2017 marks 500 years since the Reformation (dating it from Martin Luther nailing his 95 Theses to the Wittenberg Door).
Hopefully, for many Christians, this will reawaken an interest in our heritage. It is time to blow away the dust, if we have allowed it to settle, and read some classics of Christian history. John Calvin’s Institutes, Martin Luther’s Table Talk and later Puritan writings, like those of Jonathan Edwards, will all help remind us of the depths and riches of Reformation theology.
Apologetics?
It may also be the case that we find apolo-getics being given short shrift. Luther took a very low view of human reason and philosophy. Not a man to waste words with pleasantries, he described reason as ‘a whore’, ‘the greatest enemy that faith has’. Luther rejected the attempt to ‘justify the ways of God to men’. How dare we try to defend the things of God with human reason? Only God’s Word carries final authority and only God’s Word can settle disputes over matters of faith. Reason leads no one to God because salvation’s prerequisite is a work of God’s grace in the gospel.
Comedy, free speech and warnings from the past
Hannah Arendt was a Jewish philosopher who grew up in Nazi Germany. Eventually she had to flee to France and, …