“Yet the Aristotelianism of Rome, with its idea of potentiality, offers, we are bound to think, a point of contact with the underlying philosophy of Dialecticism. Rome occupies an intermediary position.”[1] What has Basel to do with Rome? In the…
Reading John Owen: An Interview with Ryan McGraw
This week on Theology Simply Profound, Rob had an opportunity to sit down with the Rev. Dr. Ryan M. McGraw to talk about John Owen and his major writings. Following this interview Rob and Bob take a few minutes to…
Karl Barth and the Incarnation
Jim Cassidy discusses Darren O. Sumner’s book, Karl Barth and the Incarnation: Christology and the Humility of God. Dr. Cassidy wrote a review article on the book in the Fall 2017 issue (Vol. 79, No. 2) of the Westminster Theological Journal.…
The Life of E. J. Young
Danny Olinger speaks about the life of E. J. Young, long-time Professor of Old Testament at Westminster Theological Seminary. Davis Young has written a wonderful biography of his father, For Me to Live Is Christ: The Life of Edward J. Young,…
The Essential Van Til – What is Dialectical Theology?
In The New Modernism Van Til identifies the Theology of Crisis with “dialectical theology.” But what is dialectical theology? Van Til explains that dialectical theology is “at bottom activistic and positivistic.” But what in the world does that mean? He…
Warfield and True Church Unity
Jeff Stivason joins us to speak about his article, “Benjamin B. Warfield and True Church Unity,” published in the Westminster Theological Journal 79 (2017): 327–43. He argues that Warfield developed a theology that requires the existence of denominations. Jeff is pastor…
The Essential Van Til — In the Beginning (Part 4)
As we continue to unpack Van Til’s review of Zerbe’s book we come to the second part of the review, which concerns Barth’s epistemology. Van Til opens with an absurd claim, and then unpacks what he means: [Barth] has no…
The Essential Van Til – In the Beginning (Part 3)
When I first heard about Barth’s concept of the “wholly other” God, it sounded perfectly orthodox. Barth’s emphasis on the qualitative difference between God and man struck me as nothing but good Reformed theology. In addition, I had heard that…
The Essential Van Til – In the Beginning (Part 2)
In the last post we began to consider Van Til’s first published criticism of Barth. It was set in the context of a book review.[1] There we underscored Van Til’s criticism that Barth’s “theology is based upon an antitheistic theory…
Machen and Van Til
The adult Sunday school lesson from the Reformed Forum 2017 Theology Conference held at Hope Presbyterian Church (OPC) in Grayslake, Illinois. Download Participants: Jeff Waddington
