Posts by Fred Sanders

Pardon the Latin, but I want to make an observation about that particular Latin phrase, and I can’t figure out how to say it briefly in English. There’s a very…

Milton’s early work At a Solemn Music (or Musick) is a remarkable piece of poetry about poetry. Or more precisely, it’s about the joining of voice and verse, or sound…

The Reformation movement of Bible translation was not a side project alongside all the preaching, theologizing, church order, politics, and whatnot. It was more or less the main event. Especially…

I recently had a chance to linger over the opening pages of Gregory of Nyssa’s Catechetical Discourse, and I’m struck by his nimble presentation of trinitarian theology. Let me try…

Early in the spring term of 2025, I tried following a footnote in a 17th-century Protestant theologian (can’t remember who) that pointed to some wonderfully clear trinitarian theology supposedly by…

In my chapter on eternal generation in On Classical Trinitarianism: Retrieving the Nicene Doctrine of the Triune God (IVP Academic, 2024), I draw attention to something I’ve since started calling…

We have a record of John Preston’s systematic theology, preserved in the form of lecture notes in a student’s hand in one single, unpublished manuscript (Emmanuel College MS III:1: “A…

In Gregory of Nazianzus’ fourth Theological Oration (Orat. 30), he takes up a number of Scriptural texts that Arians thought were “grand, irresistible arguments” (30.4) of their doctrine of a…

Christians are supposed to develop spiritual strength. It’s not just that they’re empowered by God from outside and above themselves (though that’s absolutely true, praise God!), and it’s not just…

Q: LATC 2025’s theme is Receiving Redemption, and it focuses on how salvation is received by human persons and communities. Why did this aspect of soteriology catch your attention and make you…

Q: LATC 2025’s theme is Receiving Redemption, and it focuses on how salvation is received by human persons and communities. Why did this aspect of soteriology catch your attention and make you…

I’ve been sharing brief interviews with the theologians who will be presenting papers at Los Angeles Theology Conference 2025 (Mar 12-14, registration here). I really enjoyed Fellipe do Vale’s answers…

Jacqui Service’s LATC parallel paper is a perfect example of a conference paper in which a scholar extends and explains a recent book. Dr. Service’s summer 2024 book on the…

Dr. Sherelle Ducksworth is a theologian at Clamp Divinity School of Anderson University. She will be presenting one of the twelve parallel papers at LATC 2025, March 12-14 at Biola…

I’m eagerly looking forward to this paper at the 2025 L.A. Theology Conference (register here!). Tom Dove is working on the doctrine of conversion, and this paper is a great…

Los Angeles Theology Conference is officially not an interdisciplinary conference. An important part of our brand has always been sharply focusing on the discipline of theology, and on topics that…

Kathryn Tanner, the Frederick Marquand Professor of Systematic Theology at Yale Divinity School, will be delivering a plenary address at the Los Angeles Theology Conference (March 12-14). Registration is still…

The first plenary address at LATC 2025 (register now!) will be a wide-ranging introduction to the theology of receiving salvation. This talk, on Wednesday evening, will be by Andrew Davison,…