There are two fundamental truths about humanity. The good truth is that as image bearers, humans are afforded inherent dignity. Drawing on concepts present in Pascal’s reflections on greatness and wretchedness and Luther’s assertion that Christians are both saints and sinners, this study shows how all human beings contribute positively to God’s creation through traits … Read more
Proposal This paper explores the implications for the doctrine of rewards in light of the covenant of grant motif (the Davidic Covenant) in the prologue of Hebrews 1:1-4. The thesis of this paper posits that the Davidic covenant, as a covenant of grant or reward, is reflected in Hebrews 1:1–4. In the introduction, the Messianic … Read more
This paper is co-authored with Randall Johnson Many associate Reformed Protestantism with soft theological determinism and compatibilism. In other words, according to the Reformed, God determines all things, yet human creatures are truly free, moral agents. Richard Muller and the authors of Reformed Thought on Freedom, however, deny that the Reformed were compatibilists. Instead, they … Read more
The 20th and 21st centuries’ revival of interest in the Holy Spirit has extended to many areas of Christian life and practice, including missions and the relationship of Christianity to other religions. The person and work of the Holy Spirit stands at the center of many modern theology of religions proposals. One of the most … Read more
Most of us have met believers sharing stories of supernatural encounters with God—or encounters with other spiritual entities. Perhaps it was a lecture from a majority world theologian or a missionary testimony during Sunday School. Meanwhile, biblical scholars and theologians trained at Western seminaries emphasize the historical “distance” between the world of Scripture and the … Read more
The transgender movement poses significant challenges to the evangelical church and academia. At the popular level, people with gender dysphoria self-describe using phrases like “being born in the wrong body,” “having a female body but a male soul,” and so on. Meanwhile, scholars debate whether gender should be construed as a biologically essentialist category or, … Read more
Theologians commonly appeal to Ephesians 4:23–24 in their expositions of human nature and the image of God. Is this an instance of irresponsible proof-texting, or a valid inference from the discourse of Ephesians? Indeed, there do seem to be good reasons to recognize an anthropological dimension in this text. Christian renewal is envisioned as restoration … Read more
In the last century or so, the doctrine of inerrancy has exerted an influence within evangelical theology to move the doctrine of scripture to the beginning of systematic theologies, offering to serve there as an epistemological foundation for all other doctrines derivable from scripture. This paper will draw primarily on the work of B. B. … Read more
Two areas of theological research beginning to bloom in Protestant and Evangelical contexts are theological aesthetics and theology of the body. Some strong examples of the former can be found in Jonathan King’s work The Beauty of the Lord: Theology as Aesthetics and Samuel Parkinson’s Irresistible Beauty: Beholding Triune Glory in the Face of Jesus … Read more
In the proposed paper, I argue that ecclesial testimony—the church’s proclamation and embodiment of the gospel message—is a function of both its priestly and prophetic nature. My constructive account adds “priestly” to the predominantly prophetic understanding of ecclesial testimony, exemplified in the writing of Karl Barth. In service of this, I offer a Protestant appropriation … Read more