Against Reformed Catholicism

Last month, Mark Jones, a Presbyterian theologian and pastor, published an article at The Calvinist International entitled “Against Calvinism.” The click-baity title leads to an argument against the usefulness of the label “Calvinism.” He rightly points out the oddity of the baptist use of the term. Calvin himself fiercely attacked the radical anabaptists and would have …

Social Hierarchy and Protestant Resourcement

Simon Kennedy at the The Calvinist International has written a piece explaining the primary aim of the website. He writes, One of the aims of the The Calvinist International is the ‘renewal of Christian wisdom’ to re-invigorate the Church. The method for this renewal is a principled retrieval of classical Protestant Christianity. The retrieval is …

Calvin and Winthrop Between the Ages: Theological Aesthetics and the Affirmation of Ordinary Life (Part 3 of 4)

The Sick Bed by Edward Prentis (1836) This is part 3 of a four-part series (see Part 1 and Part 2). In this post I discuss Calvinist theological aesthetics. It relates to my posts on natural beauty and the Art of Being Calvinist. Calvin’s Ephemeral Aesthetics To a certain extent, the theological shift in the …

Natural Rights and the Calvinist Political Tradition (1)

In the last couple decades, many scholars have recognized the contribution of Calvinist theologians and political theorists to the formulation of natural rights. Prior to this, largely due to Leo Strauss, Calvinists were lumped in with the pre-modern notions of objective natural rights. These, according to Strauss, …are doctrines [that] taught the duties of man; …

Review of The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders (1)

In the next few weeks or months, I plan to review the book The Religious Beliefs of America’s Founders: Reason, Revelation, and Revolution, chapter-by-chapter.[1] It is written by Gregg Frazer, a Master’s College professor of history and political science. The book has caused a stir among those who have an interest in the United States …

The Breadth Of The Reformed Orthodox Phenomenon

The Calvinist philosopher Paul Helm has recently published a brief review or commentary on Oliver Crisp’s “Deviant Calvinism” on the discussion between “freedom of the will” and “state of grace”. He states the issue: “An attempt will be made to show not that there are two rival metaphysical views of human freedom side by side …

More Definitions of Terms

As I continue to work through Richard Muller’s “Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics”, I’ll likely be stumbling across a lot of names and concepts that simply aren’t familiar to 21st century believers. So it’s good that Muller helpfully explains a lot of these terms. A comment is also necessary here concerning the terms used throughout the study. …

Prolegomena and Principia

Richard Muller’s four-volume work, “Post Reformation Reformed Dogmatics”, looks at three areas of study from the 1550 to 1750 time period: the prolegomena and the two principia, the doctrine of Scripture and the doctrine of God. Volume 1 deals with the prolegomena; Volume 2 looks at the doctrine of Scripture; Volumes 3 and 4 handle …

The Art of Being Calvinist: Imitating God in the Divine Drama

γίνεσθε οὖν μιμηταὶ τοῦ θεοῦ, ὡς τέκνα ἀγαπητά, καὶ περιπατεῖτε ἐν ἀγάπῃ, καθὼς καὶ ὁ Χριστὸς ἠγάπησεν ἡμᾶς.  Ephesians 5:1 Calvinism and art have a troubled history. From the iconoclasm of the French Reformation to the “plain style” of the New England meetinghouse, it is clear that the Reformed mind is suspicious of and sometimes …

The six points of Calvinism

The six points of Calvinism  Many people have heard of the “five points of Calvinism,” summarized in the acronym TULIP. Here I present the same ideas restated in somewhat more modern language. The problem with the old TULIP phrasing is that many or most of the words used in that acronym are difficult for people …