Peripatetic Pastor

Tag: Synod

  • THE INFANTILIZATION OF THE HUMAN RACE

    How Theology Reduces Us to Children A couple of posts back (available here), I reflected on biblical views of evil—evil as the coming apart of things. I mentioned in that essay that the T of Tulip (total depravity) in Reformed theology has a way of letting us off the hook. We need not, in fact in…

  • RETRIEVING CHURCH

    Congregations For years I stayed put. As I like to tell the story, River Terrace Church, the congregation I served for 31 years, gave me an office—a great corner office facing the campus of Michigan State University—and I didn’t want leave. All I needed was that office. A salary in addition was more than anyone…

  • THE HISTORICAL ADAM AND OTHER MYTHS: MEDITATIONS ON THE PAST, PART 3

    The importance of the past In his introduction to Athanasius’s On Incarnation, C. S. Lewis suggested that one should read at least one old book for every new one. By old, he had in mind books from the previous century and beyond. He mentions in a single breath St. Luke, St. Paul, St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas,…

  • CONFESSIONAL UNITY

    Choosing Unity instead of Conformity Unity and Conformity In church disputes—and there are always church disputes—it is easy to confuse conformity with unity. They are not the same. Unity acknowledges and embraces difference; it brings differences together. Conformity wants sameness; it insists that everyone think and talk the same. Unity builds bridges; conformity tears them…

  • THE COLLAPSE OF AUTHORITY: NOTES ON THE CRC SYNOD The real story The synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has just completed its work. Synod 2025 was devoted mostly to cleaning up the margins on a series of decisions beginning with Synod 2022—decisions that have fundamentally remade the CRC and driven away many members. …

  • A Totalitarian Bent of Mind: Peter Thiel, Carl Schmitt, and “Political Theology”

    “Seeking God . . . in Silicon Valley.” In my last post I promised to turn next to penal substitutionary atonement (PSA), an idea at the heart of evangelical theology and, I’ll argue, at the heart of evangelical politics. I will address PSA soon; I had every intention to do so in this post. But…

  • Culture or Confession? Bad Theology 7

    Is God Mean? I had meant to write this week about penal substitutionary atonement (PSA). (Doesn’t that sound exciting?) I thought to call the piece: “Is God Mean?” And, in line with the direction of my Bad Theology series, to ask whether a mean God leads to mean politics. (The answer is yes.) For those…

  • WHEN THE ORGAN GOES SILENT: BAD THEOLOGY 4

    WHEN THE ORGAN GOES SILENT I’m not sure when I first noticed that the organ had fallen silent. The synods of the Christian Reformed Church met for many years in the Calvin University Fine Arts Center Auditorium. (Lately, the synod has moved to the Calvin chapel building.) The auditorium features the impressive Zondervan Memorial Organ, built…

  • STRETCHING

    We are frequently told by “they”—anonymous experts cited in the popular media—that we should stretch before exercising. Good advice, I suspect, although in all my years of exercise I have never actually stretched. Still don’t. If it’s tennis, I grab a racquet and head for the court. If it’s a jog, I strap on my…

  • LIVING SMALL

    Sadness settled over many of us like a Bellingham fog. We were gathered with friends last Tuesday when the votes began to come in from the eastern part of the US. It quickly became apparent that disaster was in the making. We talked a while about what it meant, about why people voted the way…