Posted by Mark
on April 16, 2009
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There’s a certain slipperiness and jelly-like quality to what’s being called The New Calvinism. Terms like Reformed and Calvinist are wobbling around like they’ve been served up for dessert. But is this a bad thing?
Well it seems that with the growth in the Young, Restless and Reformed types, there’s an umbrella-like movement rising with seismic results – just ask Time magazine. Embracing Baptists, Presbyterians, Dutch Reformed types, other traditions, and even Anglicans (yep, that’s me) – this movement seems to have a fairly large theological scope. The main bounds are the 5 points of Calvinism (Total Depravity, Unconditional Election, Limited Atonement, Irresistable Grace, and Perserverance of the Saints). So, the main ingredients are the same for these types, but it wobbles around a bit depending on things like baptism etc.
Others, like R. Scott Clark, have preferred the more stable dessert of Calvinism. It’s a solid jelly (and no, I wouldn’t go as far as to say a frozen chosen jelly!), a one size and colour fits all jelly. In the above-linked article, Clark says:
“If Mark Driscoll presented himself for membership in St Peter’s in Calvin’s Geneva, he would have been rejected. Why? He doesn’t believe the faith confessed by the church. He would have been rejected by the consistories and synods in the Netherlands, France, and by the sessions in Scotland. They would not have recognized his confession as Reformed.
The ugly truth is that too many Reformed folk are too excited that a prominent leader in evangelicalism, someone with increasing visibility in the media, identifies himself as Reformed. Pastor Driscoll feels comfortable co-opting the adjective “Calvinist” because real Calvinists, those who actually believe and practice what Calvin believed and practiced, let him use it.“
So, should the New Calvinism be a hard or soft jelly? A wobbly, yet palatable dessert for many – or a harder and more refined treat? Or bluntly, must one go beyond TULIP and sign up to a certain bunch of confessions in order to use the word Calvinist or Reformed?
Personally, I like John Frame’s (as usualy, such a helpful and gracious theologian!) stance towards these sorts of issues:
“I look forward to the time when God will equip his church to write new confessions. The Reformed confessions of the 16th and 17th centuries are wonderful documents that have served the church well. But we need confessions that speak to the issues of our own time: abortion, postmodern ideology, egalitarianism, new spiritualities, ecumenism, the gifts of the Spirit, common grace, the precise role of the Mosaic law the status of non-Christian religions, the obligation of Christians to the poor, the nature of worship, biblical standards for missions and evangelism, and, indeed, the nature of confessional subscription. We need confessions also that can state the old Reformed and biblical doctrines in contemporary language and support those doctrines with the biblical scholarship that has developed over the last 400 years. Perhaps we are not ready yet to write new confessions, granted the spiritual immaturity of the contemporary church and the proliferation of denominational division. But if we are ever to reach the point at which new confessions can be written, we need to train pastors and teachers for the church who are able to develop doctrinal formulations from the Word of God itself. And we need to graduate students who understand that the 16th and 17th century confessions are not the final word, that there is much more that God calls us to say to the church and to the world.”
Perhaps we can settle for a slowly hardening jelly?
Tags: calvinism, driscoll, frame, heidelblog, reformed
Posted by Mark
on March 12, 2009
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Just came across this wonderful interview in which John Frame gives brief thoughts on topics like: blogging, systematic theology, Kevin Vanhoozer’s work, Inerrancy, classical music, and Scripture. Check this one out for sure!
He’s a great and humble theologian, whose book on the Doctrine of the Knowledge of God has been really helpful for me this year at Bible college.
Here’s a few small quotes to get you started, and I’ve bolded out a few things which I found interesting:
“GD: Why should pastors be interested in systematic theology?
JF: As I said, systematics, rightly understood, deals with the real questions about thought and life that pastors have to deal with. This includes questions about theological controversies, but also about ethics, evangelism, church order, contemporary religions and ideologies, social order, and so on. Now of course if you understand systematics as a more abstract and academic discipline, its connection to the pastorate is less direct. But even then the pastor should be able to draw on the writings of traditional systematicians to draw applications for his own ministry and his own people.”
“GD: In both Peter Enns’ Inspiration and Incarnation and Andrew McGowan’s The Divine Spiration of Scripture, serious Reformed theologians have called into question the doctrine of biblical inerrancy. Is the inerrancy of Scripture still worth fighting for?
JF: I would not live or die for the term “inerrancy,” which is an extra-biblical term and is often used in confusing ways today. But as I understand it, the main idea behind the term is that Scripture, being God’s word, is completely true in everything it teaches. Scripture explicitly affirms that it is true (as in Ps. 119:160, John 17:17). So when God speaks to us, we dare not find fault with anything he says. Our responsibility is simply to believe what he says and to do what he tells us to do. That principle is still worth fighting for. In fact it is the watershed issue of our time: will we believe God, or will we follow human wisdom? This is nothing less than the question of whether God in Jesus Christ is Lord.”
Tags: frame, reformed, theology
Posted by Mark
on March 01, 2009
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Well, at the start of 2009, I had another watch of John Frame’s thoughts on studying at college. This is just a small portion of the full video. And here are some more of Frame’s thoughts on Bible college at: http://www.frame-poythress.org/frame_articles/2003Learning.htm
To my mates at Bible college – I hope this is really helpful and strengthening. And for everyone else, enjoy the thoughts of a truly brilliant servant of the Lord Jesus.
Tags: college, frame, reformed, theology
Posted by Mark
on August 20, 2008
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A great interview with John Frame on the Problem of Evil:
http://theologica.blogspot.com/2008/08/interview-with-john-frame-on-problem-of.html
John Frame has been a significant influence on me, and I really have appreciated his brilliant mind and am grateful to God for his writing ministry. If you’re looking for a serious contemporary systematic theologian to read who engages brilliantly with current and ancient theology and philosophy, he’s your man! Here’s a bit of background on him, from Between Two Worlds:
John Frame (b. 1939) is professor and chair of systematic theology and philosophy at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando, Florida, where he has taught since 2005. He previously taught for thirty-one years at Westminster Theological Seminary in Pennsylvania and was a founding faculty member of Westminster Theological Seminary in Escondido, California. He has earned degrees at Princeton University (A.B.), Westminster Theological Seminary (B.D.), Yale University (M.A., M.Phil.), and Belhaven College (D.D.). His website lists (and hosts many of) his voluminous publications and includes a blog.
He has written on the problem of evil in at least the following publications:
- 1994: “Apologetics as Defense: The Problem of Evil.” Pages 149–90 in Apologetics to the Glory of God: An Introduction. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed.
- 1995: Cornelius Van Til: An Analysis of His Thought. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed. [See pp. 83–86.]
- 2002: “The Problem of Evil.” Pages 160–82 in The Doctrine of God. A Theology of Lordship 2. Phillipsburg: Presbyterian & Reformed.
- 2008: “The Problem of Evil.” Pages 141–64 in Suffering and the Goodness of God. Edited by Christopher W. Morgan and Robert A. Peterson. Theology in Community 1. Wheaton: Crossway.
Tags: evil, frame, reformed, sin, theology
Posted by Mark
on July 04, 2008
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This article by Carl Trueman is excellent. If you’re interested in the current resurgence of Calvinism (a la, the Young, Restless and Reformed), then you’ll this careful and typically tongue-in-cheek review of current trends by Carl Trueman.
http://www.reformation21.org/counterpoints/wages-of-spin/a-little-bit-of-comfort-for-machens-worrier-children.php
H/T JT
Tags: frame, machen, reformed
