To the Sources: Retrieving the Christian Theological Tradition
(This essay is adapted from a presentation given by Jackson Watts at the 2014 National Meeting of the Evangelical Theological Society) Arguably the dominant mark of the 15th and 16th centuries was the call of ad fontes (lit. “to the fountains”). This period witnessed a resurgence of interest in Greco-Roman culture, as well as classical Christian sources from the Patristic period (roughly the first five centuries A.D.). This return to...
Thomas Grantham: Christianismus Primitivus
Thomas Grantham lived in an age when kings were beheaded, national church structures were dissolved, and Baptists were regularly imprisoned. Grantham was a prolific theologian, a farmer, and a tender shepherd of souls. He staunchly defended Baptist beliefs and heralded universal religious freedom. Thomas Grantham (1633/34-1692) was born in Hatton, England, a region near Lincolnshire. Like many seventeenth-century figures, his early...
The Narcissism of Now
“Is that the iPhone 5?” “No,” I reply, “It’s just an iPhone 4S.” This is just one of countless questions I answer when making small talk with the teenagers I minister to. It seems that every time I turn around there is a new phone, new gadget, or new app that the teenagers are conversing about. I reveal my magnitude of un-coolness when I inquire about new fads (if that’s what they even call them anymore). With few exceptions, the...
Finding God (ed. John Mulder)
Many believers are moved by hearing other Christians share accounts of their conversion experiences. In fact, one of the hallmarks of evangelical identity has been what historian David Bebbington calls “conversionism.” [1] He’s right—we believe that lives should be transformed through the new birth, otherwise called regeneration. Of course, not all experiences are equal. The conversion experience that most Baptists think of has its...
A Little Book for New Theologians (Kelly Kapic)
In 2012 I intended to write an essay commemorating the 50th anniversary of a useful little book that many young theologians don’t read anymore: Helmut Thielicke’s A Little Exercise for Young Theologians. Published originally in 1959, the English edition hit shelves in 1962. It quickly became a useful primer in helping students to reflect on the nature of theological study. A number of remarks from Thielicke still resonate today:...
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