Dr. Carl R. Trueman joins us to speak about his significant new book, The Rise and Triumph of the Modern Self: Cultural Amnesia, Expressive Individualism, and the Road to Sexual Revolution (Crossway), in which he addresses the factors undergirding modern culture’s obsession with identity. Sexual identity in particular has dominated public discourse since the landmark Obergefell v. Hodges Supreme Court decision in 2015. Tracing influential thought from Augustine to Marx and beyond, Trueman explains the historical and intellectual phenomenon of the modern conception selfhood. Trueman writes,

My aim is to explain how and why a certain notion of the self has come to dominate the culture of the West, why this self finds its most obvious manifestation in the transformation of sexual mores, and what the wider implications of this transformation are and may well be in the future.

Dr. Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College. He is an esteemed church historian and previously served as the William E. Simon Fellow in Religion and Public Life at Princeton University. Trueman has authored or edited more than a dozen books, including The Creedal Imperative, Luther on the Christian Life, and Histories and Fallacies. Trueman is a minister in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman

Dr. Gregg Allison and Dr. Carl Trueman speak about the theology of Benedict XVI, pope emeritus of the Roman Catholic Church. Allison’s article, “Faith, Hope, and Love” and Trueman’s article, “Is the Pope (Roman) Catholic?,” are published in The Theology of Benedict XVI: A Protestant Appreciation edited by Tim Perry and published by Lexham Press.

Dr. Allison is Professor of Christian Theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky. He is the author or co-author of several books, including Roman Catholic Theology and Practice: An Evangelical Assessment and The Unfinished Reformation: What Unites and Divides Catholics and Protestants after 500 Years. He appeared on Christ the Center episodes 363 and 461.

Dr. Trueman is Professor of Biblical and Religious Studies at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania. He hosts the Mortification of Spin podcast with Aimee Byrd and Todd Pruitt. He is also the author of several books, including The Creedal Imperative and Luther on the Christian Life. Dr. Trueman has joined us many times before.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Gregg Allison, Jim Cassidy

Since Christ the Center began nearly twelve years ago, we have taken time to look back on the highlights of the year. Given that we now post highlights from each episode every week we have taken an analytic approach. These are this year’s top ten clips from Christ the Center as determined by YouTube views.

1. Episode 614 — Bracy Hill, Nimrod, the Mighty Hunter
2. Episode 600 — Glen Clary, Praying in Tongues
3. Episode 580 — Camden Bucey, Liberation Theology
4. Episode 603 — Cornelis Venema, Karl Barth and the Doctrine of Election
5. Episode 600 — Glen Clary, What Is Cessationism?
6. Episode 598 — Christopher Watkin, The Problem of the One and Many
7. Episode 603 — Cornelis Venema, Augustine and Pelagius
8. Episode 578 — Carl Trueman, Luther and Zwingli at Marburg
9. Episode 619 — Alan Strange and Brian DeJong, The Orthodox Presbyterian Church and the United Reformed Churches in North America
10. Episode 613 — Will Wood, Schools of Biblical Criticism

Participants: Alan Strange, Bracy Hill, Brian DeJong, Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Christopher Watkin, Cornelis Venema, Glen Clary, Will Wood

Carl Trueman joins us to speak about Socinianism, a non-Trinitarian system of doctrine that arose out of the Radical Reformation and developed in Poland during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was named for the Italian uncle/nephew tandem of Lelio and Fausto Sozzini (Latin: Socinus). While the label is not commonly used in our current historical context, Socinianism developed into contemporary Unitarianism. The Socinian system of doctrine is summarized in The Racovian Catechism.

Dr. Carl Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College in Grove City, Pennsylvania and the author of numerous books, including The Creedal Imperative. Along with Aimee Byrd and Todd Pruitt, he is a contributor to the Mortification of Spin podcast.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jim Cassidy

Carl Trueman speaks about the Marburg Colloquy, a meeting called by Philip I of Hesse to unite the Protestant states in a political alliance. To accomplish such a union, he sought theological agreement between Martin Luther and Ulrich Zwingli. While Luther and Zwingli could agree on fourteen theological points laid out at the meeting, they could not come to terms on the real presence of Christ in the Lord’s Supper.

Dr. Trueman is professor of biblical and religious studies at Grove City College.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jeff Waddington

This week we’re at The Gospel Coalition 2017 Conference in Indianapolis, Indiana. We’re meeting many new people and telling them about our mission to assist the Church in her call to discipleship. With a host of new listeners, I wanted to release a special welcome episode into our podcast feed and provide a short introduction to what we do here at Reformed Forum.

We’ve been podcasting since January 2008. Our flagship program, Christ the Center, has released a new episode every Friday since that first episode was released over nine years ago. We’ve just published our first book No Uncertain Sound, which plants a flag for our distinctive confessional Reformed theology. We are unabashed in promoting historic Protestantism in the tradition of the Westminster Standards and the three forms of unity: the Canons of Dort, the Belgic Confession, and the Heidelberg Catechism. We believe this important, since we live in an age of broad and often pragmatic evangelicalism. We’re promoting something substantial and enduring.

But even beyond our confessional tradition, we specifically advance theology in the tradition of Geerhardus Vos and Cornelius Van Til. We’ve detailed all of this in our book No Uncertain Sound. We hope you pick up a copy and fall in love with this rich theology arising from a redemptive-historical hermeneutic.

At the end of the episode, we include a portion of Christ the Center episode 378 with Dr. Carl Trueman. In this episode, we speak about Dr. Trueman’s book Luther on the Christian Life, in which he paints a portrait of Martin Luther through his historical context, theological system, and approach to the Christian life. Luther is often treated in a black-and-white fashion or exclusively through his succinct theological quips and mottoes. Trueman helps us to see the practical and pastoral context in which Luther lived and ministered and thereby grants to us a better understanding of both the man and his theology.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jim Cassidy

• 370 — Donald Macleod, Understanding the Atonement
• 373 — Rita Cefalu, The Sons of God and Daughters of Man in Genesis 6
• 376 — Vern Poythress, Redeeming Mathematics
• 378 — Carl Trueman, Luther on the Christian Life
• 391 — Chris Castaldo, Talking with Catholics about the Gospel
• 393 — Tony Reinke, Newton on the Christian Life
• 398 — Bill Edgar, The History and Legacy of the Huguenots
• 400 — Jim Cassidy, Jeff Waddington, and Camden Bucey, Polemical Theology
• 403 — Kevin Chiarot, The Unassumed Is the Unhealed
• 408 — Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., The Eschatological Aspect of the Pauline Conception of the Spirit
• 411 — Daniel Strange, A Theology of Religions
• 415 — John Bolt, Bavinck on the Christian Life

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Chris Castaldo, Daniel Strange, Donald Macleod, Jared Oliphint, Jeff Waddington, Jim Cassidy, John Bolt, Kevin Chiarot, Richard B. Gaffin Jr., Rita Cefalu, Tony Reinke, Vern Poythress, William Edgar

Dr. Carl Trueman joins us to speak about his book Luther on the Christian Life, in which he paints a portrait of Martin Luther through his historical context, theological system, and approach to the Christian life. Luther is often treated in a black-and-white fashion or exclusively through his succinct theological quips and mottoes. Trueman helps us to see the practical and pastoral context in which Luther lived and ministered and thereby grants to us a better understanding of both the man and his theology.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jim Cassidy

• Ep. 265 – Gospels Harmonization with Vern Poythress
• Ep. 267 – The Reorganization of Old Princeton with Darryl G. Hart
• Ep. 268 – Regeneration and Redemption-History with Scott Wright
• Ep. 270 – Calvin’s Company of Pastors with Scott Manetsch
• Ep. 273 – Francis Schaeffer’s Spirituality with William Edgar
• Ep. 274 – The Plan of Salvation with Lane Tipton
• Ep. 277 – What Every Christian Needs to Know about the Qu’ran with James White
• Ep. 281 – The Polemical Theology of the Old Testament with John Currid
• Ep. 289 – Covenantal Apologetics with K. Scott Oliphint
• Ep. 291 – The DSM-V with Mike Emlet
• Ep. 299 – Jesus on Every Page with David P. Murray
• Ep. 300 – Communicating the Gospel through Hip Hop with Timothy Brindle
• Ep. 307 – Definite Atonement with Jonathan Gibson, David Gibson, and Carl Trueman

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Carlton Wynne, Darryl G. Hart, David Gibson, David Murray, James White, Jared Oliphint, Jim Cassidy, John Currid, Jonathan Gibson, K. Scott Oliphint, Lane G. Tipton, Michael Emlet, Nick Batzig, Scott Manetsch, Scott R. Wright, Timothy Brindle, Vern Poythress, William Edgar

The doctrine of definite atonement is the subject of this week’s episode, which features guests David Gibson and Jonathan Gibson, editors of the forthcoming From Heaven He Came and Sought Her: Definite Atonement in Historical, Biblical, Theological, and Pastoral Perspective (Crossway), and Carl Trueman, a contributor to the book and former guest on Christ the Center. The 700-page book features essays from twenty-one scholars and pastors and is intended to be a definitive treatment of the topic. In the episode, we consider definite atonement in church history, in the scriptural witness, in relation to the doctrine of the trinity, with a view to common objections. David Gibson ministers at Trinity Church in Aberdeen, Scotland and received his Ph.D. from the University of Aberdeen. Gibson has also written Rich: The Reality of Encountering Jesus and Reading the Decree: Exegesis, Election and Christology in Calvin and Barth. Jonathan Gibson is currently working on a Ph.D. in Hebrew Studies at Cambridge University. He studied at Moore Theological College, in Sydney, Australia, and has been published in Themelios, in the Journal of Biblical Literature, and in the NIV Proclamation Bible.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, David Gibson, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Gibson

Christ the Center is pleased to welcome Dr. Scott Manetsch to the program to speak about Reformed pastoral ministry and his book Calvin’s Company of Pastors: Pastoral Care and the Emerging Reformed Church, 1536-1609, which is published by Oxford University Press. Dr. Manetsch is Professor of Church History at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School and his scholarly expertise is in the area of late medieval and Reformation history, with particular interest in Calvin and French Protestantism, Theodore Beza, sixteenth-century Geneva, church discipline, and pastoral ministry in the Reformation era. Listen to this fascinating discussion of pastoral life in late 16th and early 17th century Geneva.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jim Cassidy, Scott Manetsch

On this episode, we welcome Rev. Dr. Carl R. Trueman to discuss the important role of creeds and confessions in the church through his book The Creedal Imperative. Dr. Trueman is the Paul Woolley Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary and Pastor of Cornerstone Orthodox Presbyterian Church in Ambler, PA. Dr. Trueman brings his critical thought and historic sensitivity to this important plea to many conservative evangelicals.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jared Oliphint

Dr. Carl Trueman joins us once again for an exciting conversation of issues in the contemporary church. Today, we discuss Dr. Trueman’s latest book Fools Rush in Where Monkeys Fear to Tread (P&R Publishing), a collection of essays originally appearing at Reformation21.org. Dr. Trueman leads us in a critical look at at the contemporary church with his characteristic wit and historical sensitivity.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman

• Episode 156 – Darryl Hart on Machen, Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia, and the OPC
• Episode 160 – Carl Trueman on historiography
• Episode 161 – Winston Smith on marriage as a picture of Christ’s relation to the Church
• Episode 162 – Mark A. Garcia on the justification landscape
• Episode 163 – K. Scott Oliphint on Gordon Clark, Cornelius Van Til, the Trinity, and logic
• Episode 185 – James Dolezal on the doctrine of divine simplicity
• Episode 192 – Sandy Finlayson on the founding of the Free Church of Scotland
• Episode 200 – Lane Tipton on various Lutheran theologies of justification
• Episode 203 – Jim Cassidy on Van Til’s criticism of Barth
• Episode 206 – Kevin DeYoung on holiness, antinomianism, and neo-nomianism

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Darryl G. Hart, James Dolezal, Jim Cassidy, K. Scott Oliphint, Lane G. Tipton, Mark Garcia, Sandy Finlayson, Winston Smith

Dr. Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, describes the historical context leading up to the creation of the King James Bible. This year marks the 400th anniversary of the influential translation, and Dr. Trueman has appeared in a film detailing its birth. The movie, KJB: The Book that Changed the World is wonderfully done. Join us for this fascinating discussion of this incredibly influential translation.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman

Christ the Center is very pleased to welcome Sandy Finlayson to the program to discuss his book Unity & Diversity: The Founders of the Free Church of Scotland. Mr. Finlayson is Professor of Theological Bibliography and Director of Library Services at Westminster Theological Seminary. The book is a wonderful perspective to the history of the Free Church as it presents stimulating and readable biographies of many key figures surrounding the founding of the Free Church of Scotland. This discussion is thoroughly enjoyable.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Sandy Finlayson

Dr. Carl Trueman, Professor of Historical Theology and Church History at Westminster Theological Seminary, returns to Christ the Center to speak about the republication of his book The Reformation: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Dr. Trueman speaks about the abiding significance of the Reformation even today as he adroitly describes its salient features and applies them to the contemporary church. Trueman’s insights are truly a joy to hear.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jared Oliphint

Carl Trueman comes on to discuss his recent book, Histories and Fallacies: Problems Faced in the Writing of History, and other issues relating to historiography and a philosophy of history.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

• Episode 113 – Richard Gaffin
• Episode 130 – Darryl Hart
• Episode 134 – Chad Van Dixhoorn
• Episode 138 – Dan Kunkle
• Episode 140 – K. Scott Oliphint
• Episode 144 – Danny Olinger
• Episode 145 – John Fesko
• Episode 146 – Peter Lillback and Carl Trueman

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Chad Van Dixhoorn, Daniel Kunkle, Danny Olinger, Darryl G. Hart, Jared Oliphint, Jeff Waddington, Jim Cassidy, Jonathan Brack, K. Scott Oliphint, Nick Batzig, Peter A. Lillback, Richard B. Gaffin Jr.

Links

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jared Oliphint, Peter A. Lillback

Carl Trueman visits the program to discuss his much anticipated book Republocrat: Confessions of a Liberal Conservative. Relishing the outsider role, Englishman Trueman provides a helpful critique regarding the current state of American politics. With sections devoted to the lost liberal cause, personality cults, and FoxNews, to name a few, this book is as enjoyable as it is insightful. The foreword by Peter Lillback sets the stage for this sharp, yet humorous work. Republocrat will be available from the Westminster Bookstore.

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jared Oliphint, Jonathan Brack

Books by Carl Trueman

• Luther’s Legacy: Salvation and English Reformers, 1525–1556
• Minority Report: Unpopular Thoughts on Everything from Ancient Christianity to Zen Calvinism
• The Claims of Truth: John Owen’s Trinitarian Theology
• John Owen: Reformed Catholic, Renaissance Man
• Wages of Spin: Critical Writings on Historic and Contemporary Evangelicalism

Links

• Dr. Trueman’s articles and posts at Reformation21.
• Themelios
• Carl Trueman fan page on Facebook (this is just plain humorous)

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Nick Batzig

Panel

• Greg Beale
• Carl Trueman
• Jeff Waddington
• Nick Batzig
• Camden Bucey

Bibliography

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Greg Beale, Jeff Waddington, Nick Batzig

Panel

• Carl Trueman
• Nick Batzig
• Jeff Waddington
• Camden Bucey

Bibliography

Participants: Camden Bucey, Carl Trueman, Jeff Waddington, Nick Batzig