However bold the following statement may seem, I believe it is an accurate reflection of the history of interpretation—the book of Jonah continues to perplex and bewilder the church, much as the prophet himself who seems so unnerved by his commission. Interpreters of this little jewel have often left their hearers (and readers) with questions […]
In this issue the author begins a series of three articles dealing with the hermeneutical downward spiral. This month he examines the roots of this spiral in the Enlightenment of three hundred years ago. In the second article he will trace the downward spiral in the now liberal Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA). In the third […]
Having examined the roots of the downward hermeneutical spiral in the Enlightenment of 300 years ago in Europe and England, author Dennison now examines the American PCUSA in which the Enlightenment has triumphed virtually completely. The Editors In one American denomination in particular, the Enlightenment model has triumphed virtually completely. I am referring to the […]
In this issue, author Dennison concludes his series of articles on the hermeneutical downward spiral by drawing some parallels to the current scene in our Reformed community. For three hundred years, we have witnessed the growth of an approach to the Bible which regards the Word of God as an inspirational springboard to the religious […]
Readers of The Outlook may be familiar with Henry Coray’s, Against the World: The Odyssey of Athanasius (1992). This is a brief (yet commendable), popular, fictionalized biography of the champion of Nicene orthodoxy. Inveterate defender of the creed of Nicaea (325 A.D.), Athanasius has been revered by the church catholic for his unswerving insistence on […]
And the sin that was wrought through the tree was undone by the obedience of the tree. (Proof of the Apostolic Preaching. 4) The city of Lyons, France contains the remains of a Roman amphitheater which was the site of the death of more than forty Christians in the year 177 A.D. The female servant, […]
The one who hung the earth in space, is himself hanged; The one who fixed the heavens in place, is himself impaled; The one who firmly fixed all things, is himself firmly Fixed to the tree. —Melito, Paschal Homily (96) It was first discovered in the 1930’s (Michigan-Beatty […]
Sebastian Castellio departed John Calvin’s Geneva in June 1544. Though he left the city with a letter of reference from Calvin, Castellio departed in bitterness. The rift between Calvin and the first rector of the College of Geneva is traceable, in part, to the canonicity of the Song of Solomon. Castellio had described the book […]
Three hundred years ago this month (October 5), Jonathan Edwards greeted the world in East Windsor, Connecticut. He was the lone son of Rev. Timothy Edwards and his wife, Esther Stoddard Edwards. But Jonathan was not the sole child—he had ten sisters. This auspicious year (1703) was also the year of John Wesley’s birth. The […]
“You must have Jesus Christ. You cannot have anything better than that.” (Ignatius, Letter to the Magnesians, 7.1) The phrase “martyr complex“ refers to a person who seems to delight in suffering—in fact, may earnestly pursue and revel in suffering. One inducement to this condition is fanaticism; another may be an abnormal sense of victimization […]