Throughout Martin Luther's Lectures on Genesis, he returns again and again to a surprising theme. Shem, the son of Noah, was a public leader over the ancient church and he even served as divine oracle for the patriarchs, mediating the word of God to them throughout...
Steven Wedgeworth
Calvin Against Iconoclasm
In his biography of the great reformer John Calvin, Bruce Gordon repeatedly points out that Calvin opposed iconoclasm (see pgs. 283, 323-327 of Gordon's Calvin). On this point, Calvin differed from men with whom he was otherwise associated, such as Farel and Viret....
Charles Hodge, Wrong About Calvin and the Reformed Doctrine of Eucharistic Presence
After beating up on Nevin, it's only right that I turn some attention to Charles Hodge. While the main edge of his criticism of Nevin had to do with Nevin's peculiarly German view of human maturation into deity, he does also spend some time on the matter of the real...
Nevin the Organic Progressive
My last post on Nevin won the hearts and minds of all reasonable men, and so I thought I would do well to add a sequel. Don't worry, I also plan to write a critical essay on Hodge (fair's fair!), but Dr. Nevin really does need another treatment to be properly...
Face It, Nevin Was Nuts
When I was in seminary, the Mercersburg theology of Philip Schaff and John Williamson Nevin was enjoying a significant revival. Lots of books, masters theses, and dissertations were written about these men and their movement. “Reformed Catholicism” was frequently...
Talking About White Theology Instead Of Talking To Each Other
On July 19th, Dr. Gregory Thompson and Pastor Duke Kwon published a response to a book review they had received from Dr. Kevin DeYoung. DeYoung's review had been released over two months earlier, and Thompson and Kwon's response came close to ten thousand words (about...
Via Media, But Between What?
I am finishing up Diarmaid MacCulloch's biography of Thomas Cranmer. Over all it's a superb work of history, even if MacCulloch inserts his own voice into the controversies a bit too much for my liking. Still, I learned a lot about the complicated ins and outs of...
Martin Luther on Reparations
At the end of his book, Temporal Authority: To What Extent It Should be Obeyed, Martin Luther takes up the topic of restitution, which he defines as "the return of goods wrongly acquired." In the interest of relevancy and hot takes, I am going to connect this to...
Of Devils and Advocates: The Meaning of Native Graves
Some recent Roman Catholic takes draw all the wrong lessons from this national crime.
Martin Luther’s Farewell to Arms: The Two Kingdoms and the Rejection of Crusading
Martin Luther’s political theology has fallen on hard times. While it was once common to give him credit for the emergence of modern political liberties, Luther’s legacy has, especially since the second world war, soured. Many have claimed that he set the stage for an unholy sort of sacred nationalism, while more recent commentators say that Luther had no political theology at all, but was instead content to take a “hands off” approach, ceding everything to an emerging secular state.