Book 1/Chapter 16 The nature of providence (section 4) 1. What does the word providence not refer to? 2. Is providence limited to foreknowledge? 3. If God governs the laws of nature only, what has been taken from Him? God’s special providence (section 5) 1. If God controls the general laws only, what is no …
Torah Torah Torah
Now that we are into the exegetical portion of Wright’s book, I am not going to try to get through the chapters at one go. I am just going to work in each chapter until I have enough to write about, which will not be the whole thing, and we will see when we get …
Walk According to this Rule
So we are halfway through Wright’s book, and are on the threshhold of his exegetical section. Given the way these posts have gone, and the give and take of the conversation following them, I thought it would be good to give a quick summary of my take thus far. “For in Christ Jesus neither circumcision …
Calvin on Providence
Book 1/Chapter 15 Adam’s freedom (section 8) 1. Did Adam have the resources, prior to the Fall, to attain to eternal life? 2. Why should we not invoke the doctrine of secret predestination in this discussion? 3. Why do the “philosophers” misunderstand the nature of man? Book 1/Chapter 16 Creation and providence (section 1) 1. …
Thought Forms to the Rescue!
I enjoyed the next chapter by Wright immensely, and want to offer just a few fundamental quibbles. By this I mean that I want to present an alternative story to the one he is assuming about the history of the development of the doctrine of justification, and see if we can’t make our way to …
Faculties of the Soul
Book 1/Chapter 15 Renewal through Christ (section 4) 1. Since the image of God in man is a desolate ruin, how can we tell what it is like? 2. Do the elect in this life reflect any more of that image? 3. When does it attain its full splendor? 4. What does Calvin think of …
Just a Skosh More on Imputation
If we have courtroom imagery, and any kind of stand-in representative for the defendants, then there is no way for the thing to work without imputation. Wright confuses things enormously when he rejects the idea that righteousness can float across the courtroom from the judge to the defendant. Of course it cannot, and defenders of …
That Glorious Word Imputation
Thanks to everyone for the good discussion in the previous Wright post. This will be an attempt to clean up a few details there (due no doubt to my infelicities of expression), and so my review of the next chapter will have to wait. I believe that some of our difficulty here is semantics. I …
The Seat of God’s Image
Book1/Chapter 15 The Image of God (section 1) 1. To what truth about knowledge does Calvin return in this section? 2. What two aspects of himself must man know in order to know God rightly? 3. What happens if men blame their failings on nature? Division of body and soul (section 2) 1. What does …
So Bildad is a Skunk
The third chapter is on the context of first-century Judaism, and the necessity of understanding Paul in his context. As is so often the case, I enthusiastically endorse Wright’s points, and am mystified by his applications. I particularly appreciated his contrast of historic Lutheranism, with due apologies to my Lutheran friends, and historic Calvinism. I …