Important Update: For a limited time, Canon is offering a free download of Black & Tan here, and it is available here on Kindle for 99 cents. For those who really care what I think on these subjects, it is all in this book. And yes, Canon emailed a copy to Dr. Bradley. Important Update …
Four Kinds of Puritan
I just recently finished a magnificent book, The Puritan Origins of American Patriotism, and a taxonomical breakdown occurred to me. I thought I’d share. There are four kinds of Puritan, stretching across the centuruies. Since the sixteenth century, the story has mostly been one of devolution, although there have been some delightful throwbacks here and …
Sedimental Journey
With regard to my previous discussion of American Puritanism, Tim Enloe raised some good points, with many of with which I agree with, or whatever the grammar johnnies say that clause should be. At the same time, I can see that I need to unpack this a bit more. I have used the image of …
Repent Like An American
The advice contained in the title is good counsel — but only if you are an American. Further, the phrase is not intended as any kind of backhanded praise, as though Americans repent better than anybody else. They only repent of American sins better than other people do, and then only if they are actually …
When the Dirt Hit Hegel’s Coffin
Like a football team with some self-respect, but not a ton of it, Christianity in North America has every expectation of playing a decent game, but no expectation of winning it. This is why — on all the sexual glue issues — we fight battles in various states, and sometimes we win them. By this …
America’s Unknown God
A city can be teeming with idols, as Athens was, and yet retain something in their history that provides a foothold for preaching the truth. This is what the apostle Paul did when he preached that their unknown god was in fact the true God (Acts 17:23). But the altar he took his preaching cue …
Speaking of Cows . . .
To worship is to make historical claims. Further, to acquiesce in false historical paradigmatic claims is to submit to a hidden idolatrous narrative. The two go together — the two being worship and historical identification. Worship of the true God entails a right understanding of history (Jesus is risen is a historical claim), and worship …
The Old Paths in War
Apostate cultures, or cultures in the process of falling away, need to be treated differently from pagan cultures. A baptized backslider needs to be called back to what his baptism means — how can we who died to sin still live in it? In an analogous way, in our efforts to speak the gospel to …
Tatterdemalion Refugees and the New Jerusalem
Observers of American high places, American idolatries, tend to cluster in two groups — narrow and true, and broad and false. We need a third operating category, which I would describe as broad and true. Those idolatries would include consumerism, nationalism, paternalism — in short, pretty much all our isms. Those who reject the idolatries …
Except for the Jesus Part
One of the central reasons why the Federal Vision controversy elicted such strong reactions is that it is a topic that, in one form or another, Americans have been debating since the 1630’s. The topic was debated earlier than that in Reformation history, of course, but we were debating it at the same time our …