A Review of David Kelsey, Human Anguish and God’s Power A book by David Kelsey is always eagerly anticipated among theologians. Kelsey is the father, grandfather, and now great-grandfather of many like myself who trained as professional theologians in the American context. His densely packed arguments often attend to matters of pastoral concern. By my read,…

Our purpose in what follows is to help answer the following question: what do Christians mean when they confess that creation is good? This question is both timely and difficult. Admittedly, creation’s goodness is not always self-evident to us. Evils in this world are often more apparent to us than its goodness, especially in times…

A great and godly servant has gone to glory. James Inell Packer knew how to serve his risen Lord through both the spoken and written word, and also through sage advice shared with others. He taught in theological colleges in both Britain and Canada. This British born, Oxford D.Phil. was a church scholar rather than…

When I requested the first two volumes of William J. Abraham’s Divine Agency and Divine Action tetralogy (Oxford University Press, 2017­–), I must admit I did not expect them to shape my thoughts on divine action and, by extension, providence quite so much as they have. Before reading Abraham’s fine work, I accepted without question…

I wish to thank my fellow symposiasts for their careful and generous reading of my book. Their criticisms have enabled me to think further about its central themes, historical perspectives, and argumentative moves. In what follows, I offer some further musings which I hope are neither too defensive nor inconsistent with the published material. At…

“As God’s authoritative word, Scripture is normative for all of life, including science.” So says Craig Bartholomew, a member of the 2019–2020 Henry Resident Fellowship community. In today’s climate, these are fighting words—resulting in more heat than light. When we hear this sentiment from Bartholomew, however, it means something quite different. First, and most basically,…

As our Reformation Commentary feature nears the end of the Historical Books series, Sapientia asked Derek Cooper and Martin Lohrmann, editors of our source volume, 1-2 Samuel, 1-2 Kings, 1-2 Chronicles (published by InterVarsity in April), a few questions about working on the project. Martin Lohrmann, PhD, is Assistant Professor of Lutheran Confessions and Heritage at Wartburg Theological Seminary….

Sapientia, in conjunction with InterVarsity Press, has been excerpting from the Reformation Commentary on Scripture volumes to provide readers with insight into the fascinating diversity of voices—some available for the first time in English—responsible for changing the course of historical Christianity during the movement we call the Reformation. In light of the recent publication of…

Nollywood, the Nigerian version of Hollywood of the US and the Bollywood of India, is the largest  movie industry in Africa. In 2009 Nollywood produced 872 films while the United States Hollywood produced 485 major films. Though they are usually cheap and of poor quality, these movie videos are one of the most powerful promoters…

The four educators highlighted in my last post all ground their theories of experiential learning in a philosophy called constructivism.  What is constructivism?  Is it compatible with Christianity? What follows are my in-progress ruminations on these questions.  By no means have I found definitive answers.  Regardless, I continue to think about these issues because they…

In a recent post, I gave a brief biographical sketch of Carl Henry, who had lent his name to the Henry Center.  Following  the 100th anniversary of his birth, now is a good time to discuss Henry’s theological legacy.  A 1986 profile of Henry in Moody Monthly magazine declared him “a theological mind second to…

Oh seminary student, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. So we are told in the inspired words of Hebrews 10:31. Those who do not know Christ are well advised to pay attention to the counsel of Holy Scripture. Even Christian lay people should be reminded on a…