Fred SandersA scene from the Leben der heiligen Altväter (1482)
Online Writing
The Terrible, Wonderful Simplicity of God
“The faith of a devil!” When John Wesley preached about saving faith, one of the ways he distinguished it from the non-saving kind was with this bold paraphrase of James 2:19. That passage says “You believe…
On the Doctrine of Divine Blessedness
A four-part series at Ref21 on the doctrine of divine blessedness, published in 2015
Too Little or Too Much: Troubleshooting Contemporary Trinitarianism
The doctrine of the Trinity is one of the classic achievements of early Christian theology. The fathers of the early church drew together the strands of biblical argument so compellingly that all through the Middle Ages…
Union and Communion with the Triune God
Truth should be practical, and the doctrine of the Trinity, being utterly true, surely ought to show itself practical in some way. “Sound knowledge,” said James Ussher (1581-1656), is “knowledge which sinketh from the brain into…
The Promise and Prospects of Retrieval: Recent Developments in Trinitarian Theology
A brief account of how the movement of theological retrieval has affected contemporary trinitarian theology, circa 2014, for the Zondervan Academic Blog
Pagan Propitiation vs Biblical Propitiation
“Propitiation” is one of those five-syllable theological words that tend to break up polite parties. But it’s also a word that’s well worth the work of understanding, because whether we know it or not, all of us are walking around working on some sort of plan for propitiation. The big question is whether our plan is a Christian one. The Ancient Meaning Here’s what I mean: Propitiation is an ancient word, which we as Christians have in common with other world religions. To propitiate a god is to offer a sacrifice that turns aside the god’s wrath. Anyone who believes in a god knows that they need some way to stay on the friendly side of that god. So they give gifts to the god, or serve in the temple, or give alms. And if the god is angry with them, they pay a…
John Wesley on Experiencing the Trinity
What John Wesley thought about the Trinity was wonderfully predictable. By that I mean that anyone familiar with the way Wesley’s mind worked can readily predict the character of his trinitarianism. Since his overall cast of thought was…
Theology on the Web
“The web…is of a mingled yarn, good and ill together,” says a character in Shakespeare’s All’s Well That Ends Well. He was talking about “the web of our life,” but the same “mingled” character applies to the…
The L.A. Theologian
A lovely profile by theologian friend James Arcadi, attempting to make sense of some of the regionalist work I’ve done: It’s the middle of winter and 75 degrees and sunny at Biola University in La Mirada,…
John Wesley as a Happy Puritan
I recently finished writing a book on John Wesley, soon to be released in a new series from Crossway. The book is titled Wesley on the Christian Life: The Heart Renewed in Love. It was a delight…
“You’re a Calvinist, Right?”
I get this question a lot, from a certain kind of people: Calvinists who are excited about the gospel, discipleship, Bible study, and robust theology. We have so much in common that it sometimes comes as…
The Awkward Guest in the Evangelical Household
The doctrine of the Trinity has a peculiar place in the minds and hearts of evangelical Christians. How has it come about that so many evangelicals today are cold toward the doctrine of the Trinity, confused…
Differentiating the Work of the Son and Spirit in Salvation
Over and over in our Christian experience we note the difference between the Son and the Spirit. There are many things we say about the Son of God that we would never say about the Spirit….
Art, Truth and The Da Vinci Code —Separating Fact From Fiction
The Da Vinci Code‘s action begins in the Louvre in Paris, when one of the book’s central characters performs a riveting re-enactment of Leonardo da Vinci’s famous drawing, “Vitruvian Man.” Most people have seen the sketch…
- « Previous
- 1
- 2
