“More than a few pastors have wondered whether they are being theologically dishonest in saying that the ‘sign gifts’ are no longer operative in the church today. True, the charismatic movement gives us great reason to be suspicious, and it is a pleasure to be prejudiced and bigoted sometimes, especially when Benny Hinn is involved, …
Metaphors of Bounty
“From this perspective the Reformation can be seen as an infinitely varied, but coherent and extended, metaphor for the bountifulness of God’s grace. If, however, there is anything to be said for this argument, then we are going to have to look in quite a new way at Protestantism, which — we have generally been …
High and Lonely Destiny-ism
“It has been like this since the eighteenth century when the old concept of the artist as craftsman began to be exchanged for a concept that saw him as both a gifted genius and a social and economic outcast” (H.R. Rookmaaker, Art Needs No Justification, p. 5).
Tradition and Testimony
“A modern church cannot base everything it does on ‘Scripture solitaire’ without any reference to the testimonies of the historic Church. For one of the central testimonies which the Church has given, and which the historic Protestants continue to give, is that the sixty-six books of the Bible are the only ultimate and infallible Word …
Iconopoaic Puritanism
“We are quite rightly impressed by the iconoclastic dimensions of the Reformation, the pruning of the liturgies and the decimation of the saints’ days, the removal of statues, paintings and even stained glass from the churches. But such iconoclasm may be eclipsed by what we can call the iconopoaic energies of the Reformation, its creativity …
When Experts Aren’t
“I will not say that a good story for children could never be written by someone in the Ministry of Education, for all things are possible. But I should lay very long odds against it” (C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds, p. 34).
How Fundamentalism Destroys the Bible
“A fallible authority is not defined as one that is wrong all the time. This is a good thing, as it turns out, for it is the fallible teaching authority of the historic Church which pointed us to the canon of Scripture. A fallible Church made an infallible (true) judgment when it determined the boundaries …
The Reformation As Imaginative Triumph
“What were the hidden springs of imagination, high up in the hills, that were to feed the broad river of the Reformation?” (Peter Matheson, The Imaginative World of the Reformation, p. 4).
Don’t Staple the Moral Onto the Last Paragraph
“Anyone who can write a children’s story without a moral, had better do so: that is, if he is going to write children’s stories at all. The only moral that is of any value is that which arises inevitably from the whole cast of the author’s mind” (C.S. Lewis, Of Other Worlds, p. 33).
Tradition As Servant
[Speaking of tradition as servant] “But notice how this leaves us with room for a necessary doctrine of subordinate spiritual authorities. The elders of a local church, Christian parents bringing up children in the fear of the Lord, and convocations of theologians three centuries ago are all lawful authorities, deputized as such in Scripture. They …