Every now and then there comes an atheist who understands aspects of the gospel better than many Christians. In an article in the Christmas edition of The Spectator , political commentator and atheist Bruce Anderson offers some stimulating reflections on the faith. I was particularly struck by the...

Al Mohler has posted some fascinating reflections on the case of incest involving a Columbia University professor and his adult daughter. That the case involves a consensual relationship between two adults makes it somewhat more complicated than one might first think; and it looks set to be the...

Here are a handful of books worth asking someone to put in your Christmas stocking. David Van Drunen, Living in God's Two Kingdoms . David is, I suspect, conservative politically, but this book is a great antidote to those who wish to identify orthodoxy and their personal political convictions,...

I am not an exclusive psalmodist, since I also believe that, in addition to the 150 (or 151 if you are Eastern Orthodox) it is legitimate to sing `A Mighty Fortress' and perhaps `A Debtor to Mercy Alone' in public worship; but I would be quite happy never to sing anything other than psalms, and...

I am intrigued by John Ross's proposal (to which DT linked yesterday, but which now appears to have been removed) that the Free Church of Scotland might have, in effect, a two track system for subscription. Without wanting to comment on the internal debates of the FCS, I wonder if such a solution,...

On a personal note, and as follow-up to Levy's last post, I only heard Douglas Macmillan once, in 1989, at Aberdeen University Christian Union but (very, very rare for me) I still remember the text: 1. Cor. 1:25. That I remember it is a function of how powerful an address it was, and reminds me of...

I noticed this article this morning, and was particularly struck by the following quotation from an artist from an open letter apparently addressed to American churches: "An artist's relationship with you [the church] has not been easy; we are often in the margins of your communities, being the...

In this final post in the series, I want to offer some brief, practical guidelines on how to help keep a church on the rails. Each could be a post in itself, but I have no wish to try your patience further. So, for what they are worth, here they are: 1. Guard your personal integrity and be honest...

In my last two posts, I have tried to suggest that the reasons for a church's decline into liberalism are not always immediately doctrinal, but can actually arise out of a culture; and, by implication, the underlying story I am trying to tell is that sometimes (oftentimes?) churches go liberal...

Because the Christian church in Britain will obviously never have to deal with ministries like this .

Yesterday, I noted how the big personality can shift the church in the wrong direction. A closely related phenomenon is that of the minister who thumbs his nose at the church's public standards of doctrine and practice, who decides that he does not like that to which his vows bind him, and that he...

Not all historical phenomena that manifest themselves as doctrinal are necessarily immediately doctrinal in cause or origin.' That statement, made to me by a mentor in my field of historical theology, articulates a crucial principle, a principle that came to mind quite recently. I have spent the...

The shadowy figure known simply as `The Librarian' brought to my attention the following thoughts of the Scottish theologian and churchman, Thomas Chalmers, on Romans 13. In an era when it is seemingly more and more acceptable to be a social gospeller, to identify Christianity with political...

One of the odd things I have noticed in recent years is the historical isolationism of certain streams of Anglican evangelicalism. It manifests itself in a number of ways: a disparagement of the Book of Common Prayer; the downplaying of systematic theology as a vital component of the church's...

Over at the webpage, Called to Communion , Catholic convert from Protestantism, Bryan Cross, has written a a very kind and thought provoking assessment of my comments on Roman Catholicism over recent years. Bryan picks up on a point I have made numerous times, both in print and in the classroom,...

In the week when the Protestant church looks back to the advertising of a public debate by a professor, Martin Luther, at Wittenberg University on October 31, 1517, and celebrates that event as the start of the Reformation, Derek and I head to Heidelberg. In fact, Heidelberg is a more likely...

Don Duff, of the OPC, has just brought to my attention this interesting article by an OP pastor in southern California. Very helpful and thought provoking.

Good to see that Paul is back from `the Algarve.' Clearly the word has a become a euphemism for a short term of solitary confinement for those who have corrupted the nation's youth and committed crimes too numerous to mention against the English language. To answer Paul on politics in brief points...

It has been gratifying to see the largely generous and charitable reactions to Republocrat that have appeared on the web. Even the critics have provided kind words and a few priceless one-liners, including the positively Trotterskyite opening line of the review to which I link at the very end. Two...

Having alluded last week to that great champion of the oppressed, Whoopi Goldberg, and her excusing of the rape of a minor, I was interested to see the reflections on how fame and celebrity covers -- and, indeed, excuses -- a multitude of sins by Dominic Lawson. Sorry, Liam, it's from the liberal...

Liam's link is interesting, first, because it indicates how soon things move from being voluntary to being compulsory in the church world. In church politics (as in politics generally) the voluntary position is typically, a way to swing the centrists to what is often pitched as the most reasonable...

One of the most depressing things about the current season of political stumping in the USA is the mindless nature of so much of the discourse. The recent sight of the unbearably self-important and ill-informed Bill O'Reilly and the overwheeningly self-righteous and equally ignorant Whoopi Goldberg...

Other than the sackloads of requests that ref21 should `Fire Levy Now!' (you hum it; we'll try to play it), many others have been asking if we can provide insights into the man behind the recent spate of blogposts that seem to have been drawn directly from Finnegans Wake . So, for your edification...

So Levy is still crowing over the `Rumble in the Rhondda'? Any fair minded viewer will see that the ref, C J Mahaney, should never have given me the standing count at that point. The bout was clearly fixed by the Tafia.