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Scholars from a wide variety of Christian traditions (McGrath, Ward, Davison, Ordway) all have recognized the value of imaginative apologetics. However, contemporary introductions to the subject are often generalized and lacking in specific application. This paper will present a Lewisian framework for apologetics in the imaginative mode as a means of Christian engagement with the … Read more
Being “passionate” about Christ or the Gospel or Christian worship is frequently cast as an uncontested virtue, a principal indicator of authenticity in a milieu infatuated with that concept. This presentation pushes back against this notion, following the lead of dissertations by Thomas Dixon (Cambridge, 2003) and Ryan Martin (T & T Clark, 2019) in … Read more
This paper illustrates the progression of the Christian faith from a persecuted, underground movement to the center of Roman public life. Constantine’s choice of Nicaea for the first ecumenical council was not only a strategic choice but also a symbolic statement for repositioning the place of Christianity in civil affairs. The First Council of Nicaea … Read more
The Nicene Creed’s place in the Mass has contributed to its vast cultural legacy, as the creed has been recited in worship around the world for centuries. The creed is also recited whenever Masses by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, and other composers are performed in concert halls. In this music, today’s most secularized audiences continue to … Read more
I plan to answer the following questions: 1. What is a covenant? 2. What is the marriage covenant? 3. What responsibility does a husband and father have for his wife and children? 4. Does God promise that for a household with at least one Christian parent all the children are Christians? 5. How is a … Read more
Isaiah 6 illuminates the dynamics of divine-human dialogue consisting of revelation and response while concurrently reflecting a “gospel-shape” within such dialogue. Thus, liturgical scholars often cite Isaiah 6 as a paradigm for worship wherein its narrative sequence provides a model for Christian liturgy. Informed by the events of the text, the so-called “Isaiah 6” model … Read more
This paper demonstrates that the covenant of redemption, or pactum salutis, is consistent with classical Trinitarianism. In order to do so, the paper presents four contemporary evangelical theological challenges to the covenant of redemption with respect to what has been called classical trinitarianism. Whereas some, such as Paul Williamson, have challenged the exegetical foundation, and … Read more
Dorothy L. Sayers wrote a seminal essay—“Creed or Chaos?”—that later become a lead chapter in her book with the same title (1949). A subsequent edition (1995) carries the subtitle: “Why Christians Must Choose Either Dogma or Disaster; Or, Why It Really Does Matter What You Believe.” While appreciating Sayers’s basic concern for preserving historic Christian … Read more
Evangelicals have responded to logical positivist historiography in various ways. Thus, an exploration of these several different evangelical approaches to historiography needs to be done. Considering these positions, it will be argued that an evangelical historiography for use inside the church should look different from an evangelical historiography for use outside the church. That is, … Read more
Frédéric Manns affirms that Justin Martyr’s conception of the nature of the Old Testament differed from that of the Jewish community. Jewish groups held to a three-level hierarchy of decreasing authority: Law, Prophets, and Writings. In contrast, Justin Martyr held to the entire OT as equally authoritative with all of it prophetically pointing to Christ. … Read more