Category: Theology
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HCG Moule’s Outlines: Christology (2)
More good stuff from HCG Moule’s Outlines of Christian Doctrine. Moule read the 39 Articles as a straightforwardly Reformed document, and although he was calm and never feisty about his brand of Anglican Calvinism, it had solid edges. Here he is in his “why I am not an Arminian” mode, explaining what he found lacking…
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Moule’s Outlines of Christian Doctrine (1)
H.C.G. Moule (1841-1920) was a great expositor who served as bishop of Durham for 19 years. I would be hard pressed to name my favorite book from among the many that he wrote, but there’s something special about the brief systematic theology he published in 1889 (revised edition by Hodder and Stoughton, 1902). It began as…
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God’s Philanthropia Manifested
Something God has never been without is philanthropia, love of humanity, and this divine attribute was manifested in Christ. Here’s how Paul puts it in Titus 3:3-7: For we ourselves were once foolish, disobedient, led astray, slaves to various passions and pleasures, passing our days in malice and envy, hated by others and hating one…
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Moral Beauty in the Pastoral Epistles
Chapter 5 of Ceslaus Spicq’s 1963 The Trinity and our Moral Life is entitled “The Beauty of the Moral Life,” and in ten little pages it draws together not only some of the key ideas of the book but some of Spicq’s deep immersion in the peculiar vocabulary of the pastoral epistles. I don’t think…
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Designing a Course on the Atonement
There is more than one way to skin a cat (or so I’m told), and the same holds true for teaching a doctrine. This fall I am teaching a seminar on the doctrine of the Atonement, and I am working through different ways of approaching it. All methods presume extensive interaction with Scripture, but variously…
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Wuthering Adoption: Emily Brontë, Christ’s Atonement and Adoption
The families in Wuthering Heights only recover from the adoption of Heathcliff when, like the Israelites after their refusal to enter the Promised Land, everyone of that generation was dead (Num. 14:20-23). But adoption is a beautiful representation of the work of Christ—or even better, it IS the work of Christ—that which God does in…
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LATC 2015: Locating Atonement
The videos for the plenary sessions and panel discussion for the Los Angeles Theology Conference 2015, “Locating Atonement” are now available! LATC 2015 Plenary Speakers: Matthew Levering, Mundelein Seminary Atonement and Creation Ben Myers, Charles Sturt University Atonement and the Image of God Bruce McCormack, Princeton Theological Seminary Atonement and Human Suffering Michael Horton,…
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Confessing the Generations
(This is in some ways a sequel to my earlier post, “Gospel of Confession”) Perhaps, like me, you have dreaded your turn to tell your conversion story at a church event. I would open my story with an apology: “well, my story really isn’t very interesting….” Unlike some of the more sensational stories that had…
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God, Science & The Big Questions
The Torrey Honors Institute recently partnered with Biola’s Apologetics department to host a discussion on God, science and the big questions between J. P. Moreland, William Lane Craig, and John Lennox, moderated by Hugh Hewitt. Enjoy this discussion. The minds are keen, the wits sharp, and the ideas vibrant. From Biola University: Join us for this…
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Lent with Benedict
The word “lent” is of Anglo-Saxon origin and literally means “spring,” though the practice of observing a 40 day period of preparation for Easter goes back to the time of the early Church and was a fully developed liturgical season by the twelfth century. In short, Lent is our own imitation of Christ’s journey into…
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“The Trinity and Our Moral Life”
I don’ think I’m giving away any surprise endings if I share a couple of key paragraphs from a 1963 book, Ceslaus Spicq’s The Trinity and our Moral Life According to St. Paul. After an introductory chapter on “the necessity of a revealed morality,” Spicq organizes the key chapters thus: Ch. 2 From the…
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Relationship Status: Best Friends with Myself
This week I had the opportunity to spend 12 hours discussing the topic of friendship with my students, guided by Aristotle’s work on the subject. While we found much that he says to be rich and helpful, one particular insight led to hours of fruitful discussion. The claim is as follows: “The defining features of…