Why C.S. Lewis Would Not Have Liked Me Very Much

Those who have been around here for a while know that I am a C.S. Lewis junkie. I have read and reread him, and have been edified by him in ways beyond reckoning. If I were to calculate the impact that various writers have had on me—and there have been many who have—he would always …

Carl Trueman, Ecclesiastical Celebrity

A discussion broke out yesterday over The Nashville Statement Fortified, and that discussion promptly headed straight back to the doctrine of the Trinity—the same debate that broke out a year or so ago. In the course of an extended back and forth yesterday, Tim Bayly said this: “Until these guys and gal publicly affirm the …

On Kissing the Casket Enough

While we were in Kiev last week, another place we visited was the monastery of the caves, a warren of cells deep underground. The active monastery above ground is Russian Orthodox, and the holy things below constitute one of the most unholy things I have ever seen. But there are some Western Christians who think …

Damnation and Deficient Allegiance

A few days ago, Peter Leithart published a brief summary of Matthew Bates’ book, Salvation by Allegiance Alone. My musings here cannot be a fair rebuttal to Bates, since I have not read his book, and it is really not a rebuttal of Peter’s point either, because he largely limits himself to summarizing what he …

The Invisible Mainspring of Human Conflict

Introduction: And now for a little intellectual history—my own, that is. This can be read by friend and foe alike with edifying pleasure. My friends can discover how I learned these wonderful things and my foes can discover what messed me up so bad. First consider the base coat of my theological assumptions that were …

Doug and Evan

Introduction: So to help make sense of this portion of my story, I have to set some dates that will serve as doctrinal pegs as I proceed. I became postmillennial somewhere near the end of 1985. Three years later, in 1988, I became a Calvinist (although I refused to call myself that for several years …