Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Blogs

  1. Mark Movsesian writes on the latest Bonhoeffer biography, Strange Glory, at First Things.

  2. Thomas Kidd celebrates five years of Patheos with a roundup of his top five Anxious Bench posts. Also, make sure and sign up for his weekly newsletter.

  3. Check out John Fea’s recent interview with Todd Brenneman based on his new book Homespun Gospel: The Triumph of Sentimentality in Contemporary American Evangelicalism(Oxford University Press, December 2013).

  4. Learn about the influential systematic theologian John Murray.

  5. Check out this odd but interesting piece on “A Short History of Christian Matchmaking” by Paul Putz.

  6. American Puritanism and pop culture intersect on Books and Culture in “Cotton Mather and Uppity Women.”

  7. Douglas Bond posts on “Isaac Watts: A Child Poet” over on the Ligonier blog.

  8. Justin Taylor highlights a new book due out in October by Thomas Kidd in “George Whitefield: Lessons from Eighteenth Century’s Greatest Evangelist.”

  9. See the latest from Tom Nettles on The Founder’s Blog, “Fuller and Irresistible Grace: The Necessity of Regeneration as Prior to Repentance and Faith.”

Recent Book Releases

  1. Apollinarianism: An Essay on the Christology of the Early Church by Charles E. Raven.

  2. Original Bishops, The: Office and Order in the First Christian Communities by Alistair C. Stewart.

  3. Clothing the Clergy: Virtue and Power in Medieval Europe, c. 800-1200 by Maureen C. Miller.

  4. He Leadeth Me by Walter J. Ciszek S.J. and Daniel L. Flaherty S.J.

  5. The Pillars of Priestcraft Shaken: The Church of England and its Enemies, 1660-1730 (Cambridge Studies in Early Modern British History) by J. A. I. Champion.

From the Fuller Center

  1. Junior Fellow, Evan Burns, highlights Adoniram Judson’s piety amidst grief in “To Hold Myself in Readiness.”

  2. Don’t forget to check out our "Whitefield & the Great Awakening" conference page.

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

“To Hold Myself in Readiness”

By Evan D. Burns

In 1826, God’s bitter providence had called Ann Judson to her heavenly home and left Adoniram Judson to mourn and continue on in his missionary labor.  After her death, in a letter on December 7, 1826, to Ann’s mother, Adoniram’s heavenly-minded piety shone through the dark night:

I will not trouble you, my dear mother, with an account of my own private feelings—the bitter, heart-rending anguish which for some days would admit of no mitigation, and the comfort which the Gospel subsequently afforded—the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which brings life and immortality to light.  Blessed assurance—and let us apply it afresh to our hearts—that, while I am writing and you perusing these lines, her spirit is resting and rejoicing in the heavenly paradise—

“Where glories shine, and pleasures roll That charm, delight, transport the soul, And every panting wish shall be Possessed of boundless bliss in Thee.”[1]

And there, my dear mother, we also shall soon be, uniting and participating in the felicities of heaven with her for whom we now mourn.  Amen.  Even so come, Lord Jesus.[2]

Approximately six months after Ann’s death, their two-year old daughter Maria was also called home.  In a letter to Ann’s mother on April 26, 1827, Judson recounted his horrible grief and his heavenly hope.

All our efforts, and prayers, and tears could not propitiate the cruel disease; the work of death went forward, and after the usual process, excruciating to a parent’s heart, she ceased to breathe…. The next morning we made her last bed in the small enclosure that surrounds her mother’s lonely grave.  Together they rest in hope, under the hope tree, which stands at the head of the graves; and together, I trust, their spirits are rejoicing after a short separation of precisely six months.  And, I am left alone in the wide world.  My own dear family I have buried; one in Rangoon and two in Amherst.  What remains for me but to hold myself in readiness to follow the dear departed to that blessed world, “Where my best friends, my kindred, dwell, where God my Saviour reigns?”[3]

[1]From a hymn by Isaac Watts.

[2]Middleditch, Burmah’s Great, 222;  Wayland, Memoir, 1:420-421.

[3]Middleditch, Burmah’s Great, 230.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Registration is now open for “Whitefield & the Great Awakening,” a conference of the AFCBS. The conference will run October 21–22 on the beautiful campus of Southern Seminary. Find out more here.

Also, take an associated course with Dr. Michael Haykin and receive Master’s level course credit. Conference registration is included with tuition.

Blogs

  1. Fred Sanders reflects on this week’s Future of Protestantism debate with Prescriptions for Protestants.

  2. Video from Wheaton College’s recent conference, “The Spirit of God: Christian Renewal in the Community of Faith, have now been made available online. There are several sessions that may peak your historical interest.

  3. On Doctrina Coram Deo, Shawn Wilhite reviews Rowan Greer’s Captain of Our Salvation: A Study in the Patristic Exegesis of Hebrews.

  4. Sharon James writes on “The Life and Significance of Ann Hasseltine Judson (1789-1826)” in the recent issue of SBTS Journal of Missions.

  5. On The Church Society blog, Simon Tomkins cleverly presents “An interview with the Archbishop of Canterbury.”

  6. Check out this “Coffee Table Talk at the Café Einstein Stammhaus in Berlin” about the study of early Christianity at Marginalia Review of Books.

  7. Check out John Fea’s recent interview of Luke Harlow based on his forthcoming book, Religion, Race, and the Making of Confederate Kentucky (Cambridge University Press, May 2014).

  8. Also, check out John Fea’s upcoming project writing a history of the American Bible Society.

  9. Check out this post on the Crossway Blog, “Martyn Lloyd-Jones: The World’s Best Grandfather.”

  10. Finally, on the Founder’s Blog, check out two posts by Tom Nettles, “Fuller the Non-Calvinist” and “Fullerite: the Doctrine of Inability.”

Recent Book Releases

  1. John Calvin as Sixteenth-Century Prophet by Jon Balserak. Oxford.

  2. Strange Glory: A Life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer by Charles Marsh. Knopf.

  3. The Letters of Heloise and Abelard: A Translation of Their Collected Correspondence and Related Writings (New Middle Ages), ed. Mary Martin McLaughlin and Bonnie Wheeler. New Middle Ages.

  4. While not a recent release, Steve Weaver informs us as to how some copies of Jonathan Arnold’s, The Reformed Theology of Benjamin Keach (1640-1704) have been made available to those of us on this side of the pond.

From the Fuller Center

  1. Steve Weaver announces that registration is now open for the Fuller Center’s Fall conference on “George Whitefield and the Great Awakening.”

  2. Contributor Evan Burns posts on Adoniram Judson’s declaration that “The Best of All Is, God With Us.”

  3. Also, Michael Haykin presents “Andrew Fuller on the extent of the atonement: A surrejoinder to Drs. Allen and Caner.”

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

Registration Now Open for "Whitefield & the Great Awakening"

By Steve Weaver

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Registration is now open for this year's conference on George Whitefield and the Great Awakening. This will be the eighth annual conference of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at Southern Seminary and it promises to be one of the best. The conference speakers are some of the top scholars who have published on George Whitefield and the Great Awakening. The conference schedule is packed with excellent topics being addressed by the most well-respected authors on Whitefield. The parallel sessions are filled with excellent papers by accomplished scholars.

The conference will be a tercentenary celebration of the birth of Whitefield, occurring as it does on the 300th anniversary of the year of his birth.  This year will also mark the release of a major new work on Whitefield by Thomas S. Kidd to be published by Yale University Press, hopefully in time for the conference.

I am sure there will be no better celebration of George Whitefield and the Great Awakening anywhere else in 2014. Make plans to join us in Louisville, Kentucky on October 21-22 for a concentrated two days focused on George Whitefield and his legacy.

Register now!

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Steve Weaver serves as a research assistant to the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies and a fellow of the Center. He also serves as senior pastor of Farmdale Baptist Church in Frankfort, KY. Steve and his wife Gretta have six children.

“The Best of All Is, God Is With Us”

By Evan D. Burns

Adoniram Judson, after many years of pain and thankless labor, witnessed the death of the chief of the Karen people in Burma.  Most deaths led to sadness because they died without the light of the gospel of Christ (since the Bible was still being translated).  But this death was different than most; this Karen chief died in the Lord.  After witnessing the old dying chief’s conversion and baptism, the mysterious providences that clouded Judson’s life and labors didn’t seem so inscrutable anymore.  Judson rejoiced with the chief that God is indeed with us.  Judson wrote:

The dying words of an aged man of God, when he raised his withered, death-struck arm, and exclaimed, “The best of all is, God is with us.”  I feel in my very soul. Yes, the great Invisible is in these Karen wilds.  That mighty Being, who heaped up these craggy rocks, and reared these stupendous mountains, and poured out these streams in all directions, and scattered immortal beings throughout these deserts—he is present by the influence of his Holy Spirit, and accompanies the sound of the Gospel with converting, sanctifying power.  “The best of all is, God is with us.”

“In these deserts let me labor, On these mountains let me tell How he died—the blessed Saviour, To redeem a world from hell.”[1]

[1]Middleditch, Burmah’s Great, 294.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

Andrew Fuller on the extent of the atonement: A surrejoinder to Drs. Allen and Caner

By Michael A.G. Haykin

I suspect it is a sign of Andrew Fuller’s greatness as a theologian that his thought should occasion differing interpretations. Because of this, the blogosphere (let alone other social media like Facebook and Twitter) is not the best of places to carry on the sort of discussion that drills down into the depths of his thought. Such a conversation is best carried on in face-to-face discussions or through such media as monographs and academic articles.

This being said, let me make one final response to Drs David Allen and Emir Caner regarding their interpretation of Fuller. First of all, let me say that I am very thankful for the thoughtful response of Dr David Allen (“Gaining a Fuller Understanding: Responding to Dr. Michael Haykin”, SBC Today) to my earlier comments on an article by Dr Emir Caner that included a discussion of Andrew Fuller’s Calvinist soteriology (“Historical Southern Baptist Soteriology, pt. 2/3: What Were the Early SBC Leaders’ View of Salvation?”, SBC Today. He is obviously drawing upon his extensive article on “The Atonement: Limited or Universal” in his and Steve W. Lemke, eds., Whosoever Will: A Biblical-Theological Critique of Five-Point Calvinism (Nashville, TN: B&H, 2010), 61–107, where he actually refers to Fuller on three occasions. This background to Allen’s remarks may well explain elements of his reply to me: he perceives there to be theological and biblical issues at stake and he is eager to recruit Fuller to defend his position on those theological and biblical issues.

I, on the other hand, am approaching Fuller as an historian: I am not uninterested in the theological and biblical issues, but my main approach to Fuller is as an historian. I really want to understand what he is saying and why and how his historical context shapes his interaction with Scripture. To that end, in addition to reading Fuller’s thoughts, secondary sources beyond Peter Morden’s fine study of Fuller—Offering Christ to the World (Paternoster, 2003), which Caner quotes at second-hand from a piece by Allen—like Gerald L. Priest, “Andrew Fuller, Hyper-Calvinism, and the ‘Modern Question’ ” in my ed., ‘At the Pure Fountain of Thy Word’: Andrew Fuller as an Apologist (Paternoster, 2004), 43–73; Chris Chun, The Legacy of Jonathan Edwards in the Theology of Andrew Fuller (Brill, 2012), 142–182; and especially Geoffrey F. Nuttall, “Northamptonshire and The Modern Question: A Turning-Point in Eighteenth-Century Dissent”, Journal of Theological Studies, ns, 16 (1965), 101–123 are absolutely vital to read before pronouncing any sort of magisterial interpretation of Fuller on the convoluted issue of the atonement. For my own take, on this question, see “Particular Redemption in the Writings of Andrew Fuller (1754–1815)” in David Bebbington, ed., The Gospel in the World: International Baptist Studies (Studies in Baptist History and Thought, vol.1; Carlisle, Cumbria/Waynesboro, Georgia: Paternoster Press, 2002), 107–128. So: I am writing as an historian, not as a biblical theologian. I am not trying to elucidate what the New Testament says about this issue, but understand what Fuller believed. The question of whether he was right or wrong is another issue as is the question of whether Southern Baptists are his heirs etc.

To read my 4+ page response in its entirety, please download the full PDF here.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Happy Birthday to Oliver Cromwell who was born April 25, 1599. Check out a former post by Michael Haykin on Cromwell, “Religious Freedom: Historical Highlights & Patterns. Part 1: The Puritans and Oliver Cromwell,” or his book, To Honour God: the spirituality of Oliver Cromwell.

Blogs

  1. On Euangelion, Michael Bird posts a recent lecture by Diarmaid MacCulloch entitled, “What if Arianism Had Won?”

  2. David Murray lists “Top Ten Biographies of Men” and “Top Ten Biographies of Christian Women” on his blog, HeadHeartHand.org.

  3. On First Things, in a post entitled “What’s the Bible For?,” Peter Leithart interacts with a recent article by Mathew Levering on Augustine’s understanding of the Spirit as “love” and “gift.”

  4. Miles Mullins writes on the important concept of “Christian Humility? In Academia?” on The Anxious Bench.

  5. Also on The Anxious Bench, John Turner begins a series on the role of visions in the history of Christianity with “Eucharistic Visionaries.”

  6. On the Founders blog, Tom Nettles discusses Ann Judson’s conversion to Baptist principles in “Truth compelled us to be.”

  7. Paul Helm posts “The many dimensions of Calvinism – again” on his blog, Helm’s Deep.

  8. Fuller Center Jr. Fellow Ian Clary weighs in on a recent debate with “Fuller and the Atonement” on the City of God blog.

  9. The most recent edition of Themelios, associated with The Gospel Coalition, has dropped and includes an article by Collin Hansen, “Revival Defined and Defended: How the New Lights Tried and Failed to Use America’s First Religious Periodical to Quiet Critics and Quell Radicals” and another by Ryan Van Neste, “The Care of Souls: The Heart of the Reformation.” Also, check out the smattering of book reviews on History and Historical Theology.

  10. Finally, on the American Historical Association blog, Vanessa Varin offers advice we can all use in “Spring Cleaning: 5 Tips for Being a More Organized Historian.”

Recent Book Releases

  1. Kevin Belmonte, D.L. Moody - A Life: Innovator, Evangelist, World Changer. Moody.

  2. John Bowlin ed., The Kuyper Center Review, volume 4: Calvinism and Democracy, Eerdmans.

  3. Roger Williams, Bishop Lists: Formation of Apostolic Succession of Bishops in Ecclesiastical Crises, Gorgias Press.

  4. Paul Figueras, An Introduction to Early Christianity, Gorgias Press.

  5. David Bebbington, The Nonconformist Conscience (Routledge Library Editions: Political Science Volume 19), Routledge. Now in Kindle.

  6. Timothy Furry, Allegorizing History: The Venerable Bede, Figural Exegesis and Historical Theory, Timothy Clarke & Co.

  7. Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Heretics (KNOW Series), Zondervan.

  8. Justin S. Holcomb, Know the Creeds and Councils (KNOW Series), Zondervan.

From the Fuller Center

  1. Contributor Evan Burns highlights Fuller’s Edwardsean roots in “The Sum of All These Rewards.”

  2. Michael Haykin offers a rejoinder to Emir Caner’s recent post on SBC Today in “Andrew Fuller’s Calvinist soteriology: a brief response to Emir Caner.” Make sure and check out the comments.

  3. Michael Haykin also provides a “Reading Plan for the Latin Fathers (April-June 2014).”

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

_______________

Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

“The Sum of All These Rewards”

By Evan D. Burns

In “Love to God and Divine Things for Their Own Excellency,” Andrew Fuller muses on the pleasures of loving and pursuing God. In very Edwardsean language, Fuller upholds the duty of delighting in God as the soul’s highest joy.

The gospel undoubtedly holds up rewards to stimulate us to duty, rewards addressed to our emulation and thirst of happiness; and if the deists on this account reproach it as a selfish theory, I have no doubt but their reproach is groundless. The gospel ought not to be denominated a selfish theory because it inculcates a regard to ourselves. If, however, it could be proved that we are there taught so to pursue our own interest as that the glory of God shall not be regarded as a supreme, but as a subordinate end, the charge were just. But the rewards contained in the gospel convey no such idea as this, for the following plain reason:—The sum of all these rewards is God himself. Grace and glory are only God’s communications of himself. Hence it follows that such rewards, properly pursued, instead of excluding supreme love to God for what he is in himself, necessarily imply it. Without such a love, as hath been already observed, it is impossible in any right manner to seek either his approbation or blessing.[1]

[1]Andrew Gunton Fuller, The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, Volume 2: Controversial Publications, ed. Joseph Belcher (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 728.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

“Andrew Fuller’s Calvinist soteriology: a brief response to Emir Caner”

By Michael A.G. Haykin

It was extremely gratifying to see Andrew Fuller (1754–1815) cited as a vital theologian at the onset of the modern missionary movement in Dr. Emir Caner’s recent piece on “Historical Southern Baptist Soteriology” that appeared on the SBC Today website. Usually when Baptists are considered in this regard, the name of William Carey (1761–1834) alone receives mention, and Fuller, who was the theological muscle behind Carey, is forgotten. There were, however, some surprising aspects to Caner’s treatment of Fuller, especially as it relates to Fuller’s Calvinist soteriology. According to the article, Fuller really cannot be considered a Calvinist (something that, by the way, would warm the cockles of the hearts of hyper-Calvinist critics of Fuller like William Gadsby). By 1801, Caner reckons that Fuller had given up the concept of particular redemption for a general redemption, affirmed that “faith is not a gift from God,” and rejected “Total Depravity as articulated by some of his contemporary High [that is, hyper-] Calvinists.”

To read my response in its entirety, please download the full PDF here.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Reading Plan for the Latin Fathers (April-June 2014)

By Michael A.G. Haykin

April 19–26     Read Tertullian’s Against Praxeas Question: What are Tertullian’s main arguments against modalism and how does he anticipate the later Trinitarian formula “three persons in one being”?

April 27–30     Read Cyprian, To Donatus Question: Outline Cyprian’s understanding of conversion.

May 1–7          Read Cyprian, On the Unity of the Catholic Church Question: What are the marks of the true church according to Cyprian and how does he substantiate his view?

May 8­–15        Read Novatian, On the Trinity Question: How does Novatian show from Scripture that Jesus is God?

May 16–23      Read Hilary of Poitiers, On the Trinity, Book 1 Question: Outline Hilary’s conversion.

May 24–31      Read Augustine, Confessions (the whole book) Question: Outline the way that Augustine depicts God as The Beautiful.

June 1–7          Read Augustine, City of God 1.1–36; 4.1–4; 11.1–4; 12.4–9; 13.1–24; 14.1–28; 15.1–2; 20.1–30; 21.1–2; 22.8–9; 22.29–30 Question: What is Augustine’s understanding of history?

June 8–15        Read Patrick, Confession Question: What is Patrick’s understanding of the missionary call?

Download the Reading Plan for the Latin Fathers (PDF)

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Blogs

  1. Over at First Things, check out Stephen Webb’s review of Heavenly Participation: The Weaving of a Sacramental Tapestry by Hans Boersma.

  2. Readthefathers.org has a series of Holy Week readings taken from the Church Fathers. Check out their first post, “Lectures for Holy Week: The Procatachesis of Cyril of Jerusalem.”

  3. At ChurchHistory.org, Thomas Kidd writes “Jefferson Versus the Historians, or Barton Versus the Historians? Thomas Kidd Responds to Arthur Sherr.”

  4. On The Christian Century blog, James Bratt reviews Daryl’s Hart Calvinism: A History.

  5. Over at The Anxious Bench, John Turner ties together recent events with early Christian history in “The Passions of Perpetua and Frans van der Lugt.”

  6. Also at The Anxious Bench, check out Thomas Albert Howard’s post, “That’s So Dys-Evangelical.”

  7. On NT Exegesis, Brian Renshaw posts a “Maundy Thursday – A Reflection from Augustine.”

  8. John Fea, on The Way of Improvement Leads Home, has a video from a recent OAH panel discussion addressing the question “Is Blogging Scholarship?”

Recent Book Releases

  1. Bryan Loritts, ed., Letters to a Birmingham Jail: A Response to the Words and Dreams of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Moody.

  2. Sarah Rolfe Prodan, Michelangelo’s Christian Mysticism: Sprituality, Poetry, and Art in Sixteenth-Century Italy. Cambridge.

  3. St. Epiphanius of Cyrpus, Ancoratus (Fathers of the Church). The Catholic University of America Press.

  4. Stephen Cox, American Christianity: The Continuing Revolution. University of Texas Press.

  5. Richard Allen, David Jones, and Trystan Hughes, The Religious History of Wales. Welsh Academic Press.

From the Fuller Center

  1. Contributor Evan Burns discusses a Fuller sermon in “The Children of the Resurrection.”

  2. Ryan Hoselton posts on “William Ames’ Holy Logic.”

  3. Michael Haykin highlights “An excellent comment by Andrew Atherstone on reading history.”

  4. Also on the blog, Michael Haykin posts a reflection on the recent passing of Dr. Rowan Greer.

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

"The Children of the Resurrection"

By Evan D. Burns

In “The Magnitude of the Heavenly Inheritance,” Andrew Fuller exposited Romans 8:18-23 on the hope of resurrection.  He made the following three main points:

I. Such is the magnitude of the glory to be revealed in us, that the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared with it.

II. Such is the magnitude of the glory to be revealed in us at the resurrection, that its influence extends to the whole creation.

III. Such is the magnitude of the glory to be revealed in us at the resurrection, that those Christians who have possessed the highest enjoyments in this world were not satisfied with them, but groaned within themselves, waiting for the possession of it.

And then he concluded his sermon with this great meditation on the joy and anticipation of the Christian’s future resurrection:

The terms by which the resurrection of believers is expressed, namely, “the adoption,” and “the redemption of our body,” serve to heighten our ideas of the glorious event…..  From the day they received the Saviour, they received power to become the sons of God; the Lord Almighty, as by a judicial act and deed, put them among his children; but still, the body being doomed to die because of sin, till this dishonour is wiped away there is something wanting to complete the execution of the deed. Our vile body must be changed, and fashioned like unto Christ’s glorious body, ere we can be actually and fully introduced into the heavenly family. We must put on immortality, before we shall be fit company for immortals. We must be made equal to the angels, ere we can associate with angels. Finally, To be completely “the children of God,” we must be “the children of the resurrection.”

Similar observations might be made on the term redemption, as here applied to the resurrection of the body. This term as familiarized to Christians by the apostolic writings. They had “redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins;” but here the word is used in a new sense, denoting the last act of deliverance, even that of the body, from under the thraldom of death and the imprisonment of the grave. It is in reference to this last act of deliverance that Christ is said to be “made unto us—redemption.”  The redemption of our souls by his blood preceded his being made unto us wisdom, or righteousness, or sanctification; but the redemption of our body, as being the last act of deliverance, succeeds them. The body is a part of Christ’s purchase as really as the soul. It is on this principle that the Corinthians were dissuaded from polluting it by fornication: “Ye are not your own, but bought with a price; therefore glorify God in your body, and in your spirit, which are God’s.” The resurrection of the body, therefore, is the recovery of the last part of the Redeemer’s purchase, signified by that expressive sentence, so often repeated, “I will raise it up at the last day.”

This is the glory which shall be revealed in us, with which the sufferings of the present time are not worthy to be compared: this is the great crisis of creation, to which all that precedes it tends, as to its last end; and the result to which believers, who have possessed the richest communications of grace in this life, look with earnest expectation.[1]

[1] Andrew Gunton Fuller, The Complete Works of Andrew Fuller, Volume 1: Memoirs, Sermons, Etc., ed. Joseph Belcher (Harrisonburg, VA: Sprinkle Publications, 1988), 340-41.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

William Ames’s Holy Logic

By Ryan Patrick Hoselton

One of the few things I remember from my freshman philosophy class is learning about the syllogism. The syllogism is a logical tool used to deduce a conclusion from a major and minor premise (for example: A: All students wear red. B: John is a student. C: Therefore, John wears red). You’ve probably seen it before, but have you seen it used as a formula for holy living?

The Puritan theologian William Ames (1576–1633) believed that the syllogism—when used rightly—offered considerable moral guidance, for it contained the “force and nature of conscience (I.3).”[1] Ames defined the human conscience as “man’s judgment of himself, according to the judgment of God of him (I.1).” The syllogism provided the means for the conscience’s operation of accusing, excusing, and comforting the moral agent. It consists of three elements:

  1. The Proposition: The proposition fulfills the role of the major premise. The Latin term Ames employed is synteresis, meaning a source for principles of moral action.Ames also referred to the proposition as a “light” and a “law.” God’s will and commandments furnish this “storehouse of principles.” While nature can often lead men and women in moral living, God’s revealed will is the only perfect rule of conscience, illuminating mankind’s moral duty (I.4–7).

  2. The Witness: the witness, which Ames also termed the “index,” “book,” “review,” or “assumption,” functions as the minor proposition. The witness is a subjective statement about the self for the purpose of considering one’s moral condition in reference to the proposition. It measures the moral agent alongside the law. The moral state of the human will is compared with the standard of God’s will (I.21–25).

  3. The Conclusion: the conclusion, also referred to as the “judgment,” derives partly from the proposition and partly from the witness. In the conclusion, “God’s commandment and man’s fact are mutually joined together.” The conclusion passes the sentence, or “application,” of either comfort or condemnation for the man or woman in light of the major and minor premises (I.28–32).

In sum, “in the Proposition God’s Law is declared, and in the Assumption, the fact or condition of man is examined, according to that Law; so in the Conclusion, the sentence concerning man is pronounced according to his fact…by virtue of the Law that hath been declared” (I.28).

Ames provides two examples. The first delivers accusation but the second comfort:

1. [A] “He that lives in sin, shall die” [B] “I live in sin” [C] “Therefore, I shall die”

2. [A] “Whoever believes in Christ, shall not die but live” [B] “I believe in Christ” [C] “Therefore, I shall not die but live (I.3)”

For Ames, the objective of the syllogism was to assist men and women in assessing their moral condition in light of God’s commandments and in conforming their wills to God’s will. Ultimately, it shows us how desperately short we fall, pointing to our need to rest faith in the Christ who followed God’s will perfectly.

[1] William Ames, Conscience with the Power and Cases Thereof (London, 1639). You can access the text at this link.

Ryan Patrick Hoseltonis pursuing a ThM at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He lives in Louisville, KY with his wife Jaclyn, and they are the parents of one child.

An excellent comment by Andrew Atherstone on reading history

By Michael A.G. Haykin

In a book review that appeared in the most recent Banner of Truth, Andrew Atherstone, whose work I admire, has this comment regarding Natalie Mears and Alec Ryrie, eds., Worship and the Parish Church in Early Modern Britain (2013)—he is talking about the way the Reformation impacted the Christian in the pew: “The lives of ordinary Christians in the Reformation world were filled with nuance, variety, contradiction and complexity, just as they are today.” So true! Budding historians as well as seasoned authors need to take note.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

A Puritan plea for intolerance and a Puritan imprecatory prayer

By Michael A.G. Haykin

It was Oliver Cromwell who once noted that every sect cries for toleration, but once they have it, they will not give it to any other body of believers. He knew the heart of all too many of his fellow Puritans only too well.

A good example would be Nathaniel Ward (1578–1652), a graduate of that bastion of Puritanism, Emmanuel College at Cambridge, and one of the foremost Puritan ministers in Essex. After Ward came to New England in the 1630s he wrote The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America (London, 1647), in which he refuted the charge that the New England Puritans were “a Colluvies of wild Opinionists” and stated that “all Familists, Antinomians, Anabaptists, and other Enthusiasts [i.s. fanatics], shall have free liberty to keep away from us,” for they were “adversaries of [God’s] truth” and as such deserved no toleration. Ward was convinced that religious toleration was a stratagem of the devil so as to “disstate the truth of God.” In fact, his “heart naturally detested” “tolerations of divers religions, or of one religion in segregant shapes.”

We love the Puritans for many things, but not for this, and we thank God there were other Puritans like Cromwell who were of a different mind.

I have another thing against Ward: he did not like the Irish. He described them as the “very Offal of men, Dregges of Mankind,” and went so far as to pray for the soldiery of Cromwell’s Irish campaign: “Happy is he that shall reward them [the Irish] as they have served us, and Cursed be he that shall do that work of the Lord negligently, Cursed be he that holdeth back his Sword from blood: yea, Cursed bee hee that maketh not his Sword starke drunk with Irish blood” (“A Word of Ireland” in The Simple Cobler of Aggawam in America). He is obviously reacting to stories of Irish atrocities in killing Scots Presbyterians in northern Ireland. But such imprecatory prayers breathe a spirit utterly foreign to the Spirit of Christ.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Dr. Rowan Greer

By Michael A.G. Haykin

One of my scholarly heroes, Dr Rowan Greer, has recently passed away. Here is the official notice, which does not mention the book that deeply shaped the way that I approach Patristic exegesis, The Captain of Our Salvation, his ground-breaking study of the exegesis of Hebrews.

On March 17, 2014, The Rev. Dr. Rowan A. Greer III, Walter H. Gray Professor of Anglican Studies at the Berkeley Divinity School at Yale, died after several years of on-and-off illness. He was 79. Greer taught at Yale for nearly 35 years, and he is remembered for his generous and devoted service to his students.

Although he rarely attended academic conferences, Greer is widely known for his pioneering work in the study of Antiochene Christology, patristic exegesis, and early Christian pastoral ministry, and for his translations of early Christian texts. Greer's Theodore of Mopsuestia: Exegete and Theologian—published four years before his 1965 Yale Ph.D.—is still regarded as a seminal work. His treatment of patristic exegesis in Early Biblical Interpretation (Westminster, 1986, with James Kugel), was for many years a rare introduction to early Christian hermeneutics. And his volume on Origen for the Classics of Western Spirituality Series remains a treasured and much-used book.

Greer’s scholarship was characterized by an approach that integrates theological and social concerns, well before such interdisciplinarity became de rigueur. Building on early works from the 1960s and 1970s, the fullest expression of Greer's approach came in his monograph Broken Lights and Mended Lives: Theology and Common Life in the Early Church (Penn State, 1986), which ranges from classical soteriology to the practicalities of family, hospitality, and Christian politics. Greer’s Christian Hope and Christian Life: Raids on the Inarticulate (Crossroad, 2001), a study of Christian eschatology in Gregory of Nyssa, Augustine, John Donne, and Jeremy Taylor, won the Association of Theological Booksellers’ 2001 Book of the Year. In recent years he published two volumes of translations, The “Belly-Myther” of Endor: Interpretations of 1 Kingdoms 28 in the Early Church (Brill, 2007, with Margaret Mitchell), and Theodore of Mopsuestia’s Commentaries on the Minor Epistles of Paul (Brill, 2010). With the assistance of J. Warren Smith, a final work-in-progress will appear later this year as One Path for All: Gregory of Nyssa on the Christian Life and Human Destiny (Cascade).

A memorial service will be held at Yale Divinity School sometime this fall.

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Michael A.G. Haykin is the director of the Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies. He also serves as Professor of Church History and Biblical Spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dr. Haykin and his wife Alison have two grown children, Victoria and Nigel.

Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Blogs

  1. Justin Taylor highlights “10 Key Events: Fundamentalism and Evangelicalism in 20th Century America” on Between Two Worlds.

  2. Nathan Finn posts on “Ten Reasons to Read Jonathan Edwards” on Between the Times.

  3. On The Gospel Coalition, Derek Rishmawy reviews Calvin on the Christian Life by Michael Horton.

  4. Miles Mullin tells how “History Surprises” at The Anxious Bench.

  5. Also on The Anxious Bench, Thomas Kidd discusses “The Quaker Contribution to Religious Liberty.”

  6. If you missed this video, go on “A tour of the British Isles in accents.”

  7. Also, watch history in the making on the recent PBS special on “The New Calvinism.”

  8. John Fea, on The Way of Improvement Leads Home, highlights a recent interview by Adam Goodheart on his recent book, The Civil War Awakening.

  9. Fea also points to George Marsden’s recent review of a book he edited, Confessing History.

Recent Book Releases

  1. David Garrioch, The Hugenots of Paris and the Coming of Religious Freedom, 1685–1789. Cambridge.

  2. Jonathan Riley­–Smith, The Crusades: A History, 3rd ed.  Bloomsbury Academic.

  3. Alister Chapman, Godly Ambition: John Stott and the Evangelical Movement(paperback). Oxford.

From the Fuller Center

  1. Contributor, Evan Burns, highlights Francis Wayland’s comments on Adoniram Judson in “We Reap on Zion’s Hill.”

  2. Steve Weaver highlights a recent interview Michael Haykin did on the “Always Ready” radio program.

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.

“We Reap on Zion’s Hill”

By Evan D. Burns

After a life consumed in service to Christ, on April 12, 1850, Adoniram Judson entered his heavenly rest.  Judson’s eminent biographer, Francis Wayland, comments on the effect of Judson’s heavenly-minded piety on his life and virtue.

In treating of his religious character, it would be an omission not to refer to his habitual heavenly mindedness. In his letters, I know of no topic that is so frequently referred to as the nearness of the heavenly glory.  If his loved ones died, his consolation was that they should all so soon meet in paradise.  If an untoward event occurred, it was of no great consequence, for soon we should be in heaven, where all such trials would either be forgotten, or where the recollection of them would render our bliss the more intense.  Thither his social feelings pointed, and he was ever thinking of the meeting that awaited him with those who with him had fought the good fight, and were now wearing the crown of victory. So habitual were these trains of thought, that a person well acquainted with him remarks, that “meditation on death was his common solace in all the troubles of life.”  I do not know that the habitual temper of his mind can in any words be so well expressed as in the following lines, which he wrote in pencil on the inner cover of a book that he was using in the compilation of his dictionary:

“—In joy or sorrow, health or pain, Our course be onward still; We sow on Burmah’s barren plain, We reap on Zion’s hill.”[1]

[1]Wayland, Memoir, 2:381-382.

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Evan D. Burns (Ph.D. Candidate, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary) is on faculty at Asia Biblical Theological Seminary, and he lives in Southeast Asia with his wife and twin sons.  They are missionaries with Training Leaders International.

Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta: a weekly roundup of blogs, articles, books, and more

By Dustin Bruce

Blogs

  1. On the Bible Mesh blog, David Roach suggests “6 Ways to Start Learning Church History.”

  2. David Filson follows up on a previous post with “Five More Reasons Why You Should Read Jonathan Edwards,” on The Christward Collective.

  3. Consider getting involved with A Jonathan Edwards Encyclopedia, a project of the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.

  4. Check out “History, Providence, and Good News” by Tom Nettles at the Founders blog.

  5. If you missed it, check out this interesting article from Fox News, “1,300-year-old Egyptian mummy had tattoo of Archangel Michael.”

  6. Thomas Kidd, writing at The Anxious Bench, offers sound advice in “The Art of the Book Review.”

  7. Andreas Kostenberger and Justin Taylor offer a convincing proposal in “April 3, AD 33: Why We Believe We Can Know the Exact Date Jesus Died.”

  8. The Fuller Center’s own Steve Weaver offers helpful tips in “Research Tips for Unfamiliar Topics.”

  9. Check out “David Brainerd Went to the Indians” by Fred Sanders on The Scriptorium Daily.

  10. Listen to Albert Mohler interview Myron Magnet on a fascinating new work, At Home With the Founders.

Recent Book Releases

  1. J.I. Packer, Evangelical Influences: Profiles of Figures and Movements Rooted in the Reformation. Hendrickson.

  2. Christopher Barina Kaiser, Seeing the Lord’s Glory: Kyriocentric Visions and the Dilemma of Early Christology. Fortress.

  3. Richard A. Bailey, Race and Redemption in Puritan New England (paperback). Oxford.

  4. Clemens Leonhard and Hermut Lohr, eds, Literature or Liturgy?: Early Christian Hymns and Prayers in Their Literary and Liturgical Context in Antiquity. Mohr Sieback.

  5. Carol Harrison and Caroline Humfress, eds., Being Christian in Late Antiquity. Oxford.

From the Fuller Center

  1. AFC contributor Evan Burns posts on “Uneducated Ministers?”

  2. The audio from Jason Duesing’s lecture series on Adoniram Judson is now available.

  3. Ian Clary introduces blog readers to “Books At A Glance.”

What did I miss this week?  Share in the comments or on Twitter: @AFCBS or @dustinbruce.

Note: Inclusion of an article, book, or any other form of media on the Historiae ecclesiasticae collecta does not constitute a theological endorsement by the compiler, Michael Haykin, the Andrew Fuller Center or Southern Seminary.

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Dustin Bruce lives in Louisville, KY where he is pursuing a PhD in Biblical Spirituality at Southern Seminary. He is a graduate of Auburn University and Southwestern Seminary. Dustin and his wife, Whitney, originally hail from Alabama.