Anglicanism, Church and State, and the American Republic.
In January 1861 Bishop Stephen Elliott spoke to an ecclesiastical council in Savannah, Georgia to address how he and his diocese would respond to…
Bucer to Bullinger (2): On the Holy Supper
Part 1, along with some introductory remarks, is here; but I’ve also included the first paragraph of the translation in this post so that…
“And Is It True?”: Betjeman’s Weary Christmas Faith
Thoughts on John Betjeman's 1954 poem "Christmas"
Technology Ex Nihilo
Technology hardly ever emerges ex nihilio. In fact, it's usually by accident.
Bucer to Bullinger (1): On the Holy Supper
Recently, while trying to figure out a few things about the textual history of Martin Luther’s 1535 Galatians commentary, I stumbled across an excerpt…
The Philosophical Absurdity of the Incarnation: Luther, Augustine, and Auden
In Martin Luther’s Disputation concerning the Passage: “The Word Was Made Flesh” (1539) we find the following thesis (2): In theologia verum est, verbum…
“Domained in Mary’s Modesty”: A Fifth-Century Hymn (2)
Last week I translated the first three stanzas of Sedulius’s abecedarian hymn A solis ortus cardine (A, B, C). For this week, I’ve done…
Eyes and Ears in Luther (Again)
Once more on Luther’s House Postil sermon for the Second Sunday in Advent. Last week we looked at the way in which Luther’s account…
“Such is the Breath of Kings”: Shakespeare’s Richard II and COVID Restrictions
Bad rulers thoughtlessly breathe decrees, ignorant that their subjects do not have a breath to spare.
Jonathan Edwards and the Southern Presbyterians
Jonathan Edwards was indicted for falling away from Calvin's views on the Lord's Supper.
“God Has Written This Article of the Resurrection in Trees”: Luther on the Second Coming and Eternal Summer
In an ongoing effort to get people to read this essay, I continue to catalog instances of historical figures who agree with meeeeeeeeeeeeeee and…
Augustine’s Cicero
Today, December 7, is the anniversary of the death of the Roman statesman and philosopher Cicero. He was important in his own day, of…
“In Order Flesh by Flesh to Free”: A Fifth-Century Hymn (1)
For Advent, Christmas, and Epiphany, I think I’m going to change things up slightly for “Melanchthon Monday.” For the next several weeks, I want…
Reason and Faith in Luther
Once more on Luther’s House Postil sermon for the First Sunday in Advent before we move on. Luther is often misunderstood, and almost as…
The Church Calendar As Word Ministry
How can evangelicals reconcile the church calendar with an emphasis on the ministry of the Word?
Pax Augusta, Pax Christiana
Psalm 46: 9 (45:10 Vulg.), the Psalm that inspired “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God,” says: “He maketh wars to cease unto the end…
Anglican Political Theology and the American Republic
Jon Askonas, a professor of politics at Catholic University of America, recently delivered an address on Anglican political theology to Providence Magazine’s Christianity and…
“Subject Yourself to God”
For this week’s “Melanchthon Monday,” we’re back to poetry. Below is an epigram consisting of a single elegiac couplet, which I have rendered (with…
“This Lovely King”: The Kingship of Christ for the First Sunday in Advent
Advent starts tomorrow. In his House Postil sermon on Matthew 21:1-9 for the First Sunday in Advent, Martin Luther contrasts the kingship of Christ,…
Materialism Old and New
Today, non-material reality is conceivable but not believable. How does the Church perform its mission in such a world?
Bishop Chase and the Sacralized Contemporary Moment
Philander Chase, Bishop of Illinois and Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, preached at the consecration of the first Bishop of Alabama, Nicholas Cobbs,…
Bog-Standard Protestantism: A Primer
Conservative Roman Catholic intellectuals are never more likely to make a misstep than when they comment on Protestants or Protestantism. Such comments frequently mar…
Church Orders Human, Not Divine
Did you know that it used to be the common belief that church orders (/agenda/) were matters of public concern and human law, and…
They Even Let The Heretics Keep The Psalms
Why do we deprive ourselves of the Psalms when even the Pope let heretics keep them?
Why The Church Fathers Were Comfortable With Caesar
“I might even say with good cause, Caesar is rather ours, being appointed by our God"- Tertullian
Property a Divine Right
Welcome back to “Melanchthon Monday”! Today we have a passage on the divine sanction protecting the right to own property and the tyranny involved…
The Essential Summa Theologiae – A Reader and Commentary: A Review
An ideal entry into Thomas Aquinas and his Summa Theologiae for the interested reader.
Honoring Luther by Honoring the Word
Today, November 10, is the anniversary of Martin Luther’s birthday in 1483. Luther is best remembered as the impetus and architect of the Reformation.…
“The Christian Statesman”: Why liberal disestablishments need Christianity in government.
Moses Drury Hoge, the Old School Presbyterian minister of Peterburg, Virginia’s Second Presbyterian Church, offered a throaty defense of disestablishmentarianism in his short work…
What Is the Law of God?
Without a proper definition of terms, talking is useless, if not worse. If we or our hearers do not know what we are saying,…
Creatio Naturaliter Christiana
Last year, I wrote an essay for the print edition of Ad Fontes on, as it were (and to paraphrase Tertullian), “creation naturally Christian,”…
“Scholarship at Prayer”: Zwingli’s Prophezei and the Pastoral Task
What does Zwingli's first attempt at Reformed theological education tell us about the pastoral task?
“The Chief Things Which Concern a Christian”
Martin Luther’s series of Invocavit sermons has an extremely metal beginning: The summons of death comes to us all, and no one can die…
Charles P. Krauth and the Conservative Reformation
It is en vogue among a certain subset of Protestant intellectuals, especially those that might be denominated Evangelicals, to hesitatingly endorse the events surrounding…
Pure Christ, One Hundred Proof: Another Poem on Luther for Reformation Day
Reformation Day was yesterday, so for this week’s “Melanchthon Monday” we have another poem on Luther by Melanchthon. This one is an epitaph, only…
Luther’s Law and Gospel in Josquin
There has been quite a lot of Reformation-themed posts going around on these Ad Fontes blogs (can anyone tell me why? I don’t get…
The Reformation of Images
I’ve been doing some reading on the first commandment and its appendix on images (the second commandment according to a different division of the…
The Gospel is in the Detail: Thomas Cranmer vs. Henry VIII on True Faith
An insistence on detail is, in many ways, at the root of Protestantism.
Edward VI, the Founding of the Church of England, and Mark Twain.
Henry VIII founded the Church of England so he could get a divorce, or so the story goes. Roman Catholics and Evangelicals told the…
The Pandora Papers and the Problem of Tax Havens
Earlier this month, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) dropped a bombshell: 11.9 million confidential documents revealing tens of trillions of dollars in…
