“The foolishness of preaching saved those who believed, and the preaching of the gospel continues to manifest itself as the power of God after conversion. But to those who perish, preaching is always held in contempt; it is foolishness. Those who believe the Scriptures should not be astounded that preaching today is held in such …
Sometimes They Argue
“The Reformers did not dredge Scripture for prooftexts. The Bible’s light and clarity were not so much a doctrinal source or a blueprint for structural change. Rather, when we read their sermons and pamphlets we find biblical personalities and images swimming up to the surface of their minds. An irruption, explosion, eruption of the biblical …
Pietism and Art
“In contrast, from the Middle Ages through the time of the Reformation up to around 1800 when spiritualistic pietism began to drive beauty out of the church (as if one can have inward beauty without the outward signs of it), there may have been simplicity but always beauty in the things Christians did. That was …
High Preaching
“Any reformation of the church depends upon a high view of preaching. But a high view of preaching by itself, apart from a scriptural basis for that high view, will lead only to puffed-up and conceited preachers. Personal bombast and dogmatism are not the need of the hour. But neither do we need preachers who …
Night At the Museum
“The new vogue for dialogue, satire and narrative history gave priority to story-telling, to the via rhetorica over the via dialectica; conversation, intution and empathetic imagination took over from logic, paradox from syllogism, open disputations in the ‘public square’ from magisterial pronouncements behind closed doors. These are not just matters of style and form. They …
It”s Really Fun to Watch Rockers Talk This Way About Themselves
“The role of artists, as well as of the arts themselves, began to change in some European countries during the Renaissance. This movement gained momentum and made a breakthrough in the eighteenth century, the Age of Reason, the Enlightenment. Art became fine art, and the crafts were set aside as something inferior. The artist became …
Foundations and Structures
“So the issue is not whether we like this gift or that one, or whether we are to duplicate the phenomena of the first-century church. Rather, the issue is whether we understand the nature of blueprints. No real need for doing concrete work while building the attic” (Mother Kirk, p. 65).
More Lyric Than Lecture
“The Reformation . . . was more a song or a symphony than a system, more lyric than lecture, more a leap of the imagination than one of those social restructurings we are so heartily sick of today. It certainly produced systems, lectures and structures as well, but they were secondary” (Matheson, p. 26).
Humility Produces Great Art
“But even if artists did not have the high honor we tend to grant them today . . . they did make beautiful things—so beautiful, in fact, that we so many centuries later still go to look at their works and often pay much to have their works restored in order to hand them down …
True Prophetic Revelation Must Be Treated As Scripture
“Of course, the words of God can be disposed of by God. If He gave a word through one of Philip’s daughters which He did not want to be included in Scripture, then He may obviously do what He pleases with His own words. The point being made here is that we may not do …