Within the Reformed law-gospel paradigm, the pedagogical function of the moral law is routinely recognized. Calvin’s three uses of the moral law include pedagogy in the first use: to act as a mirror by revealing sin to us and, in turn, our need for God’s grace. (See Institutes 2.7.6-12.) As Augustine famously put it, “the […]
Monday, 28 February, 2022 by Timon Cline
Thomas Goodwin (1600-1680) is most often studied for his contribution to congregational ecclesiology as one of the Dissenting Brethren, though Mark Jones has made his Christology a source of interest lately and Joel Beeke often sings his praises. Rarely, if ever, mentioned is Goodwin’s theory of natural law, which is surprising given the close relation […]
Friday, 03 December, 2021 by Timon Cline
Liberty for All: Defending Everyone’s Religious Freedom in a Pluralistic AgeAndrew T. WalkerBrazos Press, 2021267 pages (paperback), $19.99 The past decade has been marked by seismic shifts in American political opinion. Remarkably, however, most Americans, despite many recent high-profile court battles, still support religious liberty—at least insofar as they do not want their sincerely held […]
Monday, 01 November, 2021 by Timon Cline
The aim of John Winthrop and company in coming to Massachusetts was to establish a Christian society, as much in line with New Testament piety as with Old Testament political theory. This project, this errand, is often cast as revolutionary. In some respects, it was, but only insofar as it achieved moderate success. In most […]
Monday, 27 September, 2021 by Timon Cline
“There always is this fallacious belief: ‘It would not be the same here; here such things are impossible.’ Alas, all the evil of the twentieth century is possible everywhere on earth.” With this harrowing quote from the late Soviet dissident, Aleksander Solzhenitsyn, Rod Dreher, the senior editor of The American Conservative and author of the […]
Monday, 23 August, 2021 by Timon Cline
Recounted in part 2 was the close, coordinate relationship between the “Two Twinnes” of church and state in seventeenth century Massachusetts. “In the Cambridge Platform [1648] the clergy claimed the support of the civil power as fully as ever the Jewish priesthood did,” wrote Herbert Osgood. Per the Platform, “The power and authority of magistrates […]
Monday, 31 May, 2021 by Timon Cline
Part 1 of this series began the survey of the particulars of New England Puritan—and including those precursors and contemporaries upon whom they relied—political thought that were instrumental to the unprecedented level of social cohesion enjoyed by the colonies during the 17th century, “when all the world was on a fire.” The focus of part […]
Monday, 22 March, 2021 by Timon Cline
Timon Cline interviewed Professor Carl Trueman on his latest book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway, 2020), which includes a foreword by Rod Dreher. TC: Although there’s a lot packed into The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self—and it’s not short—could […]
Monday, 01 March, 2021 by Carl R. Trueman, Timon Cline
We are still panting from 2020, and 2021, not even a month old, has been bewildering. Regaining our bearings may prove challenging. Chaos is difficult to parse. At the same time, the upheaval of the past few years offers opportunity for reassessment of, well, nearly everything. Proposals previously dismissed as out of bounds and unworkable […]
Friday, 29 January, 2021 by Timon Cline
The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to the Sexual Revolutionby Carl R. TruemanCrossway, 2020432 pages (hardcover), $34.99 “For all intents and purposes, I am a woman.” That was Bruce (now Caitlyn) Jenner, the 1976 men’s decathlon Olympic gold medalist, announcing in a 2015 interview with Diane […]
Friday, 01 January, 2021 by Timon Cline
There’s a lot packed into this book—and it’s not short—but can you provide a brief thesis or synopsis? It is a study of how the conditions have emerged in our society that allow people to regard the statement ‘I am a woman trapped in a man’s body’ as coherent and to see its positive affirmation […]
Friday, 27 November, 2020 by Carl R. Trueman, Timon Cline
As I read Tara Isabella Burton’s fascinating new book, Strange Rites: New Religions for a Godless World, I could not help but think of the 19th century. Burton’s thesis is that religion is not on the decline—we are not in a secular age—it is simply taking on some new, and it must be said, very […]
Friday, 25 September, 2020 by Timon Cline