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Misreading Barth in Pauline Scholarship
Read more: Misreading Barth in Pauline ScholarshipReadings of Paul influenced by the work of Karl Barth – or, at least, supposedly Barthian readings of Paul – have recently been taken up by a number of interpreters. One recurring characteristic of such self-proclaimed Barthian readings is to construe Paul’s gospel as radically, purely, and thoroughgoingly objective: completely undetermined, unaffected, and untouched by…
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10 Years A Calvinist
Read more: 10 Years A CalvinistTen years ago this month (September) I first became a Calvinist. I’ve never discussed here at The Two Cities how I became a Calvinist so I thought I’d use this anniversary of sorts as an opportunity to reflect on that. It all happened at the beginning of my Sophomore year at BIOLA University. During my first year…
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TULIP as Narrative
Read more: TULIP as NarrativeI want to say a few words about every theologian’s favorite acronym—TULIP. I don’t intend to say anything substantially new here. I also don’t mean to ostracize anyone who gets an allergic reaction when Calvinism is mentioned; if you think I’m one of those scary Calvinists who brews his own beer, has a big burly…
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Top Galatians Commentaries
Read more: Top Galatians CommentariesI’m nearly halfway through the first college course I’ve ever taught at Lincoln Christian University (the Las Vegas extension). Since the course is on Galatians, which is what my PhD research at the University of St Andrews under Prof. N. T. Wright focuses on, I thought it might be a good idea to provide a…
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I’m A Calvinist (And That Hardly Matters)
Read more: I’m A Calvinist (And That Hardly Matters)Without knowing it, I grew up believing in a quasi-Wesleyan form of Arminianism. When I went to college, and was exposed to Calvinism for the first time, I was very hostile. I was undoubtedly the most obnoxious Arminian on campus my freshman year. Eventually I came to a point where I decided to be open-minded….
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Hip Hop: It’s not good or bad, it’s how you use it (Guest Post)
Read more: Hip Hop: It’s not good or bad, it’s how you use it (Guest Post)What if I told you that you could saturate your mind with profound truths about the glory of God and the sufficiency and infallibility of the Bible through music? What if I told you that it was hip hop music? Would your embers of interest be further kindled if I told you that words and…
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The Irrelevance of Romney’s Mormonism
Read more: The Irrelevance of Romney’s MormonismShortly before graduating from Biola University in the Spring of 2008, I took a job working as a part-time pastor at a new, predominantly Korean, inner city church plant in Los Angeles. A couple months into the job, I found myself in Buffalo, New York for our denominations’ annual conference. I still cannot forget a…
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How Many Kingdoms? Uniting Two Crucial Ideas
Read more: How Many Kingdoms? Uniting Two Crucial IdeasGood thinking necessarily requires pulling various strands of thought into something of a poetic amalgamation. Though it is doubtful that my writing could be described as poetic (I’ll leave that to other authors on this blog), I would at least like to take a stab at the amalgamation part. For those new to the two-kingdoms…
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How Many Kingdoms? Abrogation and Illegitimacy
Read more: How Many Kingdoms? Abrogation and IllegitimacyOver the past couple weeks I have attempted to lay a framework for the one-kingdom v. two-kingdom debate. I have done this by providing a brief sketch of crucial post reformation thinkers on the issue such as Abraham Kuyper and the later neo-Calvinists. Here we saw that while Kuyper was nowhere near an outright departure…
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The Reformation and Civil Disobedience: Guest Post
Read more: The Reformation and Civil Disobedience: Guest PostUpon John Dunne’s request, I am going to write something relating Romans 13 and civil disobedience. This post does not represent my thinking on the matter but rather gives a historical perspective to the problem with hopes that a later post, reflecting my thoughts, will bring about thought provoking and engaging conversation. I will quickly…