Themelios 51, 2 (Summer 2026)

The most-recent Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

The Council of Nicaea and Christian Character

Fesko argues that the Nicene Creed required moral and ethical virtues to produce its theological orthodoxy. In simple terms, to be a good theologian requires godliness.

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Hiding in Plain Sight

Strange reflects on the cultural fascination with horror films and their presentation of the supernatural. Biblical reality gives us a metaphysic of the Creator-creature distinction which is capacious enough to include the material and the spiritual without confusing them and without divinising them, the blurring of the Creator-creature distinction (otherwise known as idolatry).

Jan Sklar

Lamb of the Free: A Review Article

In Lamb of the Free, Andrew Rillera argues from both the Old Testament and the New Testament that Penal Substitutionary Atonement (PSA) is an unbiblical idea. This review considers seven key claims Rillera uses to support his arguments. It focuses on whether they successfully undercut the idea of PSA and provides positive support for seeing PSA as a biblical idea.

Samuel Beh

Sent by a Sending God: Tracing the Verbal Thread of Sending through Luke-Acts

This article establishes the language of “sending” as a significant verbal thread throughout Luke-Acts. By tracing Luke’s use of the sending word group (ἀποστέλλω, πέμπω, ἐκβάλλω, and ἀπολύω), the study demonstrates that Luke frames God’s saving purposes as advancing through a succession of divinely sent messengers, culminating in Jesus, the apostles, and the Spirit-empowered church. The insights provide an important interpretive lens for understanding Luke’s theology of mission and the church’s mandate to participate in the divine mission today.

Paul S. Jeon

The Heart Knows but Will Not Yield: Affective Suppression and the Noetic Effects of Sin in Romans 1:32

This article argues that Romans 1:32 offers a crucial entry point for understanding the affective dimensions of the noetic effects of sin in Pauline theology. Rather than depicting unbelief as a mere failure of knowledge, Paul presents it as a morally culpable resistance to a truth that is already intuited. Drawing on N. Gray Sutanto’s retrieval of the affective model of general revelation, this study reinterprets the sensus divinitatis as a dispositional awareness rooted in dependence and shaped by affective response. The analysis of Romans 1:32 – especially its use of ἐπιγνόντες and συνευδοκοῦσιν—shows that Paul’s concern is not ignorance but a willful suppression motivated by fear, shame, and disordered desire. This reframing challenges dominant rationalist interpretations of the noetic effects of sin and aligns with the broader Reformed tradition. The article concludes by exploring the implications of this affective reading for theological anthropology, apologetics, and Christian witness, arguing that the remedy to such suppression lies not merely in argumentation but in the proclamation of the gospel—a message that convicts the heart and heals through grace.

Kenneth Berding

Echoes of Cain in James 3:7–5:9 and the Problem of James 4:5

James undergirds his exhortations in the middle portion of his letter (3:7–5:9) with a narrative subtext—namely, the early chapters of Genesis, and, in particular, the person and story of Cain as it would have been understood in James’s interpretive environment. An acknowledgment of this subtext resolves most of the interpretive and translational difficulties associated with James 4:5, which should read: “The [human] spirit which he [God] made to dwell in us desires with envy.”

Craig Fredrickson

The Word’s Transforming Work: Sanctification by Scripture in 1 Peter 1:22–2:3

In 1 Peter 1:22–2:3, Peter presents the word of God as the divinely appointed instrument of both regeneration and ongoing sanctification. Souls are purified by obedience to the truth, born again through the living and abiding word, and sustained by an infant-like craving for its pure spiritual milk. Read alongside Calvin, Owen, and Watson, the passage locates the word’s sanctifying power in the union with Christ that Scripture mediates by the Spirit, correcting therapeutic, contemplative, and pragmatic alternatives that displace Scripture from its formative work.Contemporary evangelicalism faces a quiet but urgent crisis of sanctification. While many churches remain committed to justification by faith alone, their approaches to spiritual growth increasingly drift from Scripture’s own design. Therapeutic spirituality, with its focus on emotional healing, and contemplative practices drawn from medieval mysticism now shape much of the discipleship landscape. These trends, though often well-intentioned, mark a subtle departure from the Reformation principle of sola scriptura—not only as the church’s epistemological foundation, but as God’s appointed means for ongoing transformation.

Daniel Kirkpatrick

Will Total Depravity Fall from Grace? A Defense of the Reformed View

The doctrines of grace found in Reformed soteriology are predicated upon an understanding of humanity’s total depravity stemming from original sin. This doctrine is under reevaluation by a group of pastors and scholars concerned about the resurgence of Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention and broader evangelical community. This perspective initially gained attention with the 2012 release of A Statement on the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation and has been advanced through subsequent writings from Adam Harwood. By redeveloping this foundational doctrine of sin, this perspective seeks to dismantle the Reformed understandings of election, atonement, and overcoming grace. This article critiques Harwood’s perspective of original sin and seeks to defend the Reformed doctrine of total depravity against this alternative viewpoint.

Joel MacInnes

Wisdom and Folly in Laodicea: Revelation’s Message to the Laodiceans as Wisdom Discourse

This article examines Christ’s message to Laodicea as “wisdom discourse,” arguing that it employs “wisdom forms,” “allusions to wisdom literature,” and addresses “wisdom concerns.” The message highlights wisdom due to the Laodicean church’s lack of it. This study explores potential parallels between the challenges faced by the churches in Colossae and Laodicea, noting similar diagnoses and remedies. Finally, the article examines how the wisdom theme in the message to Laodicea shapes our understanding of the seven messages in the book of Revelation.

Brandon D. Smith

Retrieving Athanasius: Ruled Readings and Trinitarian Exegesis

This essay argues that evangelical retrieval of the Christian tradition finds a particularly fruitful interlocutor in Athanasius of Alexandria, whose “ruled readings” of Scripture and trinitarian exegesis model a canonically-coherent theological hermeneutic. Against lingering Harnackian suspicions that patristic theology represents a Hellenistic corruption of Christianity, the essay demonstrates that Athanasius’s theological reasoning emerges from a deeply scriptural framework centered on the unity of Scripture and scripturally-rooted doctrinal conclusions. This essay concludes by showing the ways in which Athanasius’s interpretive sensibilities can strengthen evangelical biblical, theological, and ecclesial convictions.

Drew Hunter

The Typology of Jonathan Edwards: A Rejoinder to Cameron Schweitzer

Cameron Schweitzer argues that Drew Hunter’s earlier work on Jonathan Edwards’s understanding of typology is too narrowly christological. This rejoinder argues that Hunter’s view is not narrowly christological and that Hunter and Schweitzer’s understanding of Edwards’s typological exegesis are complementary rather than in competition.

Matthew LaMaster

Mimesis and Christian Leaders: A Rhetoric of Authority and Accountability

LaMaster considers Elizabeth Castelli’s contention that Paul’s use of imitative language reinforces power in authority relationships. While Castelli has not found wide acceptance in the New Testament scholarly guild, a dismissal of her thesis contributes to an erosion of any understanding of pastoral authority in the New Testament. This paper demonstrates that Castelli was right in that imitation does reinforce pastoral authority but wrong in her mischaracterization of pastoral authority. In particular, NT mimetic use reinforces authority by limiting authority, sharing power, encouraging costly virtues, and inverting cultural norms of authority.

Dan Allen

Main-Point-Driven: A Clear Methodology for Implementing the Christ-Centered Hermeneutic

This article addresses the need for a clear methodology for implementing the Christ-centered interpretation. Without a consistent process to guard and guide interpreters, illegitimate connections to Jesus are to be expected. Therefore, the Main-Point-Driven methodology provides readers with confidence to discern how every passage directs us to Christ. Special attention is given to asking the right Christ-connection question and unpacking the C-H-R-I-S-T acronym to aid in memorizing the six possible paths to Jesus. The article closes with a brief apologetic of why the Main-Point-Driven methodology is the correct path forward.

Book Reviews

Denver Institute on the Drama of Work

The Denver Institute for Faith and Work have released volume 3 of a set of devotional-type resources on faith at work, this one looking at work through the biblical storyline:

‘This devotional traces the story of the Gospel through four acts: Creation, Fall, Redemption, and New Creation. Each act includes a key biblical passage, questions for discussion, and a guiding prayer to help us reflect on how God is at work in the world and how our work can participate in his redemptive work.’

It’s available as a pdf here.

The previous volumes in the series can be downloaded from here.

Seth Dornisch on Religiosity and Mental Health

Seth Dornisch, Evolutionary Explanations for Associations between Religiosity and Mental Health, Elements in Applied Evolutionary Science (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026).

The above short (86-page) book is available as a free pdf download until 26 August 2026.

Here is the summary:

‘This Element examines the relationship between mental health and religiosity from an evolutionary perspective. Drawing on psychology, anthropology, and health science, it explores the origins of religiosity and the cultural evolution of religious traditions to identify how religious beliefs, behaviors, and affiliations have influenced human psychosocial functioning over time. First, it defines the concepts of mental health and religiosity and then summarizes research on contemporary associations between them. This synthesis highlights the multidimensionality of each construct and the variability in their association across individuals and cultural contexts. Building on theory, the Element introduces a novel multilevel framework to explain how religiosity and mental health have interacted differently across evolutionary, cultural, and personal timescales. It concludes by considering applications of this evolutionary science, proposing that individuals who understand how religiosity and mental health are associated can more intentionally cultivate personal forms of religiosity that benefit, rather than hinder, well-being.’

The book can be downloaded as a pdf from here.

Christian History Magazine on Anglicanism

The latest issue of Christian History Magazine is devoted to: ‘Meet the Anglicans: How the English State Church Became a Worldwide Church’.

From the blurb:

‘What is Anglicanism, and what does it mean to be an Anglican?

‘This issue of Christian History looks at the roots and branches of the Anglican story, beginning with Christianity’s arrival in the British Isles and its distinctive development in England’s Middle Ages. See how the English Reformation developed a Protestant branch separate from Rome, but not quite like its Reformed neighbors in Europe. From there we trace the Anglican faith’s dramatic expansion and change from the 17th century through the 21st-century world.

‘Join Christian History as we demystify what it means to be a state church, and what happens when you stop being one; the ways Anglicans can sound “Catholic lite” and why they do; how Anglican priests spread evangelicalism; and the pervasive influence of Anglicanism and the Book of Common Prayer on Western culture. Finally, join us on Anglicanism’s global journey – from once being an expression of Christian faith that was explicitly English, to its spread, expressions, and fractures throughout the world.’

The whole magazine is available as a 10.2 MB pdf here.

Douglas Dales on Prayer

Douglas Dales, Monotheism and Prayer: A Study in Trinitarian Prayer, Elements in Christian Doctrine (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2026).

The above short (78-page) book is available as a free pdf download until 21 August 2026.

Here is the summary:

‘This is a study of how Christian Trinitarian understanding of monotheism has been expressed in Christian prayer and worship. It studies the emergence and development of a distinctive language of prayer within the New Testament and among some early Church Fathers, which laid the basis for later belief in and worship of the Trinity. This contemplative belief is studied in the light of Eastern and Western understandings of the Trinity, by examining certain key figures Christian history. It concludes with a discussion of the continuing mystical and contemplative traditions within Eastern and Western Christianity. This Element does not consider the development of Christian liturgy, however, which has already been considered in an earlier Element in this series. Nor does it address the varied impact of the Reformation upon the Western churches, which will be addressed by further Elements to be published in this series.

The book can be downloaded as a pdf from here.

The Big Picture on Evangelicalism

Several articles from the latest issue of The Big Picture, a magazine produced by the Kirby Laing Centre, have recently been made available via Substack.

According to the blurb:

‘Our seventeenth issue of The Big Picture broaches the topic of evangelicalism. Without sweeping aside the problems and weaknesses of the movement over its history, it has had an important role in revitalising world Christianity, and our world needs a healthy evangelicalism now more than ever. Our contributors look at what has characterised the movement since its earliest days, what might be missing and what might have gone wrong. Several articles explore the role of evangelicalism in politics, others in intellectual pursuits such as education or research, and still others in ethics and mission. We hope that our issue offers some avenues for its renewal.’

The articles are available from here.

Lausanne Global Analysis on Generational Theory

The latest issue of the Lausanne Global Analysis looks at the topic of generational theory:

‘How should the global church respond to generational change?

‘Generational theory can illuminate how cultural change is shaping faith, leadership, discipleship, and mission – but it can also oversimplify identity and impose Western-derived categories on diverse contexts. This Global Analysis weighs both its insights and limitations, inviting the church to engage generational change wisely, contextually, and collaboratively in service of the Great Commission.’

Individual articles are available from here, from where a pdf of the issue can be downloaded.