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February 2011

February 22, 2011

How odd of God

Imagine you are an omnipotent Creator determined to restore a world that is in rebellion...

February 19, 2011

Sacrificial logic

According to Debora Shuger’s rich and provocative description, Grotius sets out to give a “demythologized”...

February 18, 2011

Beautiful Justice

Thomas says that Christ merited exaltation. In each of teh fourr senses that His humiliation...

February 09, 2011

Law and Gospel

According to Paula Fredriksen’s wonderful analysis in Augustine and the Jews: A Christian Defense of...

January 2011

January 24, 2011

What are we waiting for?

Paul uses the verb “eagerly await” a number of times. What is he waiting for?...

January 22, 2011

Lutheran Augustine

It’s frequently said these days that Luther was an innovator in his doctrine of justification....

January 21, 2011

Election

Barth points out that God is Lord of the city of man as welll as...

January 19, 2011

Justification in development

A 2010 dissertation by David C. Fink traces the “confessionalization” of the Protestant doctrine of...

January 02, 2011

Exhortation

Protestants often find the idea of “deification” unsettling. When we hear “God became man, so...

December 2010

December 20, 2010

Typology of the gospel

Warren Gage, the always-stimulating Professor of Old Testament at Knox Seminary, sent along the following...

October 2010

October 31, 2010

Excerpt from Reformation Day sermon

Is the Reformation dead? It may be a surprising question to us, especially since we’re...

October 31, 2010

God’s righteousness, God’s being

Luther wrote: “The ‘righteousness of God’ . . . is the righteousness by which God...

October 31, 2010

God’s righteousness, God’s being

Luther wrote: “The ‘righteousness of God’ . . . is the righteousness by which God...

October 27, 2010

Bucer on justification

Bucer wrote, “Because by faith we embrace this righteousness and benevolence of God, it shines...

October 27, 2010

Grace and Christology

In his Grace and Christology in the Early Church (Oxford Early Christian Studies) , Douglas...

October 06, 2010

Jenson on election

A couple juicy nuggets from Jenson: “The speaking of the gospel is the event of...

September 2010

September 07, 2010

Calvin’s New Perspective

My colleague Jayson Grieser points to Calvin’s comments on Psalm 5:8: “The righteousness of God ....

September 07, 2010

Calvin’s New Perspective

My colleague Jayson Grieser points to Calvin’s comments on Psalm 5:8: “The righteousness of God ....

August 2010

August 13, 2010

Conversion

Gordon T. Smith’s Transforming Conversion: Rethinking the Language and Contours of Christian Initiation is quite...

August 13, 2010

Forgiveness and deliverdict

Justification is (among other things) forgiveness of sins. Justification “justifies/frees” us from sin. Are these...

May 2010

May 05, 2010

Clean and Unclean

In his treatise against Faustus the Manichean, Augustine cites 1 Timothy4 in a discussion of...

April 2010

April 04, 2010

He is Risen!

An Easter meditation of mine is on the First Things site, here:

March 2010

March 15, 2010

Self and Justification

False subjectivity has led to nihilism. To combat the nihilism of modernity, Levin says that...

March 10, 2010

Faith

Terry Eagleton gives a neat summary of Alain Badiou’s account of faith, an account that...

March 04, 2010

The End of Creation

Jenson commends Jonathan Edwards’ answer to the question about the point of creation. Reflecting on...

February 2010

February 10, 2010

Trinitarian justification

In his commentary on the Song of Songs 4, Robert Jenson raises a question about...

February 02, 2010

Gratitude and election

In a review of Robert Solomon’s last book ( True To Our Feelings ), Ronnie...

December 2009

December 07, 2009

Jesus and justification

Jesus doesn’t talk much about justification, and when He does He doesn’t sound very Pauline...

December 02, 2009

Awakening

What is the resurrection like? Paul says, like a tree that grows from the planted...

November 2009

November 24, 2009

Ontology, Sin, Redemption

Sin is an ethical rather than a metaphysical problem - so says van Til, repeatedly....