Tag Archives: pietism

Should a Christian Be Worried about Riding a Bus Driven by a Non-Christian?

simpsons_otto_mann

In roughly two weeks the missus and I will be returning to Turkey with students and faculty from the College. We spend a lot of time on a bus in order to go from Istanbul, down to Ephesus, out to Urfa, and back through the center of the country to Ankara and back to Istanbul… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight, Neo-Calvinism | Also tagged , | 54 Responses

Experimental Catechesis

Catechesis at Annunciation Melkite Church (3)

The news of the gospel allies teaming up with Tim Keller to produce a catechism is a target too big to miss. Given the urban hipster brand of TKNY, one can only wonder if the catechism (which is supposed to include material from the older catechisms) will have Q&A’s like this: Q. What is the… Read More→

Posted in Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Also tagged , , , | 116 Responses

24/7/52/12 Christians

lost soul

Our relentless and erstwhile defender of all things Jonathan Edwards made a remarkable assertion in his interactions with other Old Lifers. He wrote: If confessionalists are just going to church on Sunday, affirming the confession, taking the sacrament and just waiting for Christ to come again, then they are being lazy. If confessionalists are not… Read More→

Posted in Confessionalism | Also tagged , , , | 202 Responses

Does Jonathan Edwards Need Paul Tripp?

jonathan_edwards-286x300

As I continue to come across Edwards’ writings — his Faithful Narrative is part of the reader for American Heritage at Hillsdale College — I continue to be amazed at the Northampton pastor’s broad appeal, even down to the “Jonathan Edwards is my homeboy” T-shirts. Granted, Edwards has much to admire. The thought of a… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Piety with Excitement | Also tagged , , , | 267 Responses

Playing with Fire

fire eater

Martin Luther complained about the radicals of the Reformation who invoked the fullness of the Spirit that they had “swallowed the Holy Ghost, feathers and all.” Justin Taylor’s recent quote from John Piper about worship makes me wonder if fire-eater would occur to Luther as the name to describe the oldest of the Young, Restless,… Read More→

Posted in Shock and Awe | Also tagged , , , | 47 Responses

Cherry Picking Alert (and boy are those trunks sappy!)

cherries

The Gospel Coalition has launched a year-long series of blog posts about Princeton Theological Seminary, a school that celebrates its bicentennial this year. The first post introduces PTS by likening the institution to the Young, Restless, and Reformed movement. Controversies swirl around celebrity pastors and their best-selling books. Evangelicals unite across denominational lines to share… Read More→

Posted in Adventures in Church History, Because Someone Has to Provide Oversight | Also tagged , , , , , , | 31 Responses

Putting the Super in Superficial

John Fea links to this amusing video. The mocking of small groups aside — and remember that we have pietists to thank for this odd form of Christian piety — I do wonder what would happen to the dynamics of a group like this if you introduced a Presbyterian elder (not to be confused the… Read More→

Posted in Piety with Excitement | Also tagged , | 102 Responses

Al Mohler, the Gospel Coalition, and Me (about whom it always is)

Name-dropper alert: Al Mohler and I have been friends for over two decades. (The Harts used to be on the Mohler’s Christmas card list until the former’s nomadic way of life prompted USPS to stop forwarding those attractive greetings from the president’s house in Louisville.) Al and I met when we were participants in a… Read More→

Posted in Jure Divino Presbyterianism | Also tagged , , , , , , | 318 Responses

Look At All the Detail (and Beware the Adverbs)

When teaching on the historical development of Reformed Protestantism I have been struck lately by the greater and greater amounts of detail into which the Reformed churches went in descriptions of the Holy Spirit’s work. If you look (see below) at the Heidelberg Catechism (1563) you don’t see much beyond affirmations of faith, regeneration, and… Read More→

Posted in Application of Redemption | Also tagged , , , , , , | 5 Responses

Having His Confession and Feeling It Too

Whether he has too much time on his hands or is an outlier in the Gospel Coalition, Kevin DeYoung deserves kudos for reading books by Reformed confessionalists. Whether more reading will be sufficient to wean DeYoung off pietism is another matter. But he will have to spend more time on the topic if he is… Read More→

Posted in Piety with Excitement | Also tagged , , , , | 40 Responses