching basic because we have so many new believers. If we give them too much doctrine, they won’t be able to understand it.” I can’t remember how many times I’ve heard church planters and pastors say such things.…
The details of Luther’s mid-1520s tussle with Erasmus over the issue of sin’s impact on human freedom are generally well known. Luther responded to Erasmus’s 1524 De libero arbitrio diatribe sive collatio with his own 1525 De servo arbitrio [On…
Just a few weeks ago, the Oculus Rift started shipping out its Kickstarter units. These virtual reality (VR) headsets have been anticipated for years, especially since Facebook bought the parent company in 2014. At the risk of using a tired…
This is the fourth part of a multipart discussion of the importance of the event of the Transfiguration for Christian theology and biblical reflection. In my first three posts, I argued for the significance accorded to the Transfiguration by its…
