Christ & Culture

Of course, I did not espouse a democracy or a Presidency in my lifetime. My disciples teased out the logic, however, of my thought and reached new positions. If one wishes to hear the early Calvinist principles, one would need to look to two sets of texts: Text Corpus #1: Calvin himself , in his...
Note: all quotes are from sources as noted. The only fictitious elements in these diary posts are to treat these as letters from John Calvin. I send greetings to all Protestants at the Inauguration of the 45th President of the US. Believe it or not, some of our tradition’s ideas have led you to...
This week on Theology on the Go, our host, Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Mark Dalbey, president of Covenant Theological Seminary in St. Louis, MO. Dr. Dalbey was a pastor and Bible instructor prior to his coming to Covenant Theological Seminary. He holds an MDiv from Pittsburgh Theological...
This week the Theology on the Go podcast is going to be a little different. Today, our host Dr. Jonathan Master is joined by Dr. Jeffrey Stivason for a conversation on how the doctrines of grace influence the pastoral ministry. Dr. Master is dean of the school of divinity and professor of theology...
Years ago, one of my favorite Rainer Maria Rilke poems gave me a new perspective on the night, and I’m reminded of this at Christmas time whenever we sing “Oh Holy Night,” one of the most beautiful songs that has ever entered my ear. Let me provide the poem first and then explain what I mean. You,...
Exuberant over an experience, an oh-so-sweet manifestation of divine providence, you delightedly seek to give God praise in telling your story. “It was such a ‘God thing’,” you proclaim. As you see it, God wove together an otherwise inexplicable combination of events to deliver a wonderful—even...
A survey of congressional proclamations for days of fasting or Thanksgiving is instructive, especially to those who have been catechized in the dogma of strict separationism. [1] Indeed, the religious worldview of the 1770s betrays the following key theological assumptions, which were apparently...
The idea of the United Kingdom’s pre-Summer vote to leave the European Union, the upcoming vote in the United States to elect the next President and the English Reformation being lumped together in the same sentence may seem ludicrous in the extreme, but it is not without reason. Those who have...
Despite having been born near John Calvin’s Geneva (Nyon) and having attended the University of Geneva, John Fletcher (1729–1785) later relocated to England and threw all in with the Wesley brothers. He was ordained to the Anglican priesthood in 1757 but his sympathies were all with the upstart...
I mean it when I say that I would love my church to be filled Sunday after Sunday with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (or questioning) individuals. And I mean it when I say that I would love to have those very same individuals over for lunch after church, and then invite them back...