Broad and high

Last updated on: November 9, 2011 at 3:27 pm By Peter Leithart

In his classic The Covenant Sealed: The Development of Puritan Sacramental Theology in Old and New England, 1570-1720 , E. Brooks Holifield (who has the classiest name among all church historians) describes the oscillation of Reformed sacramental theology and practice. High views of the real presence have typically been linked to tight restrictions on access. If Christ is really presence, the fence around the table must be very high. A sacred meal has to be protected. Lower views of the... Read more

Everything to Everyone

Last updated on: November 9, 2011 at 11:06 am By Peter Leithart

Thomas Goodwin compared the benefits of sermons to the benefits of participation in the Supper, and the Supper came out slightly ahead: “Many things in a Sermon thou understandest not, and haply not many Sermons; or if thou doest, yet findest not thy portion in them; but here to be sure thou mayest. Of Sermons, some are for comfort, some to inform, some to excite; but here in the Sacrament is all thou canst expect. Christ is here light, and... Read more

Calvin and the Calvinists

Last updated on: November 9, 2011 at 11:00 am By Peter Leithart

The Calvin v. Calvinists debate has rocked back and forth. Perhaps it could be better resolved by focusing less on doctrinal shifts and more on liturgical ones. In his The Worship of the English Puritans (Puritanism) , Horton Davies highlights the movement of English Puritans away from Calvin: “Calvin desired a weekly celebration of the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper; the Puritans celebrated at monthly intervals. Calvin approved the use of a liturgy; the earliest Puritans produced their own prayer-books;... Read more

First the flood

Last updated on: November 8, 2011 at 12:28 pm By Peter Leithart

First comes the flood, wiping away the world that then was. Then God calls Abram from the nations, inserting Himself into the world through His chosen. First comes the flood of Babylonians, wiping out the temple. Then Yahweh sends Israel out into the nations, inserting Himself into the world through His chosen people. First comes the flood of Romans, wiping out Herod’s temple and demolishing Jerusalem. Then Yahweh scatters His people to the four winds blown by the wind of... Read more

Nothing but time

Last updated on: November 8, 2011 at 12:16 pm By Peter Leithart

Noah is the restart of the human race after the whole human race has been wiped out. Abraham, also a new Adam, restarts the human race, begins a renewal of humanity and creation, within the world. He is leaven in the lump. A restart for humanity within post-Babelic humanity is a trickier business than restart after the flood. Noah had the advantage of having a clean slate. Yahweh decided not to do that with Abraham: No clean slate. Rather, He... Read more

God-breathed

Last updated on: November 8, 2011 at 10:13 am By Peter Leithart

Craig Allert’s A High View of Scripture? The Authority of the Bible and the Formation of the New Testament Canon (Evangelical Ressourcement: Ancient Sources for the Church’s Future) is mostly about the implications of the history of canon-formation for our understanding of what the Bible is, our understanding of canon and inspiration. Much of the book is a historical review of the process of the formation of the NT, but toward the end he addresses the question of inspiration directly.... Read more

Good and Necessary Consequences

Last updated on: November 8, 2011 at 9:20 am By Peter Leithart

As the subtitle suggests, Carlos Bovell’s By Good and Necessary Consequence: A Preliminary Genealogy of Biblicist Foundationalism is a genealogical critique of what he calls biblicist foundationalism, defined as “the decision to restrict confessional theology to the deduction of good and necessary consequences from express biblical statements.” The book is largely an examination of how deduction and “axiomaticism” worked in ancient and medieval philosophy, in order to show that the Reformed notion of deduction “is not at all commensurate with... Read more

Stuck in the Shema

Last updated on: November 7, 2011 at 1:07 pm By Peter Leithart

In John 10:30, Jesus says “I and the Father are One.” The Jews think it blasphemous. Why? Jesus’ statement seems to be a riff on the Shema – “Hear, O Israel, YHWH your God is One.” Jesus sticks Himself into the Shema: Not YHWH along, but “I and YHWH” are one. And the NT statements about us being “one” with God might also be taken as blasphemy for the same reason. Because we are united to the Son who united... Read more

Regensburg Reclaimed?

Last updated on: November 7, 2011 at 11:27 am By Peter Leithart

In an article evaluating RC Sproul’s teaching on justification in a 2004 issue of JETS , Matthew Heckel concludes that Sproul’s work is misleading and misses the opportunity of the moment: “Sproul’s assertion that the Reformers considered sola fide t he essence of t he gospel is not fundamentally wrong. Yet it is unqualified and dangerously misleading. Why? Sproul’s thesis fails to interact with t he doctrine of justification in its pre-Reformation forms and in its post-Reformation developments. Without input... Read more

Fertile earth

Last updated on: November 4, 2011 at 1:25 pm By Peter Leithart

Frymer-Kensky again, commending on the third day of the creation week: “on the very same day that the earth is created, God also creates the plants and trees. This double creation on the third day emphasizes the significance of the fact that on the very same day God creates the earth, God makes the earth fertile. There never was, not even for one day, a time that the earth was barren.” (Supplement at the origin!) She draws from this the... Read more