An accidental blog

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

By Vollenhoven in English

A full bibliography of work by Vollenhoven up to 1982 appeared in

Kok, J.H. 1992. Vollenhoven: His Early Development. Sioux Center: Dordt College Press. pp. 363-382.

The Lonely Vollenhovian

Here's a new blog that looks like it will be a no-brainer for the RSS feed: The Lonely Vollenhovian

The blogger - no name or details are given - promises to blog about his PhD on relating reformational philosophy to the science-religion debate.

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Dan Jesse at Emerging Scholars' Blog in a series of posts has been taking a look at Mouw's Abraham Kuyper

Bert de Vries 2014. What Kuyper saw and thought: Abraham Kuyper’s visit to the Holy Land. The Bavick Review 5:8-42.

"Bob on Books" Review of Bratt's Abraham Kuyper

To read this biography of Kuyper is to understand the intellectual foundations of much of the Reformed and Neo-Reformed movement in this country. His thought has influenced figures like Nicholas Wolterstorff and Albert Wolters in philosophy, Timothy Keller in preaching, and James Skillen in politics and public life. (See my review of Skillen’sThe Good of Politics as an example of Kuyperian thought.) It is also a narrative of one who was both an accomplished thinker and a skilled politician. For Christians interested in political life, whether you agree with Kuyper’s theology or not, this is an excellent study of Christian political engagement.

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

On Vollenhoven: a bibliography

A list of books and articles on D. H. Th. Vollenhoven

A more up-to-date version is available here.

Bril, K.A., H. Hart, J. Klapwijk (eds.). 1973. The Idea of a Christian Philosophy: Essays in Honour of D. H. Th. Vollenhoven. Wedge: Toronto.

Bril, K.A. 1973. A selected and annotated bibliography of D. H. Th. Vollenhoven. Philosophia Reformata 38: 212-222.

Bril, K.A. 1995. A comparison between Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven on the historiography of philosophy. Philosophia Reformata 60:2.

Bril, K.A. 2005. Vollenhoven’s problem-historical method; introduction and explorations. (Transl. by Vulderink, R.W.) Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press.

Friesen, J.G. 'Monism, dualism, nondualism: a problem with Vollenhoven's problem-historical method'.

Griffioen, S. 2013. Treasure hunting in Vollenhoven. Paper delivered at the School of Philosophy, Potchefstroom Campus, North-West University on 24 August 2013.

Ive, J. 2012. A critically comparative Kuyperian analysis and in trinitarian perichoretic reconstruction of the reformational philosophies of Dirk H.T. Vollenhoven and Herman Dooyeweerd. Ph.D. thesis. London: King’s College.

Ive, Jeremy 2023. “Dooyeweerd and Vollenhoven: What They Share, How They Differ, and How They Complement One Another,” in Discovering Dooyeweerd ed. D.F.M. Strauss (Jordan Station, Ont: Paideia Press), 501–511.

Ive, J. 2015. The Contribution and Philosophical Development of the Reformational Philosopher, Dirk H. Th. Vollenhoven. Philosophia Reformata 80(2): 159–177.

Kampof, E.J. The triunity of life: on the unity of the Vollenhovian project. ICS, Toronto MPhil.

Kok, J.H. 1988. Vollenhoven and scriptural philosophy. Philosophia Reformata 53(2): 101-142.

Kok, J.H. 1992. Vollenhoven: his early development. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press.

Runner, H. Evan. 1972. Abraham Kuyper’s influence on Dr Vollenhoven. Perspective Newsletter 6: 7-10.

Runner, H. Evan. 1972. Vollenhoven celebrates his eightieth birthday. Perspective Newsletter (Dec).

Seerveld, C.G. 1973. Biblical wisdom underneath Vollenhoven’s categories for philosophical historiography. Philosophia Reformata, 38:127-143.

Seerveld, C.G. 1975. The pedagogical strength of a Christian methodology in philosophical historiography. Koers 40:4-6.

Seerveld, C. 1980. Towards a cartographic methodology for art historiography. Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism 39:2.

Seerveld, C.G. 1993. Vollenhoven’s legacy for art historiography. Philosophia Reformata, 58:49-79.

Taljaard, J.A.L. 1978. In memoriam prof. D.H.Th Vollenhoven: 01/11/1892-06/06/1978. Perspectief, 17(3 & 4):1-4, Sept.

Tol, A. 1978. In memoriam: Dirk Hendrik Theodor Vollenhoven. Philosophia Reformata, 43:93-100.

Tol, A. 1979. ‘Foreword’ in D.H.Th. Vollenhoven: Ancient philosophical conceptions in problem-historical lay-out, 6th Century B.C. – 6th Century A.D. Amsterdam: Filosofisch Instituut, Vrije Universiteit.

Tol, A. 1995. Time and change in Vollenhoven. Philosophia Reformata 60:99-120.

Tol, A. 2007. Vollenhoven on Early Classical Antiquity. In Sweetman, R. (ed.). In the Phrygian Mode; Neo-Calvinism. Antiquity and the lamentations of Reformational Philosophy. Toronto: ICS/ Lanham: Univ. Press of America, pp. 127-160.

Tol, A. 2010. Philosophy in the making; D.H.Th. Vollenhoven and the emergence of Reformed Philosophy. Sioux Center, Iowa: Dordt College Press.

Tol, A. 2011. Reformational philosophy in the making. Philosophia Reformata, 76:187-214.

Tol, A. 2011. Vollenhoven and Dooyeweerd: their emerging difference. Unpublished paper delivered at the International Symposium of the Association for Christian Philosophy, Amsterdam, 16-19 August 2011.

Tol, A. 2012. Vollenhoven on philosophy, worldview and religion. Philosophia Reformata, 77:

Tol, A. 2013. Vollenhoven, Dirk Hendrik Theodoor. Wikipedia http://en/Wikipedia.org/wiki/D.H.Th.Vollenhoven

van der Walt. B.J. 1978. Historiography of philosophy: the consistent problem-historic method. In Heartbeat. Potchefstroom: IRS.

van der Walt, B.J. 1982-83. The consistent problem-historical method of philosophical historiography. Anakainosis, 5 (2 and 3): 1-21.

van der Walt, B.J. 2006. The philosophy of D. H. Th. Vollenhoven (1892-1978), with special reference to his historiography of philosophy. Tydskrif vir Christelike Wetenskap 42(1-2): 35-39.

van der walt, B.J. 2014. At the cradle of a Christian philosophy. Potchefstroom: ICCA.

van der walt, B.J. 2014. Constancy and Change: historical types and trends in the passion of the western mind. Potchefstroom: ICCA.

Wolters, A.M. 1979. On Vollenhoven’s problem-historical method. In Kraay, J. & Tol, A. (eds.). Hearing and doing; philosophical essays dedicated to H.Evan Runner. Toronto: Wedge Pub. Foundation. pp. 231-262.

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

British Calvinists: John Brine (1703-1765)

John Brine (1703-1765) was born in Kettering, Northamptonshire. He was converted under the preaching of John Gill. He was baptised by Thomas Wallis and became a member of the Little Meeting congregation.

He began a preaching ministry and married Anne, the daughter of John Moore the pastor of a congregation in Northampton. Brine then became the pastor of a Particular Baptist congregation in Queen's Rd, Coventry. In 1730 he moved to London to be the pastor at Curriers' Hall, Cripplegate. Brine remained there until his death in 1765.

Previous minsters at Currier's Hall included: Hanserd Knollys, David Crossley (from 1705-1721), John Skepp (from 1712-1721), William Morton (from 1722-1730) and then Brine (from 1730-1265).

Robert Oliver maintains was hyper-Calvinist in theology, but this is disputed by George Ella. He was supralapsarian and had been described by some as an antinomian.

He is buried in Burnhill Fields.

Some of his writings are available here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1998

Sunday, 14 September 2014

The drama of Scripture II: The fall

Here are the slides and notes from my talk on Sunday. It was the second in a series based on the excellent book by Goheen and Bartholomew.

Drama of Scripture Act 2 The Fall from Steve Bishop

It’s been said that the history of the world can be told with three apples:

The apple Adam ate, the apple that fell on Newton’s head and the Apple Steve Jobs gave us. Of course, that’s not quite true as nothing in the biblical text suggests that it was an apple Adam ate! The apple is a good image for what happened.

…And then there was sin.

One thing is certain sin has tarnished, disrupted and distorted God's good creation.

Because of the "apple" humanity, God and the world are estranged (Gen 3:17; 9:2). This decisive biblical event is well described by Walther Eichrodt:

This event has the character of a "Fall", that of a falling out of line of the development willed by God.

The fall is a falling out of line of the development willed by God. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be. As Romans 8 has it the creation is now groaning. God’s intention in creation was for humans to fill and subdue the earth, to till and to keep it: in other words to build civilisation. When we think of creation we think of solar systems, sun, sea, sky, sharks, starfish and spiders. But creation is more than that; within the creation order there is culture and civilisation. Humans were to develop and help the whole of creation to flourish. This unfolding of creation was to result in institution such as government, education, farming, art and music, business, science and technology.

However, Adam and Eve disobeyed God. They didn’t want to do things God’s way, they wanted to be their own bosses. That is the essence of sin – it wasn’t just what they did it was about the heart, an act of the will, an act of defiance. In essence it’s: We don’t want to be ruled by God we want to rule ourselves.

It might seem odd to suggest that science, technology, government, work and so on were part of creation. But look at the activities that Adam was doing before the fall.

Genesis 2: 19

God bought the animals to Adam – and Adam had to name them. He would have to distinguish between each animal, numbering them – the start of mathematics, he had to name them, observation and classification, the start of science. We could go on.

Genesis 2: 5

There was no man to work the ground – so humans were created. We were created to work! We don’t work to get money, we work as part of our God-given creational task.

So what went wrong? There was a falling out of line of the development willed by God. It’s not the way it’s supposed to be!

God placed humans in a garden. The Bible ends in a city, the new Jerusalem. That involves development and the production of culture and civilisation. But then came the fall – a falling out of line. That, fortunately, is not the end of the story. God is in the business of redemption.

Structure and direction

The distinction between structure and direction is important here. Structure refers to the form in which things have been created; direction refers to the pull of sin or grace on that structure. The fall means that it is the direction not the structure of the world that has altered.

In Genesis 1:28 we were given what has been called the cultural mandate; it has not been annulled because of the fall.

Be fruitful and increase in number

Fill the earth

Subdue it

Rule over the animals

Genesis 2: 15

Placed in the garden of Eden to

Work it and

Take care of it

That is still our task and our calling.

What has happened, though through the fall, is that it has been made all the more difficult.

Genesis 2: 16

Filling the earth is made all the more painful as childbearing pains are increased.

Rulership becomes deformed: "the husband shall rule over the wife".

Genesis 2:17-18

Subduing is made all the more difficult as work in the garden will be a "painful toil".

Most initiatives of the development of creation such as cities, music and technology (metal working) arise out of the line of Cain (in Genesis 4). The development of clothes also comes as a result of the fall (Gen 3:7, 21). Were humans intended merely to remain in a pristine garden?

If we take the example of cities we cannot declare them inherently evil, because the new heavens and earth are pictured as a city in Revelation. To see all human post-fall development as evil is to confuse the structure and direction of creation. Cities, music, fashion, science, technology, art ... all have a creational structure, the fall has not affected this but has changed their direction of these God-given aspects have been distorted and mis-directed. They can be developed obediently or disobediently to creational norms.

The task of civilisation, however is rooted in the creation narrative. When God created the heavens and the earth he first formed it and then began to fill it. It is this task that humans have to continue. This is what civilisation is about; it is part of the human task to be the image bearers of God.

Ironically it seems that it is a step of rebellion that leads to a development of "civilisation". God works all things together for good. God wasn't taken by surprise.

No area of life is left untainted by sin. Sin affects every area of life.

All relationships are broken: with God, with the world, with other humans and with ourselves.

Adam and Eve are banished from the garden. It appears that out of defiant rebellion God is working out his purposes for the fulfilment of the cultural mandate. Adam's expulsion from the garden means that the rest of the world can be "civilised"; similarly with the tower of Babel it means that humanity is scattered throughout the globe and as they are they take the image of God with them.

We may live in a world that is not the way it’s supposed to be, a world that has fallen out of line of the development willed by God. But God is working on that. The expulsion from the garden is the beginning of redemption. The remainder of the Bible is the story of God redeeming, through Christ, his good but fallen creation.

As sin has affected every area and aspect of life, so too does redemption.

And that’s the story that will be unfolded in the next few weeks.

Saturday, 13 September 2014

Focus: Hocus Pocus

The Dutch show they can make good music as well as Christian philosophy:

Thursday, 11 September 2014

British Calvinists: John Gill (1697-1771)

John Gill (1697-1771) was born Kettering. He started at the local grammar school but the head instead that the students attend the local Anglican church, his parents couldn't agree to this as so removed John form the school. In 1716 he was baptised on confession of his faith at Little Meeting Baptist Church.

He moved to Higham Ferrerrs, near Rushden, Nothnaptonshire to live with John Davis the Welsh pastor of the newly founded Baptist Church. While there he married Elizabeth Negus who was one of the congregation. In 1719 he became the pastor of Horsleydown Particular Baptist Church in Southwark, a congregation planted by Keach. Gill was the pastor there until his death in 1771. During that time Gill became the foremost Particular baptist theologian and a leader of the London Particular Baptists.

Gill was good friends with John Skepp and bought many of Skepp's books when he died. He agreed with Skepp over that the free offer of the gospel was not scriptural.

Gill was a controversialist and wrote many books and gave many lectures with the aim of refuting erroneous theological views. Those he took issue were: John Wesley over predestination; Abraham Taylor and Job Burt over the view that eternal justification led to antinomianism; and Daniel Whitby (the Anglican Arminian) over the issue of election. Gill also defended the Baptist cause. He was also the first person to complete a verse by verse commentary in English of the Bible it comprised of nine volumes.

He was also great friends with the Baptist John Collett Ryland (1723-1792), but differed with him over the nature of communion - Ryland was an advocate of open communion - and the Anglican Augustus Toplady (1740-1778).

Peter Toon maintains that Gill was a hyper-Calvinist. Daniel Curt describes Gill's A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity as 'the definitive expression of Hyper-Calvinist Covenant Theology' and Gill as the 'archetypical Hyper-calvinist'. Tom Nettles (By His Grace and for His Glory) and George Ella disagree that Gill was a hyper-Calvinist.

Gill was a supralapsarian.

Many of Gill's writings are available here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1996

The one-volume A Body of Doctrinal and Practical Divinity (as are others of Gill's works including a CD of his works) are available from the Christian bookshop, Ossett.

Some of his writings are available here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1996

Monday, 8 September 2014

British Calvinists: Anne Dutton (1692-1765)

Anne Dutton (1692-1765) was born in Northampton, her maiden name was Williams. In her teenage years she attended the Baptist congregation pastored by John Moore. She married a Mr Catrell in 1713 and moved with him to London where they attended a Calvinistic Baptist congregation founded by Hansard Knollys. In 1714 John Skepp became the pastor. It was through Skepp that Anne became influenced by hyper-Calvinsim.

In 1720 her husband died so she returned to her family in Northampton where she married a clothier, Benjamin Dutton (1691-1747). Benjamin Dutton became the pastor of a congregation in Great Gransden, Huntingdonshire. He died at sea in 1747 returning from North America where he gone to raise money.

During her widow years, the wisdom and piety of Anne Dutton became renowned. Her ministry was mainly in writing letters, poems and tracts. Many looked to her for spiritual direction. Those she had correspondence with many included Howel Harris, Selina Hastings, William Seward, George Whitfield and Philip Doddridge.

Some of Dutton's writings are available here: http://www.gracegems.org/Dutton/Dutton.htm
and here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=2284

References

Michael Haykin, 2006, A Cloud of Witnesses (ET Perspectives 3), Darlington, Evangelical Times.

Friday, 5 September 2014

British Calvinists: John Skepp (1675-1721)

John Skepp (1675-1721) of Little Wilburn was a miller. He attended John Hussey's congregation in Cambridge where he was converted under John Hussey's ministry.

He became the pastor of a congregation in Curriers' Hall, Cripplegate, London that included Anne Dutton (1692-1765), it was a congregation founded by Hanserd Knolly's.

Skepp was influential on John Gill, who edited the 1751 edition of Skepp's posthumously published Divine Energy or the Operations of the Spirit of God upon the soul of man in his effectual calling and conversion, stated, proved, and vindicated ... being an antidote against the Pelagian error (original 1721). Skepp took part in the ordination of Gill in 1720.

Skepp's influence on the development of hyper-Calvinism was significant.

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

British Calvinists: Matthew Henry (1662-1714)

Matthew Henry (1662-1714) is almost synonymous with his one-volume commentary. He was born in Broad Oak, Iscoyd on the Wesh Borders. He gave up his legal studies at Gray's Inn to become a presbyterian minister in Chester.

He moved in 1712 to Mare Street, Hackney but died in 1714 suddenly from apoplexy at Nantwich when travelling from London to Chester.

Some of his writings are available here:

http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=338

Monday, 1 September 2014

Kuyperania August 2014

The exciting news this month is that Christian's Library Press have announced the imminent publication of Kuyper's Common Grace 1.2. Full details here.

Working Prototype has been running a series on Kuyper's Lectures on Calvinism

David A. Booth2014. 'The Kuyper Center Review edited by Gordon Graham' Ordained Servant Online (August-September).

A damming review of volume 3 of the Kuyper Center Review. He writes: 'Those interested in investigating the relationship between Calvinism and culture, or in this case Neo-Calvinism and culture, will be much better served by reading scholars such as Nicholas Wolterstorff and David VanDrunen.'!

Wordmp3.com has the recordings of James Bratt's presentations on Kuyper at the 2014 Convivium Calvinisticum

Friday, 29 August 2014

British Calvinists: Joseph Hussey (1660-1726)

Joseph Hussey (1660-1726) was born in Fordingbridge, Hampshire. He attended the Newington Green Dissenting Academy founded by Cornishman Charles Morton (1627-1698). God met Hussey when he was reading Charock's Existence and Attributes of God.

In 1688 he was ordained as a presbyterian and became pastor of a congregation at Hitchin. In 1661 he moved to pastor a congregation in Cambridge which became congregationalist. In 1719 he moved to a pastorate in Petticoat Lane, London.

He wrote two books in particular that were influential in the formation of hyper-Calvinism: The Glory of Christ Unveil'd or the Excellency of Christ Vindicated (1706) and God's Operations of Grace but No Offers of His Grace (1707). In the Glory of Christ he advocated that Jesus' human nature existed in heaven. In God's Operations he rejected the notion that the gospel was an 'offer'. Conversion is a gift of grace and involves the inner working of the Holy Spirit, this is not something that can be offered. There is a need to preach the gospel, but it is God who converts.

He was a supralapsarianism. He was influenced by the congregationalist Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) and influenced John Skepp (1675-1721), Samuel Stockwell (1704-1753) and Lewis Wayman.

Peter Toon devotes a chapter to Hussey and Skepp's theology in his The Emergence of Hyper-Calvinism (Quinta Press, Weston Rhyn, 2003). In it he provides the following outline for Hussey's life and ministry:

1. 1660–1694: Years of Preparation.
2. 1694–1705: Years of Reading.
3. 1706–1707: The Birth of Hyper- Calvinism:
(a) Supralapsarianism;
(b) God-Man Christology;
(c) Irresistible Grace;
(d) Criticism;
(e) Influence of Hussey’s theology.

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

British Calvinists: Daniel Williams (1643-1716)

Daniel Williams (1643-1716) was born in Wrexham. He was a presbyterian. From 1664-1687 he ministered in Ireland. In 1687 he went to London where he became friends with Richard Baxter and John Howe. He was an opponent of the hyper-Calvinism of Tobias Crisp and Chauncy, and he was accused of having arminian tendencies.

He died from asthma in Hoxton. He left almost 8000 books and money to establish what is now known as Dr Williams's Library. He also gave money for the establishment of several charity schools in Wales and for scholarships for non-Conformists to go to Glasgow University and Camarthen Academy.

Some of his works are available here:

http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=2777

Friday, 22 August 2014

British Calvinists: Robert Trail (1642-1716)

Robert Trail (1642-1716) was born in Elie in Fifeshire and attended Edinburgh University. His father Robert (1603–1678) was a zealous Covenanter and at one time minster of Grey Friar's Church, Edinburgh.

In 1670 Robert Jr. was ordained as a presbyterian in London and went to serve a congregation in Cranbrook, Kent. He published a 'letter' in 1692 entitled 'A Vindication of the protestant Doctrine Concerning Justification and of its Preachers and Professors form the Unjust Charge of Antinominianism'. This was occasioned by the publication of the works of Tobias Crisp.

On a preaching visit back in Scotland he was arrested for refusing to deny the field coventicles and was put into prison on Bass Rock. he returned to Cranbrook. He then moved to London where he served in an Independent congregation.

His Works was republished by the Banner of Truth in 1975.

Some of his writings are available here:

http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=41

Wednesday, 20 August 2014

Jacob Klapwijk's Between Historicism & Relativism on AoLR

Last year (2013) the late Donald Morton completed new translation of Jaap Klapwijk's 1970 doctoral dissertation. It is now available on allofliferedeemed.

2013. Between Historicism &; Relativism: Dynamics of Historicism and the Philosophical Development of Ernst Troeltsch. Amsterdam: VU University, online. [Translation of Tussen historisme en relativisme, 1970]

Kuyperania: Common Grace 1:2 is announced

The second part of Abraham Kuyper's Common Grace covering Temptation–Babel has just been announced by Christian's Library Press.

It will be available shortly.

ISBN: 978-1-938948-20-6

Full details are available here: http://www.clpress.com/publications/common-grace-volume-1-part-2

Tuesday, 19 August 2014

British Calvinists: Benjamin Keach (1640-1704)

Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) was born in Stoke Hammond, Buckinghamshire. As a teenager he read the scriptures and came to an understanding that they were 'silent concerning the baptism of infant', he joined a Baptist congregation at Wimslow and was baptised.

While at the Baptist church he married Jane Grove in 1660 and had a calling to church ministry. In 1664 he was almost killed by troopers and was imprisoned for his advocacy of believers's baptism. He was placed in a wooden pillory and ridiculed, but he took the opportunity to preach the gospel.

In 1668 he and his family moved to London. He was ordained as an elder in the General Baptist church in Tooley Street, Southwark. It was here he met Hansard Knolleys and William Kiffin and embraced the Calvinist theology of the Particular Baptists. He began a Calvinistic Baptist congregation in Horsleydown, Southwark. He also planted new congregations in the south of England.

One controversy that Keach became embroiled in was regarding hym singing. Keach had introduced hymns in addition to psalm singing in public worship and this was not appreciated by some, notably Isaac Marlowe (1649-1719).

Some of Keach's writings are available here:

http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1413

Thursday, 14 August 2014

British Calvinists: Joseph Alleine (1634-1668)

Joseph Alleine (1634-1668) was born in Devizes, he studied at Lincoln College, Oxford and became a scholar of of Corpus Christi. In 1665 he accepted the post of assistant at St Mary's, Taunton. Alleine was one of the 2000 Great Ejectors, 73 were ejected in Somerset alone. After ejection he travelled around taunton continuing his preaching but was imprisoned several times for this. He died when only 34.

His Alarme to Unconverted Sinners (1672) was very influential and is still in print today, as is his A Sure Guide to Heaven ((1688).

Some of his writings can be found here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1383

References

Braund, Elizabeth, 1969, 'Joseph Alleine', in By Schism Rent Asunder (Papers read at the Puritan and Reformed Studies Conference).

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Molly Worthen Apostles of Reason

Apostles of Reason

The Crisis of Authority in American Evangelicalism

Molly Worthen

Oxford: Oxford University Press

ISBN 978-0-19-989646-2

viii + 352pp; hbk; £18.99

Worthen, assistant professor of history at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, paints an interesting picture of North American evangelicalism.

Surprising in a history of evangelicalism there is no mention of Bebbington’s quadrilateral as the defininition of evangelicalism, so then how does Worthen define evangelicalism? In a sense she doesn’t. She presents a wide-ranging consortium of views and these include anabaptists, methodists and pentecostals. She rightly notes that defining it has produced more debate than agreement (p 3) and she sees history as being the best too for ‘pinning down’ evangelicals (p 4).

She attempts to answer three questions (p 6) which evangelicals seem obsessed with: how to reconcile faith and reason; how to know Jesus; and how act publicly on faith in an increasingly secular public square. An intellectual civil war!

She focuses both on institutions - for example Wheaton College, Fuller Seminary, Biiola, Bob Jones University, Christianity Today - and individuals - J. Gresham Machen, Carl Henry, Francis Schaeffer, Billy Graham, Howard Ockenga, John Howard Yoder and George Eldon Ladd, James Dobson and Hal Lindsey, Harold Lindsell all get largish parts.

Surprisingly Gordon Clark has more than a bit part. Wheaton College’s (1936-43) Clark is mentioned along with Cornelius Van Til regarding presuppositionalism, which Worthen maintains they developed from Abraham Kuyper (p 30), but also as a mentor for Carl Henry and Edward Carnell, and in relation to the development of the notion of Weltanschauung (world- and life-view)among (neo)evangelicals. See shows how worldview has become a powerful rhetorical strategy; we have worldview academy, worldview initiative, worldview curriculum, worldview studies, for most of them their understanding of worldview is a far remove from the espoused by Kuyper.

Worthen, as an evangelical outsider, draws a fascinating picture of evangelicalism, her book will help evangelicals see themselves from another’s perspective and help them better contemplate what of evangelicalism is God-given and what is cultural fluff.

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

British Calvinists: Isaac Chauncy (1632-1712)

Isaac Chauncy (1632-1712) was born in Ware, Hertfordshire. He then moved as a child with his family to New England, USA. He started his undergraduate studies at Harvard and completed them at Oxford on his return to the UK. In 1660 he became the rector of Woodbridge, Wiltshire until the 1662 Act of Uniformity. He then took up the pastorate at a congregational church in Andover, Hampshire.

While at Andover he became a physician and then moved to London to pursue this vocation and then became the pastor of an independent congregation. He was succeeded there by Isaac Watts, the hymn writer.

He continued as a physician while pastoring. He then became a divinity tutor at a Dissenting Academy in London.

Some of his writings are available here: http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=1626

'Kuyperania in recent years' Koers 79(1) (2014), 6 pages. doi: 10.4102/koers.v79i1.2138

My 'Kuperania in recent years' has now been published in Koers.

It is available as HTML | EPUB | XML | PDF (341KB)

In it I take a look at these six important books:

Rooted and grounded: The church as organism and institution (Abraham Kuyper)
Going Dutch in the modern age: Abraham Kuyper’s struggle for a free church in the Netherlands (John Halsey Wood Jr.)
Kuyper in America: This is where I was meant to be (Abraham Kuyper)
Abraham Kuyper: Modern Calvinist Christian democrat (J.D. Bratt)
Abraham Kuyper: An annotated bibliography 1857–2010 (T. Kuipers)
Wisdom and wonder: Common grace in science and art (Abraham Kuyper)

Monday, 11 August 2014

Surge Network and Surge School

This is a very exciting project - with Mike Goheen involved.It is the outworking a reformational vision.

The Surge School was developed to offer a year-long program of theological education for lay leaders in the churches in Phoenix.

Surge Promo from Surge Network on Vimeo.

More details on Surge and Surge network are available at missionaltraining.org

Saturday, 9 August 2014

Bob Goudzwaard at the ICS, Toronto - the keynote address

Friday, 8 August 2014

Bishop, S., 2014, ‘The missional impulse of the biblical narrative’, Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 79(1), Art. #2140, 1 page. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koers.v79i1.2140

My review of Mike Goheen's A Light to the Nations The Missional Church and the Biblical Story is available in Koers as html and pdf.

Bishop, S., 2014, ‘The missional impulse of the biblical narrative’, Koers – Bulletin for Christian Scholarship 79(1), Art. #2140, 1 page. http://dx.doi.org/10.4102/koers.v79i1.2140

Thursday, 7 August 2014

British Calvinists: John Howe (1630-1705)

John Howe (1630-1705) was born in Loughborough, he studied at Christ's College, Cambridge and Brasenose College, Oxford, he then became chaplain of Magdalen, when Thomas Goodwin was the president. He graduated with a BA in 1650 and MA 1652. In 1654 he became the perpetual curate of Great Torrington, Devon. He beam one of Oliver Cromwell's chaplains. He attended the Congregationalist's Savoy Conference as an observer.

He returned to Great Torrington in when Richard Cromwell dies. In 1662 with the Act of Uniformity he was ejected from his church. he spent most of his time in this period preaching and writing. He eventually went to Ireland but returned to London in 1676 and to the Presbyterian Haberdashers' Hall. He eventually went to Utrecht. He returned to London in 1687. He was widely recognised as one of the leading dissenters and worked hard to unite the Congregationalists and Presbyterians.

Some of his writings are available here:

http://www.prdl.org/author_view.php?a_id=354

Tuesday, 7 October 2014

Wednesday, 1 October 2014

Tuesday, 30 September 2014

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Sunday, 14 September 2014

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Thursday, 11 September 2014

Monday, 8 September 2014

Friday, 5 September 2014

Tuesday, 2 September 2014

Monday, 1 September 2014

Friday, 29 August 2014

Wednesday, 27 August 2014

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Wednesday, 20 August 2014

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Thursday, 14 August 2014

Wednesday, 13 August 2014

Tuesday, 12 August 2014

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Thursday, 7 August 2014

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