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Reformation Theology: A Reader of Primary Sources with Introductions
Beginning with the first rumblings of conflict in the late medieval period and continuing until the solidification of Protestant confessions in the early 17th century, this collection of thirty-two texts brings the modern reader face-to-face with the key men whose convictions helped shape the course of history. Concise historical introductions accompanying each text bring these…
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The Gospel Expressed: Luther’s Teaching on Alien Righteousness as Divine Gift
When exactly the levee is going to break is not easy to know, but when it does we all know. October 31, 1517 is the day the levee broke in the church of the West. It is not likely that Luther was aware he was laying his ax to the root. But that is what…
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The Gospel Embodied: Luther’s Theology of the Lord’s Supper
Martin Luther sought above all to understand God’s self-revelation in the gospel, and how men and women are to grasp this revelation. In the gospel Luther discovered a God who comes to us. God condescends to us to meet us in our need as Savior and gives himself for us. Jesus Christ is God for…
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“Plainly Diabolical”: Bishop Davenant Weighs in on Clerical Celibacy
John Davenant, as Lady Margaret Professor of Theology at Cambridge, gave a lecture in the 1610’s defending the thesis that: “Thus, marrying in the Sacerdotal Order is lawful, and the decree for its prohibition in the Church of Rome is unlawful, anti-Christian, and plainly diabolical.” In this post, I want to highlight some of the…
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Grace Worth Fighting For: Recapturing the Vision of God’s Grace in the Canons of Dort
In commemoration of the 400th anniversary of the Synod of Dort, pastor and scholar Daniel Hyde leads us on a patient journey through the history and text of the Canons, illuminating the fine-grained theological distinctions and simple Scriptural truths encapsulated in their ninety-three articles.
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Why We Need the Common Good
Christian morality is not ultimately instruction in how to make oneself a member of the Christian club. It is not a self-help program whose rules are adopted by a small set of people who wish to better themselves. Christian morals, rather, are simply moral teachings that agree with the natural design of the universe.
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“Nursing Fathers”: The Magistrate and the Moral Law
Not many passages in the New Testament speak directly to political order. The first part of the thirteenth chapter of Romans is perhaps the most famous. I would like to focus in this essay on vv. 3-4, which may appear prima facie to be something of an interpretive crux. Are these verses descriptive or prescriptive?…
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The Neglected Craft: Prudence in Reformed Political Thought
Aristotle described politics as involving art or craft (techne). It, too, required skill. It, too, could produce excellent, even wondrous edifices: regimes. Once upon a time, the Reformed tradition saw politics in the same manner. Althusius, for example, spoke of “the art of governing.”[1] Joseph Caryl, a Westminster Divine, described rulers as engaging in an…
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The Decline of the Magisterial Tradition and the Rise of the Cromwellian Consensus (Pt. 1)
After the conclusion of the English Civil War, the tensions between two Puritan emphases began to become apparent: the ideal of the “godly magistracy,” which assumed general uniformity in religious practice, and the tendency towards a “gathered church,” which had encouraged the gathering of the “godly” in separate assemblies.
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Revisiting Martin Luther’s Philosophy
Cooper’s defense of the scholastic method argues for seeing continuity, rather than disjuncture, between Luther and his successors.
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