The next chapter in CJ&PM (should’ve done that before) is by Julius Kim and is entitled “The Rise of Moralism in Seventeenth-Century Anglican Preaching.” What might this have to do with the current federal vision controversy? Well, nothing, but that doesn’t keep it from being a fine and instructive article. A very good article, in fact, marred only by a few comments in passing that tie it in with the current hyperventilations.
The article outlined a history of the “metaphysical” preachers and the “plain” preachers of the 16th century, and described the reactionary rise of Latitudinarism as a school of preaching in the 17th century. All very good, and quite applicable today. I enjoyed the article very much.
But alas, the contemporary applications are made only briefly, and without any documentation. In a footnote, Kim refers to a certain temporizer back then who had an
“optimistic view of man’s rational faculties as an alternative to the Reformation’s emphasis on sovereign grace and trust in Christ’s extrinsic righteousness is different that the alternative to views proposed by Norman Shepherd and those who advocate the federal vision . . .” (p. 379, garble in the original, but you get the drift).
“Again, Tillotson’s view here that one remains in favor with God through holy living has striking parallels with those who advocate the views of the federal vision” (p. 387).
“This seventeenth-century distrust and disposal of the doctrine of sola fide parallels those in the twenty-first century caught in the midst of the current justification controversy” (p. 396).
The problem is that there has been a clear oversight. None of these particular claims, which is the point of the book after all, are given the dignity of any kind of citation. Everything else in the chapter is documented front to back, not to mention sideways. But when we get to the point at issue, the loci of the dispute, the thing we are debating . . . nada, zilch. I think this is must be because there isn’t really a theological journal called Stuff I Heard in the Hallways at Escondido, Vol. VI, No. 3.