Showing results by narrator "Aaron Wells" in All Categories

How could a conservative Christian - an ordained minister with a beard, no less - be against not only Christianity, but theology, sacraments, and ethics as well? Yet that is the stance Peter Leithart takes in this provocative "theological bricolage." Seeking to rethink evangelical notions of culture, church, and state, Leithart offers a series of short essays, aphorisms, and parables that challenge the current dichotomies that govern both Christian and non-Christian thinking about church and state, the secular and the religious.

R. L. Dabney (1820-1898) - preacher, theologian, soldier, poet, and essayist - strongly condemned the public education of his day. He saw with prophetic insight that State education could not help but be secularized since it was designed to please the people. As a result, he argued, public education would begin to teach its students not truth, but the values and virtues which were palatable to society at large. We must acknowledge that proper education is about heart and soul, not just propositions and facts. Only then will children learn truth and be equipped to live out our faith.

As we survey the educational ruins around us, classical and Christian education appears to be an idea whose time has come again. More and more Christian parents are seeing the failures of modern education, and they are hungering for a substantive alternative, one that has been tested before and found to be good. Classical and Christian education presents them with just such an alternative. 

Even though America is fiercely divided between the left and the right and protests are becoming increasingly violent, both sides of the political aisle remain committed to secularism and increasingly to looser standards of sexual propriety. If we want to understand contemporary American culture wars, we must first come to grips with the culture wars of the 19th century. In this book, Douglas Wilson explains how our nation's failure to remove slavery in a biblical fashion has led us to many of the quagmires we find ourselves in.

When we say, "God is an omniscient God," what does that really mean? Some deny this doctrine, arguing that since God has given us "free will", it must be impossible for Him to see and know all things. But as Doug Wilson points out, if we want to worship an ignorant God, then we will become an ignorant people. This essay works through key biblical texts which demonstrate God's all-seeing, all-knowing nature. Wilson explains what they teach us about the Gospel and our salvation.

The second book of Peter has long troubled biblical scholars and interpreters. Not only is its authorship debated, but it seems to predict an imminent Second Coming, making many dispensationalists claim that it can only be understood in light of modern events. In this study, Peter Leithart offers a preterist reading of the epistle, arguing that it describes first-century events and not the end of the world. At the same time, he maintains orthodoxy, avoiding hyper-preterism and affirming the epistle's authenticity.

Today, everybody seems to be trying desperately to pander to young people in the church, even as growing numbers flee from it. This is largely because the church today does not expect what it ought to from children or their parents, and this can be attributed, at least in part, to a flawed concept of youth ministry. This need not, and should not, be so.  

The Christian faith proclaims a standing invitation to a grand and glorious banquet. But those who wish to attend this feast must first be washed. This washing is declared by the clean water of baptism. After we are washed, we may sit down at the Lord's Supper, consisting of red wine and broken bread. An invitation to this banquet is too gracious to be dismissed out of hand, and it is too profound to accept glibly. The Christian faith is a serious and demanding religion, founded on the gladness and delight of God.

In this short but stimulating work, Peter Leithart draws upon insights from history, theology, philosophy, and literature to connect two of the most glorious and unique truths of Christianity - its hopeful eschatology and its doctrine of a dynamic, personal Trinity. The result is a tour through 3000 years of intellectual history that celebrates the living power of orthodoxy.

At a time when the institution of marriage is failing in our culture, Christians are making a renewed commitment to discover the richness of biblical marriages as the foundation of society. In this collection of wedding sermons, Peter Leithart illuminates the subject from many perspectives, forming a loose, down-to-earth "systematic theology of marriage" that connects marriage with the doctrines of creation, salvation, sacraments, church, eschatology, and more.