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A WORD FOR THOSE WHO CANNOT BELIEVE: FAITH AS ENCOUNTER
In the Bible “faith” rarely means “belief”—at least, not in the sense that “belief” has come to have in popular Christianity: what I will call “belief about.” We are not saved by belief. This is not what the Bible teaches. But if my experience is at all representative, this is what many in church think […]
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RETRIEVING CALVIN. THE FIRST IN A SHORT SERIES: WHAT WE KNOW BEFORE WE KNOW
We have failed Calvin. I mean the man, Jehan Cauvin, as he was known at the time, not the place. We have read Calvin through the eyes of those who came after, those who created the system known as Calvinism. Calvin was not himself a Calvinist. The late I. John Hesselink notes that: Calvinists come […]
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HOLD THOSE GRAVAMINA: WHY FILING A GRAVAMEN MIGHT NOT BE THE RIGHT MOVE FOR THOSE WHO DISAGREE WITH SYNOD 2022
If Synod 2022 of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) has done anything at all, it has popularized an obscure Latin-based word, “gravamen.” The word is used in the law to mean the weighty part of a complaint, from gravis, “heavy.” But that’s not how it is used in the CRC church order. In the CRC universe, […]
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WHAT TRUE ORTHODOXY LOOKS LIKE: THESES ON DENOMINATIONAL LIFE 6
One of my correspondents recently put an interesting question to me: “Are there any truths that you would include in a summary of Christian (or perhaps, Biblical) Orthodoxy? If so, what would they be and how would you arrive at them?” There may well have been a barb in the question, something like, “Clay, do […]
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WHITENESS: THESES ON DENOMINATIONAL LIFE 5
Kuyper and the Square Inch In these posts, I’ve been reflecting on denominational life. My focus has been on my own denomination, the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), especially the CRC after Synod 2022, but I intend these reflections to be applicable more broadly to denominationalism in general. Which said may make you wonder where I […]
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ABRAHAM KUYPER AND THAT PESKY SQUARE INCH: THESES ON DENOMINATIONAL LIFE 4
A question I’ve been asking in these posts about denomination life is not only what happened at Synod 2022 and what is happening in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) at present but what a renewal of denominational life might look like, and not just for the CRC but for any denomination and theological tradition. In After […]
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GATEKEEPING: THESES ON DENOMINATIONAL LIFE 3
A lasting image of Synod 2022 of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) is of the synod as gatekeeper, swinging the gate shut on people in same sex marriages, locking it, and saying: No more of that. The same for those who would question whether a belated atonement theology known as “penal substitutionary atonement” is the […]
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THESES ON DENOMINATIONAL LIFE (1)
Introduction: Trouble ahead. It’s no secret that denominationalism, a form of church life invented by Americans for America, is in trouble and has been so for some time. Denominations are splitting (or have already split), several over the issue of same sex marriage. Others are rocked by sexual scandal, lately the Southern Baptists and including notably […]