Tag Archives: Puritans

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 Comments

Forensic Friday: Why It Goes with Two-Kingdom Tuesday

Our mid-western correspondent alerted me to a piece over at American Vision which is critical of the recent resurgence of Calvinism — as in Young, Restless, and Reformed — for regarding personal salvation as the essence of Calvinism. For the author, TULIP is well and good. It affirms God’s sovereignty. But it hardly covers what… Read More→

Posted in spirituality of the church, The Hinge | Also tagged , , | 24 Comments

The Original Blended Worship?

With less division [than over church government], the Westminster Assembly also drew up an order or worship and a confession of faith. The Directory for Public Worship, accepted by the Parliaments of England and Scotland alike in 1645, carved a middle ground between the Presbyterian desire for a fixed liturgy and Independent attachment to extemporary… Read More→

Posted in Shock and Awe | Also tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Getting over the Puritans, Say Hello to the Huguenots

I cannot say enough good things about Philip Benedict’s Christ’s Churches Purely Reformed: A Social History of Calvinism (Yale University Press, 2002). Among the reasons for recommending the book, aside from careful scholarship and judicious conclusions, is Benedict’s attention to the variety of Reformed expressions as they took shape in diverse cultural and political contexts.… Read More→

Posted in Confessionalism | Also tagged , , , | 4 Comments