Posts by Carl Trueman

A Friendly Correspondence

Jul 9, 2021

Note: The following is adapted from a letter sent in response to a gracious correspondent who was concerned about Dr. Trueman’s representation of the words of Rev. Greg Johnson . It is published here rather than First Things due to the intramural nature of the matter involved. Dear Friend, Thank...

Reflecting on a Broken Vow

Jan 25, 2021

Some years ago, I took a Nazirite vow never to write on race in America. Yet, persuaded by the editorial team at First Things, I broke that vow . Now it is time to offer a brief reflection on some of the responses. There were the predictable Twitter storms with the traditional aspersions cast on my...

A Time to Mourn and a Time to Dance

Jul 18, 2020

Three events this week have given me pause both for thought, nostalgia, and hope. The first was the arrival of an email on Thursday containing the memoir manuscript of a well-known Welsh Baptist pastor who served only one congregation in his ministry, and that for over fifty years. He asked me to...

The Sundance Kid for President

Aug 28, 2019

Many congratulations to both Jon Master and Greenville Presbyterian Theological Seminary on his appointment as their new president, starting July 1 next year. Jon has all the qualities needed for a seminary president: a good churchman (twice on a Sunday -- a sadly rare thing these days), a fine...

Classical Theism in the Pastoral Key

May 1, 2019

Just over a decade ago, the big surprise in American evangelicalism was the sudden popularity of Calvinistic theology captured by Collin Hansen’s memorable phrase, ‘young, restless, and Reformed.’ More recently, another unexpected trend has emerged – an interest in classical theism, Nicene...

Jones and the Stones

Apr 23, 2019

The recent New York Times interview with Serene Jones, President of Union Theological Seminary, is one for the ages. Indeed, critique is almost pointless as the interview itself begs not so much questions as gasps of amazement at the breathtaking combination of leaps of logic, misrepresentations of...

Cultural Appropriation that is Pastoral Kindness

Apr 14, 2019

Preaching on Sunday for my friend, Jeff Stivason, at Grace Reformed Presbyterian Church I was reminded of how beautiful unaccompanied psalm singing can be. While I am not an exclusive psalmodist , I was first ordained as ruling elder in a (then) psalms-only denomination (the Free Church of Scotland...

Constructing a Course...Constructively

Apr 3, 2019

I have been asked to put together an undergraduate elective course on the doctrine of God for Grove students for next year. There is, of course, a current (and most welcome) revival of interest in Protestant circles in classical Trinitarianism and the theology of the first four ecumenical councils...

Barry Brings It!

Mar 27, 2019

It was a real pleasure to see Barry York’s very kind interaction with my recent DenDulk Lecture. The lecture itself was, as I confessed, long on analysis of the manifold temptations to corruption and incompetence to which religious institutions are prone and rather shorter on solutions. Barry...

Machen, Confessionalism, and Seminary Education

Mar 18, 2019

In our ongoing discussion of the doctrine of God, it is worth reflecting on the fact that a church needs two things to be confessionally healthy: a sound form of words (a creed or confession); and a form of government by which the content of this can be preserved from generation to generation...

Confessional Christology: Catholic Definitions versus Congenital Defects

Mar 16, 2019

Given the positive response to our first two posts, and the fact that the doctrine of God is now emerging as a contested locus within our own denomination, we continue this ongoing series with some reflections on the type of questions that should be asked of candidates relative to the Christology...

Holding Even Faster to the Confession! A Leading Baptist Theologian Offers Some Help

Mar 11, 2019

Matthew Barrett , a professor at Midwestern Baptist Seminary , recently wrote to us with some questions that he verbally asks of seminarians in his classes. As the author of a recent book, None Greater: The Undomesticated Attributes of God , he is rapidly emerging as a leading advocate of historic...

Holding Fast the Confession

Mar 9, 2019

The last few years have seen a significant – and most welcome – revival of interest in the Christian doctrine of God among Reformed and evangelical writers. Scholars working in patristic, medieval, and Reformation periods have enriched our knowledge of the creedal and confessional...

Humpty Dumpty Revisited

Mar 3, 2019

A number of people have emailed with regard to my recent series asking versions of the following questions: But don’t words change their meaning over time? So doesn’t the nature of what we subscribe inevitably change as well? A number of observations are in order. First, words do indeed...

A Most Mischievous and Ill-Informed Half Truth

Feb 11, 2019

Etienne Gilson once commented that to be a competent philosopher, one also needs to be a competent historian of philosophy. Given some of the he terodox ideas currently being promoted by those who claim to be confessional Protestants , Gilson’s rule would seem to apply to theologians as well...

When Humpty Met Alice: Some Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part Four

Feb 5, 2019

'When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, 'it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.' 'The question is,' said Alice, 'whether you can make words mean so many different things.' 'The question is,' said...

Beyond the Lighted Stage: Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part Three

Jan 29, 2019

In Part Two of this four part series, I offered some thoughts on the nature of doctrinal development. Now I want to turn to the discipline of Biblical Theology. Biblical Theology as a discipline emerges formally with the work of Johann Philipp Gabler in the late eighteenth century. In his justly...

Creeds, Confessions and the Development of Doctrine: Some Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part Two

Jan 22, 2019

Last week, I offered some preliminary thoughts on the relationship between Biblical and Systematic Theology. This week, I want to consider why it is that theology demands more than just harvesting the immediate results of the exegesis of biblical texts. Proper Christian theology is always...

Some Thoughts on Systematic Theology as Poor Relation, Part One

Jan 15, 2019

Last week, I had the pleasure of speaking at the Paideia Center Conference in Orlando, focused this year on the catholic, creedal understanding of God. I also sat on a discussion panel with Mike Allen, Scott Swain , Blair Smith and Liam Goligher , discussing the Trinity debate of 2016. Asked how it...

The Aesthetics of Tolerance

Sep 14, 2018

A number of years ago, I had occasion to fly to Korea via San Francisco. Flying across the US on a clear day is one of those rare pleasures which really allows you to get the geographical measure of the place: how flat much of the country is; how the snow-capped Rockies push the land upwards...

Three Good Books -- and the Return of Another Old Friend

Aug 13, 2018

Three recent books are worth reading. The first is Thomas Weinandy’s Jesus Becoming Jesus . Weinandy is a Franciscan theologian who is well-known in orthodox Protestant circles for his superlative exposition and defense of classical theism, specifically immutability and impassibility . In...

The Kerygmatic Fallacy

Aug 7, 2018

I taught ministerial candidates for 25 years at three separate institutions and, during that time, came across one question in relation to doctrine more than any other: “Is it preachable ?” In fact, I suspect it was often not really a question -- more an implicit objection to a doctrine...

Revoice, Evangelical Culture, and the Return of an Old Friend

Jul 31, 2018

With moving job and house in the last two months, I was only vaguely aware of the Revoice Conference until a few weeks ago. Then suddenly my phone started to light up as friends forwarded me tweets and blog posts and interviews, pro and con. Finally, at the weekend a whole pile of very disturbing...

Six Years On

Jun 28, 2018

It was some six years ago that I accepted the call to become Pastor of Cornerstone Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Ambler, Pa., as a bi-vocational appointment. I had been on the session there for two years as Teacher and took the call because it was clear that finances meant a full-time pastor was not...

On Professors and the Cult of Personality

Jun 8, 2018

I arrived on Faculty at Westminster in the summer of 2001. I had only been on campus for a couple of months before a group of students approached me one lunchtime and tried to recruit me to a most sinister and dangerous cult. `What?', I hear you cry, `Are the Moonies, the Children of God, and the...

The Pink Elephant in the Room

May 9, 2018

Amid all of the discussion surrounding the so-called Pence Rule and also the forthcoming book from my friend, Aimee Byrd, there is one lacuna that is slightly puzzling. It is certainly the case that what the Rule seeks to achieve for Mike Pence are good and proper things, and the mockery to which...

The Pink Elephant in the Room

May 9, 2018

Amid all of the discussion surrounding the so-called Pence Rule and also the forthcoming book from my friend, Aimee Byrd, there is one lacuna that is slightly puzzling. It is certainly the case that what the Rule seeks to achieve for Mike Pence are good and proper things, and the mockery to which...

Cinderella, you shall go to the ball!

Mar 3, 2018

The second century is arguably the Cinderella of the early church, generally neglected in favor of other, apparently more exciting and accessible, periods. It is populated by largely shadowy figures about whom we know enough to be tantalized, even impressed, but it lacks the giant intellects and...

Did the Puritans understand suffering?

Jan 26, 2018

Some years ago a student came to ask me if the Puritans had a theology of suffering. Apparently he had been told by someone that they did not. My response pointed to three basic facts. First, the Puritans lived in a time before the discovery of antibiotics, analgesics and flush toilets. Disease and...

A Remarkable Man

Jan 24, 2018

Many people outside of Scotland may be unfamiliar with the story of the Rev. Kenny Macdonald who died last weekend. His story is well worth reading and pondering. I met him only once -- when we both happened to be visiting my soon-to-be father-in-law in hospital in Inverness in 1989. A most...

Seismic shift or wasted opportunity?

Jan 17, 2018

While thinking about the #MeToo movement, and the prominent place being played in it by members of the Hollywood establishment, I have asked myself a couple of times, ‘Is this a root-and-branch reformation of the structure of modern morality or merely something superficial?’ To be more...

Wordsworth and Mrs West

Jan 12, 2018

I am grateful to Todd for mentioning my upcoming DC lectures and also to RTS DC for their kindness in asking me to present some of the firstfruits of my Princeton work in a public forum. The two lectures are entitled as follows: Lecture 1: Acknowledging the Unacknowledged Legislators: From William...

The Reformation hits the Los Angeles Review of Books

Oct 2, 2017

Over at Marginalia , a channel of the Los Angeles Review of Books, my old pal Bruce Gordon of Yale Divinity School has put together a panel of scholars to offer reflections on the Reformation. Bruce's Introduction and Joseph Koerner's Art in a State of Siege are already available. My...

Robophobia

Oct 2, 2017

Such is the technological and moral temper of our times that a serious report with the bizarre title Our Sexual Future with Robots might scarcely raise an eyebrow in a world where the scientifically possible is fast becoming the only judge of the ethical and where celibate friendship is now the...

The Joy of Paglian Sex

Sep 18, 2017

Lesbian feminists with a penchant for Nietzsche, Freud, and DeSade are not typically my type. Nevertheless, I fell in love with one in 1993 and have never quite recovered. I was then (as now) a happily married man and nothing untoward actually happened. But when I purchased a copy of Camille Paglia...

Luther: The Idea That Changed the World

Sep 13, 2017

My inbox has been full of positive reactions to the PBS docudrama which aired last night. It is now available online here.

In which I chat to Tony Payne and talk about Robert Burns

Sep 1, 2017

I recently had the pleasure of doing a podcast with Tony Payne, of Moore College, Sydney, in which we talked about the piety of the Reformation and Reformers. You can find it here . We also chatted briefly about the greatest literary description of the impact of Protestant piety upon the households...

The Evils of the Sex Trade

Aug 17, 2017

This week's Spectator has a powerful, if very harrowing, article on prostitution and the harm it does . All pastors -- all Christians -- should read it. It reminded me of a podcast interview the MoS team did with Heather Evans, of Valley Against Sex Trafficking. That too is worth a listen for...

Reformation Preaching and the Modern Mind

Aug 6, 2017

This week I am giving the Moore College Lectures in Sydney. The title of the series (with due homage to the great Peter Taylor Forsyth) is Reformation Preaching and the Modern Mind . My hope is to use the Reformers, especially Luther, as a source for building a theological understanding of what...

A Brief Response to Professor Gehrz

Aug 2, 2017

Over at his blog at Patheos, Professor Chris Gehrz has responded to my most recent post at First Things . Rod Dreher has provided a good reply but I offer here just a couple of brief comments. First, Professor Gehrz seems on the whole to think that I see the problem with the LGBTQ movement as one...

Dialoging with the Doc

Jul 1, 2017

For me this summer is to be one of engaging Martin Luther. Next Friday I am to be the token Schwaermer at a conference on the Word of God for Lutheran Church Missouri Synod pastors and theologians. In August I am giving the Moore Theological College Annual Lectures on ‘Reformation Preaching...

A Very Millennial Theodicy Problem

Mar 14, 2017

Luther, Beer and 1522

Mar 7, 2017

I have received unexpected and unsolicited gifts of two drinking vessels recently. The first, from the person we at the Spin know simply as Evil Amy the Less, the author who last year had the slanderous temerity to base (and indeed name) the character of an alcoholic priest in her novel of medieval...

The Descent of Man

Mar 7, 2017

Reading Augustine's De Trinitate this semester with a group of students, I was struck by this brilliant analysis of the way that sin operates. It comes from Book XII: "For just as a snake does not walk with open strides bur wriggles along by the tiny little movements of its scales, so the...

Obituary for Iain D. Campbell

Jan 30, 2017

Donald Macleod has written a moving obituary of the Rev. Dr. Iain D. Campbell. You can find it here .

The Book of the Year

Dec 30, 2016

‘To be deep in history is to cease to be Protestant.’ So wrote John Henry Newman in his famous essay on doctrinal development. I have critiqued this comment from a confessional Reformed perspective in First Things and will do so again in a forthcoming collection of essays on the...

Bruce Gordon at his Best

Dec 22, 2016

My favourite church history book of 2016 is Bruce Gordon’s John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion . I confess to being a little partisan: Bruce is my oldest scholarly friend since we were both postgraduates in Scotland in the late 80s and denizens of the Scottish Church...

Bruce Gordon at his Best

Dec 22, 2016

My favourite church history book of 2016 is Bruce Gordon’s John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion . I confess to being a little partisan: Bruce is my oldest scholarly friend since we were both postgraduates in Scotland in the late 80s and denizens of the Scottish Church...

evangelical Ecumenism

Dec 21, 2016

I’ve spent the last few months finishing up a book with Bob Kolb, the Luther scholar, entitled Between Wittenberg and Geneva: Lutheran and Reformed Theology in Conversation . It is due from Baker later next year. Bob is, for my money, the greatest living Luther scholar in the English-speaking...

Tone Deaf Ref

Dec 8, 2016

Todd’s inaugural post as the new editor of this blog (all complaints to Pruitt from now on, please) makes a very good point and also highlights Fred Sanders’s fine review of Richard Rohr’s book on the Trinity . Sanders is witty and sharp as always – and rightly so, for the...

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