This past week my wife and I had the chance to attend the International Religious Freedom Summit in Washington, DC. It was an interesting conference on a subject that gets the short shrift these days. In attendance were representatives of several religions including Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and many others. The fact that any kind …
Is Meaningful Lay Involvement in the Church That Bad?
Every now and then I run across an article that has me saying to myself, "What is going on here?" One such piece is Ben Jeffries' Abiding with Error in the ACNA. There's a great deal to unpack here, but I'm going to try to focus on one thing: his idea that easing the laity …
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The Reformed vs. Athanasian/Nicene Approach to God
An interesting comparison by Bobby Grow: Scholastic Reformed theologians claim to be in line with Nicene theology proper. But when you read scholastic Reformed theology, particularly their confessions, what becomes immediately apparent is that scholastic Reformed theology operates out of the apophatic ‘negative’ and/or speculative tradition for thinking a doctrine of God (and Christ); whereas Nicene theology thinks …
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John Wesley and the Liturgy
From William Palmer Ladd's Prayer Book Interleaves: The Church of England had its Prayer Book, and thus the liturgical way of life was kept alive. But when in the XVIII century, the heyday of the Whig bishops, the easy-going parsons, and the infrequent Eucharists, a prophet arose in the person of John Wesley, the Church …
The Baptists, Their Doctrine and Their Nasty Politics
Next week the Southern Baptist Convention meets in Nashville. They're facing a number of serious issues: declining membership, Critical Race Theory, and sex abuse scandals, both opposite-sex and same-sex. They've had some high-profile departures from the Baptist universe such as Russell Moore, an enlightening analysis of which is here. The denomination everyone thought "had it …
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Giving Paige Patterson the Boot Was Messier Than You Thought
The Baptists are at it again: Southwestern’s dispatch in the annual Book of Reports, which presents information for messengers attending the denomination’s upcoming annual meeting, alleges Patterson misappropriated “confidential donor information” and took seminary property after his 2018 termination over allegations of mishandling sexual abuse. The report comes three months after the seminary settled a …
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You’re an Anglican Now, Scot McKnight, Leave the Baptistic Stuff Behind
I never thought I'd ever see a debate on the subject of the inerrancy of Scriptures in an Anglican context. But one Dr. Scot McKnight, Professor of New Testament at Northern Seminary and (I think) in the C4SO (the usual source of trouble in the ACNA these days) has put himself front and centre with …
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Those Hard Drinking Americans
When The Atlantic notes it, it's a problem: Right now we are lurching into another of our periodic crises over drinking, and both tendencies are on display at once. Since the turn of the millennium, alcohol consumption has risen steadily, in a reversal of its long decline throughout the 1980s and ’90s. Before the pandemic, …
The Baptists and WO: It Isn’t About Authority, Albert Mohler
Mohler opines in a lengthy piece on the subject: In truth, the issue of women serving as pastors fuelled the Conservative Resurgence in the SBC. The question was instantly clarifying. The divide over women serving in the pastorate served as a signal of the deeper divide over the authority and interpretation of the Bible. Simply …
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Renewing Your Faith: The Aftermath
In the last post, I gave a book review of Donald Connolly's In a Holy Year, Renewing Your Faith: An Anthology of Spiritual Readings. I promised I'd give some life reflections on this, and this is the fulfilment of that promise. This book is more than just a book: the anthology compiler was my first …
Positive Infinity 