Theology That Bites Back
One of the most common areas where syncretism—an attempt to marry two incompatible worldviews—is making massive inroads into Christian faith and practice is in the area of counseling and therapy. In the conviction that this is a very bad development, as well as believing it is an area where many pastors need to be encouraged …
Introduction: As a result of some of my recent “going on” about the nature of nature, I have been in conversation with some friends about miracles. One of them recommended the chapter on miracles in Vern Poythress’s book Symphonic Theology, (chapter 9), which I had read before (and enjoyed well enough). So I went back …
In my recent post on the surgical rape of nature, someone in the comments asked what I thought to be a pertinent question. Why would I come out swinging at something like transgender surgeries as a “rape of nature” when in other circumstances I have shown myself to be quite open to GMOs, Frankenfoods, and …
One of the reasons I go on about the regeneration thing is because I believe that many other crucial things ride on it. If we don’t keep the necessity of the new birth in the forefront of our minds, we will in short order find ourselves unable to answer the arguments and demands of those …
So let me tell you a little bit about my recent reading, which will then help you understand where the following comes from. I recently listened through all C.S. Lewis’s Essays, and have now listened to most of The Abolition of Man (again). I am currently reading God Is Not a Story by Murphy (which …
Scripture teaches us that the creation is articulate. “The heavens declare his righteousness, And all the people see his glory. Confounded be all they that serve graven images, That boast themselves of idols: Worship him, all ye gods” (Ps. 97:6–7). The created order pours forth speech. Nature is not a dumb mute, vaguely gesturing in …
Over at First Things, Peter Leithart interacts with a 2010 article by natural law theorist Jean Porter. At issue was the question of whether or not natural law provides a basis for rejecting same-sex relationships or marriages. Porter thinks not, and Peter finds her reasoning compelling — as far as the natural law limitation goes …
The classic beginning of Calvin’s Institutes rightly assumes that it is not possible to know God without knowledge of ourselves. Without knowledge of self there is no knowledge of God. But it runs the other direction as well. It “not easy to discern” which knowledge precedes and brings forth the other. They are interdependent. “Accordingly, …
So I am a presuppositionalist. That’s true enough, but what do I need to presuppose? This will require more development, but what needs to be presupposed is the way things actually are. You don’t need to know all the precise details of how things actually are — you don’t begin at the end — but …
Over the last few weeks, we have been discussing natural law — the good, the bad, and the ugly. Jim Jordan kicked things off by attacking The Calvinist International at the Auburn Avenue conference, and I wrote a few posts on the subject, including an outline of my own debt to C.S. Lewis, and my …
