Life in the Negative World: Confronting Challenges in an Anti-Christian Culture. By Aaron M. Renn. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2024. 272 pp. $26.99 (hardcover). The past several years have seen multiple releases in the “everyone hates us, what do we do now?” subgenre of Christian cultural commentary, with no fewer than three such titles being published…
Article XXXIX. Of a Christian man’s Oath. As we confess that vain and rash Swearing is forbidden Christian men by our Lord Jesus Christ, and James his Apostle, so we judge, that Christian Religion doth not prohibit, but that a man may swear when the Magistrate requireth, in a cause of faith and charity, so…
There have been some questions in my parish regarding auricular confession during Lent. “Is it a sacrament?” “Is it not a sacrament?” “What is a sacrament?” and “Are we Catholics?” First, we must define what a sacrament is and isn’t. The word sacrament comes to us from the Greek word mysterion. From this word, we…
A friend has wisely stated at various times: “All churches and denominations have their warts, the question is which ones are you willing to live with?” This quote has stayed with me for many years as an evangelical and an Anglican. It has stayed with me because I have found it to be true and…
Article XXXVIII. Of Christian men’s Goods, which are not common. The Riches and Goods of Christians are not common, as touching the right, title, and possession of the same, as certain Anabaptists do falsely boast. Notwithstanding, every man ought, of such things as he possesseth, liberally to give alms to the poor, according to his…
Seeking a Definition Whether times are tumultuous or calm, Christians must ask what it means to be a Christian. In tumultuous times such as these, the question certainly feels more urgent. The assertion that Christians do not have to hold to traditional moral standards is a tacit redefinition of what it means to be a…
“These essays will be, at times, unsettling for the American Protestant reader. Defying (recent) conventional wisdom and trends, James Clark moves through wide-ranging considerations of politics and culture, including insights on everything from architecture to Thomas Aquinas to Christopher Nolan, drawing on influences from Plato to Cardinal Ratzinger to Rod Dreher. Most provocative is his…
In a recent Twitter/X (whatever it’s properly referred to these days) post Jeff Walton, Anglican Program Director at the Institute for Religion and Democracy, wrote: Many fail to realize that the ACNA is functionally a congregationalist denomination where the laity rarely see beyond their local parish, aside from the yearly episcopal visitation. Few are engaged…
“There is never a situation in which we have no choice but to commit sin. God does not oblige us to break the very laws that are derived from His eternal Being, and those who teach otherwise, however well-intentioned their motives, are laying a grievous millstone on the necks of their listeners.” ~James Clark~…
In order to discuss the thorny statement in Article XXI that general councils “may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God,” it is first necessary to establish what precisely a general council is, as well as whether and how a general council differs from an ecumenical council. In referring to councils,…
