In a recent article for Mere Orthodoxy, Matthew Joss makes the case that the Anglican Church in North America should make ample room for so-called “credobaptists” (or just Baptists). In fact, he takes the argument a step further, arguing that in many ways, Anglicanism has made such room. In doing so, he has written, with…
Beginning with the scientific revolution in the sixteenth century and continuing through the Enlightenment of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, that which was deemed knowable or worthy of being known, was limited to that which was empirically verifiable or rationally deducible from certain premises about the laws of nature. Outside of this narrow definition of…
Introduction In 1947, Dorothy Sayers delivered an address at Oxford University articulating a vision for the future of education. She began by enumerating the challenges that educators of her day were facing, challenges that may resonate with eerie familiarity for modern educators: they were inundated with prodigious responsibilities, both administrative and academic, and students…
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,…
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…
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…