New and Old Calvinism, Enchantment, and AI: Article Up at Mere Orthodoxy
I have an article on New Calvinism up at Mere Orthodoxy. Here’s an excerpt:
Yet in confessional Reformed theology the sacraments are not incidentals to gospel ministry, but central to gospel ministry. The sacraments are more than “visible words” which proclaim the gospel. With the sacraments, God not only speaks, but God acts. The sacraments are not just reminders or challenges related to the content of the gospel message, but a divinely established avenue by which the gospel is applied to the heart of the partaker so as to conform them by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ.
Presbyterians in the gospel-centered coalition should press for a re-centering and prioritization of Reformed sacramentology as part of a recalibrated New Calvinist-evangelical collaboration — not as something annexed to gospel-centered ministry, but as part of its core identity.
Cameron,
I wrote the following reply on the Mere Orthodoxy site. I thought I would share it here in case you didn’t have a chance to read it there:
‘When Shafer writes that the New Calvinism can only be truly renewed by returning to the sacramental theology of the Old Calvinism, the question becomes this: What does the Old Calvinism need to be renewed by? In fact, does Calvinism sufficient enough to not need to be renewed by any influences from outside ourselves?
Yes, Shafer is singling out a particular problem with the New Calvinism. And yet, along with the old Calvinism, do we also want to return to the Old Geneva? After all, Calvinism is an all encompassing theology.
Shafer’s first sentence reminds me of one of my favorite Martin Luther King Jr quotes:
‘The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just’
Replace the word ‘Western’ with the word ‘Calvinist’ and the question becomes, do we Calvinists need to be reformed by other sources than ourselves? Have we nothing to learn from Bonhoeffer and Martin Luther King Jr and others? If we Calvinists claim that we are the fount of all theological blessing, don’t we not unnecessarily become divisive in the Church?’
BTW, hope al is well’
Hi Curt,
Good to hear from you. Simply put, I’m speaking to my fellow P&R pastors from “inside the camp”, as it were. By definition I can’t bring to bear theologies and such from outside my own tradition/perspective. I’m sure that there are angles from beyond Calvinism (old or new) that would be helpful in renewing/addressing the movement, but I don’t have them and so can’t invoke them.