Sectarian Rome

Last updated on: February 26, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

It was a well-nigh universal trope of Reformation rhetoric that the Reformers were the catholics who had to defend orthodoxy and catholicity against the sectarianism of the Roman church. Luther disputed the Catholic claim that obedience to Rome was the definition of catholicity, and disputed it on the basis of the universal testimony of the church (Unitive Protestantism, 65). Calvin defended the Reformers against the charge that they were schismatics: “Verily the wolves complain against the lambs” (quoted, 73). The... Read more

Making Church Visible

Last updated on: February 25, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

In his Unitive Protestantism, John T. McNeill sketches the “communio” ecclesiology of the Reformers: “They interpreted the creedal tenet of ‘the Holy Catholic Church’ in terms of the communio sanctorum, and identified the latter both with the invisible communion of the saved and with the true visible church in the world which they felt themselves called to restore.” Communion “involved a high degree of corporate consciousness, a group solidarity, and the recognition of an obligation mutually to bestow religious benefits and... Read more

Division Breeds Diversion

Last updated on: February 25, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Princeton Proposal on Christian Unity (In One Body Through the Cross) claims that “division breeds never-ending diversion from authentic mission” (section 35), and offers a shrewd diagnosis of how this occurs. It happens when “the distinct identities of our churches tempt us to relish the special marks that distinguish our communities from others, and not to glory in the confession of the crucified Lord we share in common” (section 32). We can relish traditional doctrinal commitments, but can also... Read more

Be What We Are

Last updated on: February 25, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Princeton Proposal for Christian Unity (One Body Through the Cross) works within two “poles”: On the one hand, there is an already-established unity, “a bond of faith and communion in Christ, established by the action of God.” On the other hand, we are called to “a deeper common life of reconciliation, mutual love, and shared labor.” The existing unity is “the necessary presupposition of ecumenical striving on our part” (section 8). Ecumenical effort is thus the obedience of faith.... Read more

Truth or Tribalism?

Last updated on: February 25, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

One Body Through the Cross, the Princeton Proposal for Christianity Unity, criticizes the ecumenical movement for “liberal indifference” to orthodoxy, which has sometimes provoked a reaction of “divisive sectarianism.” For some, the solution is to stress traditional doctrinal formulations, but this cure is part of the disease. As Margaret O’Gara explains in her contribution to Receptive Ecumenism: “Wanting to avoid an indifferent relativism, some churches focus on older formulations to define their identity over against other churches. But, in fact, the... Read more

Robert Morrison, Missionary

Last updated on: February 24, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

The biographical essays in G. Wright Doyle’s Builders of the Chinese Church summarize the lives of nine key missionary figures in Chinese Christianity. Doyle apologizes early on for including only two Chinese leaders, Liang Fa and Xi Shengmo (Pastor Hsi). He is aware that many other Chinese nationals contributed to the early mission effort, and laments that there are so few records among the Chinese or among the Western missionaries, of their contributions. It’s an impressive group, including several of... Read more

Gullible Rationalists

Last updated on: February 24, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

One of the delights of Philip Ball’s forthcoming Invisible is to see how frequently rationalists and materialists were have been taken in by charlatans. One might have thought that those who came-of-age and were Enlightened by reason would be immune to tricks, beliefs in ghosts, and in fairies and sprites. Ball shows that beliefs in invisible forces actually flourished during the Enlightenment. Mesmer claimed to be able to manipulate the magnetic fluid in human bodies in his medical practice. The Prussian Chemist... Read more

Witness of Abstinence

Last updated on: February 24, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Jeremiah 35 introduces the Rechabites. This is a clan within Israel that had refrained from wine, lived in tents, and refused to sow seed or plant vineyards for generations. The sole basis for this abstinence from normal life was the command of Jonadab the son of Rechab who commanded “You shall not drink wine, you or your sons, forever” (v. 6). Yahweh points to the Rechabites as a rebuke to Israel. Yahweh gave His law to His people, and continuously... Read more

Presbyterian Environmentalism

Last updated on: February 23, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

As Mark Stoll pursued research on the history of American environmentalism, he discovered that “A huge proportion of the leaders of environmentalism during its mid-twentieth-century heyday were raised Presbyterian.” As late as the Progressive Era conservationism of 1900-1920, “Progressive conservationists were nearly all raised Presbyterian. The almost complete unanimity astonished me. Presbyterians dominated Federal conservation for several decades and then vanished as completely as Congregationalists, only to resurface in the environmental movement after World War II.” The leaders were not... Read more

Beleaguered Behemoth

Last updated on: February 23, 2015 at 12:00 am By Peter Leithart

Thomas Kidd and Barry Hankins, both of Baylor University, observe that the story of Baptists in America is by most accounts a success story: “Baptists, who command tens of millions of American adherents, including the largest Protestant denomination in America (the Southern Baptist Convention) and the largest African American organization of any kind (the National Baptist Convention USA Inc.). Baptists such as Billy Graham have enjoyed access to the highest reaches of American political power. Baptist pastor Rick Warren seems (as... Read more