Category Archives: Church history

Calvin’s birthday

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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How are you celebrating Calvin’s birthday?

I reckon it’d be hard to be a committed evangelical in the blogosphere without realizing that today is the 500th anniversary of John Calvin’s birth: 10 July 1509.

But we should not leave celebrating this most important Reformation theologian and pastor to the publishers and conference organizers! John Piper’s annual biographical studies of great evangelical leaders has proved the historical interest is there!

So how are you celebrating Calvin’s birthday in your local church or in your own life?

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The theological importance of criminal profiling, or The case for church history, Part 1

Thought

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It is a great honour and pleasure, being invited to contribute a few guest blog posts to The Sola Panel in advance of my forthcoming visit to Australia. Given the fact that a fool is generally known by his much speaking, I have decided to focus my posts on what I know best—church history, but not in some tedious here-are-a-few-names-and-dates-manner; rather, I want to argue for the importance of church history as a vital discipline for theological education, both in seminary training and in the day-to-day life of the church. Those who do not know history may not be quite as doomed to repeat its mistakes as the famous proverb would imply, but understanding how it can be useful might yet help one or two of us to avoid some embarrassing potholes, or it may just save us from having to reinvent the wheel all over again, fun as such reinvention undoubtedly is (once watching the grass grow and the paint dry has lost its appeal, that is).

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Regulative or normative?

Pastoral Ministry, Sola Panel

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The discussion following my last post on church meandered around to the question of how Scripture should shape our congregational meetings. This question has often been cast as a debate between the Normative Principle and the Regulative Principle. Putting it very simply, the Normative Principle says “You’re allowed to do this thing in church so long as Scripture doesn’t forbid it”, whereas the Regulative Principle says “Only do this thing in church if Scripture gives clear warrant to do so”. (more…)

Anglican family

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You can’t split a marshmallow. You can melt it—you can even cut it—but marshmallows are too malleable to be split. Something has to be brittle to split. (more…)

Top Shelf: Jesus the Man (Review)

Review

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Paul Barnett’s ‘top shelf’ books on Jesus.

Books about the historical Jesus tend to come out of a ‘position’ about him, depending on whether or not the authors have accepted the Gospels’ presentation of the Man.

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Simply convincing

Review

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The Truth about Jesus
Paul Barnett
Aquila Press, Sydney, 1994.
$14.95. 164pp.

Paul Barnett has developed a reputation for thorough, persuasive and easily understood presentations of the truth of biblical history. His previous books, whether commentaries or history or apologetics, have all defended a reasonable belief in the events that the New Testament describes.

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Who was Jesus?

Thought

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Who was Jesus? asked the cover of TIME magazine in August, 1988.

The TIME article was provoked by the release of Martin Scorcese’s sensational new movie The Last Temptation of Christ, in which Jesus is portrayed as having sexual fantasies. According to reports, the film is irreverent, even blasphemous, and will prove to be deeply offensive to Christians.

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The view from Church House: An analysis of ‘Sydney Anglicans’

Review

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Historians (and book reviewers) tell us something about their subjects and a lot about themselves. History forms an important part of our self understanding, but the reverse is also true—our perception of history is shaped by our attitudes and theories. This is reflected in the contemporary bicentennial passion for our past, and in the publication of a diocesan history commissioned by the Standing Committee of the Synod of the Anglican Church in Sydney. Two professional historians, both Anglicans, Professor Kenneth Cable and Dr Stephen Judd, have produced a serious contribution to our historical understanding. It does not claim to be an exhaustive or definitive description of the Sydney diocese, but does seek to give a thematic explanation of various events and their long term effects on the diocese. It is an interpretation of the diocese with a major focus on the developing churchmanship of Sydney. (more…)