Peripatetic Pastor

Tag: Reformed theology

  • NOTES AND OBSERVATIONS FOR SYNOD 2024: GRAVAMEN

    Synod 2024 of the Christian Reformed Church begins meeting in person on June 14. Until then and while synod is in session, I hope to offer a few notes and observations about the synodical process. This synod could mark the beginning of the end for the CRC or, perhaps, the beginning of something new. I…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED? COVENANT AS ALTERNATIVE COMMUNITY

    A note for my readers: With this post, I draw to a conclusion a brief series of blog posts on what it means to be Reformed. These posts collectively are an attempt to retrieve some of what remains valuable in the Reformed tradition. There is much more to be done. Traditions must periodically be retrieved,…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED: THE REFORMED VIEW OF SCRIPTURE

    Traditions must sometimes be saved from those who claim them. In this series of posts, I’ve been asking the question, “What does it mean to be Reformed?” There are those who give ready answers to that question. Their answers might include the early 20th century acronym TULIP. Or penal substitutionary atonement. Or declaring that same…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED: THE GRAMMAR OF GOD’S GLORY

    When I began this post, the third in a series on what it means to be Reformed, I had in mind writing about a way of interpreting the scriptures sometimes called “the Reformed hermeneutic.” It is frequently said that Reformed people read the Bible differently from other Christians groups. I wanted to explore whether that’s…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED? THE REFORMED ACCENT

    A few weeks ago (it’s been a busy season for me), I started a short series of posts posing the question: what does it mean to be Reformed? This question is much mooted these days. I noted, for example, that the Calvin Theological Seminary promotional magazine, forum (yes, that’s how they write it), gave over its…

  • WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE REFORMED?

    What does it mean to be Reformed? For several reasons—reasons I will lay out in a subsequent post—it’s an odd question. But if you hang around in the ecclesiastical circles which I frequent, you will hear it asked. Often. I recently received a promotional magazine from Calvin Seminary, a school I once attended.  featuring that question:…

  • ONCE, ONLY

    ONCE ONLY War was in the air. It was the leadup to the First Gulf War. Armies were poised to invade Kuwait, and the news was alarming for many of us. What would happen? Would it spread? Would war come to us? At that point in 1991, we were blessedly innocent of the prospects of…

  • QUESTIONS AND CONVERSATION: READING THE AKEDAH

    One task in literature is to formulate questions and construct counter-statements to the reigning pieties. And even when art is not oppositional, the arts gravitate toward contrariness. Literature is dialogue; responsiveness.  –Susan Sontag, quoted from The Best American Essays 2023, edited and with an introduction by Vivian Gornick; Robert Atwan, series editor, p. ix. The Bible…

  • I CAN’T GET NO SATISFACTION: TOWARD UNDERSTANDING THE CHRIST STORY

    Louise Erdrich’s novel LaRose is a Christ story. Erdrich does not say so, but she hints at it. And such a strange story it is. The story begins with a killing. Dusty, the young son of Peter and Nola Ravich jumps down from a tree just as Landreaux, Dusty’s uncle, pulls the trigger to take down a…

  • THE POPE’S BLESSING

    This week the front page of the e-edition of the New York Times prominently featured two religion stories, each in its own way about whether the church will fully accept LGBTQ people and same-sex marriage. The lead story was the pope’s decision to allow priests to bless same-sex unions (“Pope Francis Allows Priests to Bless Same-Sex…