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

Themelios 50, 3 (December 2025)

I’m late to this, but the most-recent Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Preparing Well: Encouragements for Aspiring Pastors

In every generation and in every place, there is a need to identify, equip, and encourage new leaders for Christ’s church. Where are these future pastors and teachers now? What sort of preparation and encouragement do they require to move from aspiration to faithful action? This column reflects on the need for leadership development in the church and offers encouragement for aspiring ministers.

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

The Three R’s

Andrew T. Walker & Kristen Waggoner

The Unchained Word: A Public Theology of Free Speech

This essay develops a distinctly Christian theology of free speech in response to mounting threats of censorship across Western societies. We argue that freedom of speech is not merely a political concession of liberal democracies but arises from humanity’s nature as rational agents made in the image of God, created to be seekers and speakers of truth. Speech is both a constitutive feature of human selfhood and an instrumental good through which individuals and communities pursue moral goods and the common good. After examining the biblical purposes of speech, the limits of civil government’s authority, and the moral logic of human rights, we contend that a Christian account of free speech requires a dual affirmation: positively, that individuals have a duty to speak truthfully; and negatively, that governments bear a heavy burden of proof before restricting expression. Free speech thus serves as a shield against government overreach, a safeguard of human fallibility, and a vital condition for truth-seeking in a pluralistic world. While not absolute, free speech must enjoy a presumption of liberty if societies are to order themselves toward truth and resist the perennial temptation of tyranny.

John Goldingay

Leviticus 8–10 as Narrative

Leviticus 8–10 is the one substantial narrative in Leviticus. The paper considers six contemporary approaches to the interpretation of narrative – setting, point of view, plot, theme, characters, and language – in order to see how they illumine the interpretation of these chapters. It thus further aims to see how their application to these chapters might suggest that these contemporary methods may be useful in biblical interpretation, not least in connection with narratives that might not seem to engage modern Western readers.

Jared August & Jonathan Lough

Achan and Annihilation? Hyperbolic Language and the Justice of Yahweh in Joshua 7

The conquest language of Joshua is often taken as hyperbolic, particularly in chapters 6–10. This essay attempts to apply a hyperbolic reading to Joshua 7 and the Achan account, proposing that such a reading deals best with the larger context as well as the textual details. This interpretation suggests that by making himself an enemy of Yahweh, Achan suffered the same fate as the pagan Canaanite nations: Achan, as the enemy combatant, was executed, his livestock killed, his possessions destroyed, and his family dispossessed from their inheritance in the land.

Joanne J. Jung & Eric B. Oldenburg

The Right-Side-Up Kingdom: A Lexical, Contextual, and Theological Study of Acts 17:6 and Its Implications

The kingdom of God is sometimes referred to as an upside-down kingdom. This descriptor originates from translating ἀναστατόω in Acts 17:6 as, “to turn the world upside down.” A lexical study will show that such a translation is misguided. A contextual study will show that using the phrase “upside down” to describe the kingdom is similarly problematic. Finally, a theological case will be made for prioritizing “right-side-up” over “upside-down” language for the kingdom of God. When God empowers success in our efforts to reconcile, redeem, and transform that which is upside-down, the kingdom of God is actualized in the world, and “right-side-up” is more appropriate in describing such realities.

Jonathan D. Worthington

The Pastors and Teachers in Ephesians 4:11

Paul’s reference to “the pastors and teachers” in Ephesians 4:11 is regularly discussed and often misunderstood. In conversation with some key voices in the debate, I argue this double-sided thesis: (1) Paul’s grammar portrays pastors and teachers as two recognizably distinct groups – i.e., in general, pastors are not teachers and teachers are not pastors – and (2) they nevertheless must serve the saints in closer connection together than the other groups of leaders mentioned. On this sound foundation, I offer constructive possibilities with reference to the connected Greco-Roman systems of home and education for who within Pauline circles the pastors likely were, who the teachers likely were, and how they were likely meant to work together.

Adam Ch’ng

Transposing Genre: Reading Hebrews 12:4–13 as Proverbial Wisdom

By citing Proverbs 3:11–12 (LXX) in Hebrews 12:5–6, the author of Hebrews transposes the wisdom genre of the proverb into his broader exposition (12:4–13). This article integrates and applies the theories of John Frow and Tremper Longman III, and argues that the strong literary connections between the proverb and Hebrews 12:4–13 indicate the incorporation of the wisdom genre. Accordingly, Hebrews 12:4–13 should be read as proverbial wisdom, and its characterisation of human suffering as divine discipline should be understood not as a universal theodicy but as a circumstantial truth.

Bradley Gray

From Logizomai to Luther: The Great Exchange and the Development of the Imputed Righteousness

Martin Luther’s theology of imputation, which is often understood through the paradigm of “the great exchange,” is a formative albeit misunderstood tenet of Reformation doctrine. Even though Luther never explicitly deployed the phrase, nevertheless, the gospel is conveyed in the language of a two-way transaction, wherein Christ’s righteousness is imputed to sinners as their sins are imputed to him. The pastoral necessity to preach the good news of imputation is best understood against the backdrop of historical and contemporary challenges to the doctrine itself. Imputation, therefore, remains vital not only for doctrinal clarity but for the believer’s assurance of salvation.

Cameron Schweitzer

Does Edwards’s Exegetical Typology “Always and Only Point to Spiritual Things Related to Christ?” A Response to Drew Hunter from the Evidence of the Blank Bible

This essay responds to Drew Hunter’s 2019 article, “Hebrews and the Typology of Jonathan Edwards,” challenging his thesis that Jonathan Edwards’s exegetical typology “always and only points to spiritual things related to Christ.” Through an analysis of Edwards’s Blank Bible, the essay identifies 143 notations where Edwards employs typology to uncover antitypes that are not strictly Christological. The evidence presented suggests that Edwards’s exegetical typology is broader and more complex than the Christological framework in which Hunter situated it. This article argues that, instead, Edwards’s exegetical reflections in the Blank Bible highlight that typology was, for him, a spiritual, historical, teleological, and eschatological hermeneutic for interpreting God’s work in redemptive history.

Adrian P. Rosen

The Christocentric and Christotelic Nature of Johannine Pneumatology

Several years ago, a highly regarded Pentecostal ecumenist suggested that the Paraclete’s work in the “world” supports a more inclusive soteriology. This article responds to this proposed theological trajectory within Johannine pneumatology, seeking to contribute to broader conversations regarding christological exclusivism and pneumatological inclusivism. An exegetical survey of the Spirit’s work in John’s Gospel – including the Spirit’s activity in Jesus’s earthly ministry, within the believer, and in the world – demonstrates that Johannine pneumatology remains decidedly christocentric and christotelic from start to finish. When one gives careful attention to the text, it becomes clear that John’s view of the Spirit’s work is decidedly and firmly anchored in his christological particularism.

Brian A. DeVries

Missio Trinitatis: Theological Reflections on the Origin, Plan, and Purpose of God’s Mission

Trinitarian theology provides the basis for understanding missio Dei. The divine sendings of the Son and the Spirit explain the origin of God’s mission, while the divine council with the pactum salutis helps us comprehend the whole plan of God’s redemptive mission. God’s external work of mission, accomplished and applied across the history of redemption, highlights the eternal purpose of God’s mission and helps us align our participation in it. Using this time-tested Trinitarian language helps us avoid divergent definitions of this important concept, while clarifying ambiguities and guarding against common misuses. It also helps us better understand the church’s evangelistic witness in relation to the Triune God and his mission.

Nicholas J. Weyrens

Toward a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology

Internet-connected digital technologies are having deleterious effects on children. In a world shaped by the digital, Christian parents have a moral duty to have an intentional philosophy of technology – a set of principles and practices – that will help their children flourish in Christ. In this essay, I propose four principles for a Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology to help parents understand how and why technologies shape children. By establishing the idea that we are what we attend to, I will connect the deformative effects of internet-based digital technologies with the spiritual deforming language of idols in Scripture. This highlights the importance for parents to protect their children’s attention and cultivate their children’s ability to attend, most notably to God, by integrating proposed practices into their own contextualized Christian-Household Philosophy of Technology.

Jon Horne

The Scandal of Marriage: Towards a Theology of Sexual Differentiation

This essay argues that monogamous sexually-differentiated marriage (MSDM) is uniquely revealed through Christ’s relationship with the church in Ephesians 5:30–32. Through a trinitarian reading, marriage is understood as the Father’s initiative, sexually differentiated because it follows the form of Christ (groom) and church (bride), and perfected by the Spirit. The bride-groom metaphor is not merely illustrative but constitutive of marriage’s form. Therefore, because Jesus is biologically male, marriage cannot be relativized to accommodate same-sex unions. This makes marriage a scandal not unlike that of Christ’s particularity (1 Cor 1:23), which resists absorption into non-Christian notions of the divine.

Book Reviews

Foundations 84 (July 2023)

Issue 84 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available (here in its entirety as a pdf), which includes the below essays.

Donald John MacLean

Editorial

Peter Sanlon

Glories That Form and Deform Identity: The Roads Ahead

This paper seeks to analyse what has become the main presenting issue of the day for western culture, that of identity. This question penetrates a good deal deeper than the vexed matters of gender, sexuality and ethnicity; essentially it comes down to a clear and binary choice: whom do we love, worship and glorify – self or God? The quest for self-realisation and self-fulfilment may take many forms, from pornography to conspiracy theories to a culture of ‘victimhood’, but each of these are diverse expressions of the same fundamental motivation – to worship and serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever – Amen! (Rom 1:25). Against all this, the next generation is summoned to walk ‘The Road Less Travelled’, where we gather under the cross of Jesus Christ.

Robin Gray

Divine Light and Holy Love: Genuine Conversions in the Works of Jonathan Edwards

This paper opens up the key question of genuine conversion by delving deep into the mind of Jonathan Edwards (1703–58) on the subject, and in particular, his Religious Affections, which were the mature fruit of Edwards’ deep reflection, years after many striking and ‘surprising’ events in his own ministry. Few minds have thought as hard and as deeply as Edwards about the subject of conversion, but fewer by far have written about the subject as incisively as he did. Whilst many other scholars and pastors have very helpfully brought Edwards’ thinking to the attention of the contemporary church, this paper, as it succinctly summarises Edwards’ main observations, will undoubtedly prove to be a precious additional resource in the hands of twenty-first-century pastors, not only in evaluating professed conversions in their own churches but in keeping a close watch on their own souls (1 Tim 4:16).

Phil Heaps

Sanctification and Consistent Godly Living

This paper will lead us to the Sermon on the Mount and to the Beatitudes in particular (Matt 5:3-12) demonstrating that this ‘Jesus Seminar’ is unparalleled as ‘a discipleship course for the 2020s’. Here is material which is intensely practical and yet is addressed directly to the human heart; here is a masterclass for the formation of Christian character but one which is to be worked out in the corporate context of the church. The Lord Jesus Christ – and the Beatitudes are, supremely, a delineation of Christ’s own spiritual character – calls his people to a radical obedience which is motivated by humility, ‘poverty of spirit’ (Matt 5:3) but which is the only path to the growth for which God looks, growth in holiness.

Mark Thomas

Pastoring the Twenty-First Century Church

This paper begins with the tremendous, transcendental reality that God himself is the Pastor of his people (Ps 23:1, 80:1), and then fleshes out in detail how the pastoral office of the undershepherd is described in Scripture. Throughout, the calling of the pastor is described and illustrated with many examples in the Reformation and Puritan tradition – not least from the ‘three Bs’ of Bucer, Baxter and Bridges. The climactic feature of this paper is its recognition and analysis of contemporary culture and how it impinges on young people attached to churches. Whilst there are timeless issues and considerations that every pastor and church must face, there are some that are peculiar to today, and pastors are urged to face up to these – they include anxiety, exhaustion, ‘influences’ and, as in Paper 1, the whole question of ‘identity’.

Patrick Fung

Faithfulness Amidst Trials and Persecution

This paper begins with an in-depth treatment of the narrative of persecution in Luke-Acts, showing how it was first directed against Jesus and then against his disciples. The key consideration is not simply that persecution happened, but that the early church needed to know how to respond to it. The next section of the paper we describe in detail the Boxer Uprising in China in 1900 and in particular the response of the church, exemplified in the approach of Dixon Edward Hoste (1861–1946), Hudson Taylor’s successor as leader of the China Inland Mission. Hoste’s approach was humble, gracious, visionary and deeply instructive for the church today. We conclude with a survey of the state of anti-Christian persecution in the world today, both ‘east’ and ‘west’, and calls us to prayerful, patient, self-denying witness.

Sarah Allen

Review Article: Complementarianism

Book Review

Themelios 44, 2 (August 2019)

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

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Fulfill Your Ministry

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Never Say ‘the Phones Are Quiet’

Jason DeRouchie

The Mystery Revealed: A Biblical case for Christ-Centered Old Testament Interpretation

This study provides a biblical-theological foundation for a Christ-centered hermeneutic. It overviews both Old and New Testament texts that identify how the primary audience that would receive blessing and not condemnation from OT instruction would be Christians enjoying the benefits of Christ’s eschatological, redemptive work. Jesus himself provides both the light for enabling us to see and savor what is in the OT and the necessary lens that influences and guides our reading by filling out the meaning – at times by supplying unknown interpretation and other times by clarifying, expanding, and deepening the human authors’ implications. For us to grasp the full meaning of the OT’s history, laws, poems, and prophecies, we must read them through the light and lens of Christ.

Peter R. Schemm Jr. and Andreas J. Köstenberger

The Gospel as Interpretive Key to 1 Corinthians 10:31-11:16: On Christian Worship, Head Coverings, and the Trinity

God’s good design for man and woman is to be practiced in all of life, especially in the worship of the church. Apparently, the behavior of some women in the Corinthian church was dishonoring both to God and their husbands. Whatever the exact nature of the problem, it had now become a gospel matter in public worship. Therefore, Paul seeks to apply the gospel – especially the idea of giving glory and honor to God, as Christ did – directly to the issue at hand. The purpose of the article is to show how the gospel itself is the interpretive key to this particular section of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians (10:31–11:16).

Mark L. Strauss

A Review of the Christian Standard Bible

The Christian Standard Bible (CSB) is a 2017 revision and replacement of the Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB), first published in 2004. The Translation Oversight Committee was co-chaired by Thomas Schreiner and David Allen. The CSB follows the same basic translation philosophy as the HCSB, a mediating approach between formal and functional equivalence, similar to versions like the NIV, the NET Bible and the CEB. The CSB removes a number of the HCSB’s idiosyncracies, such as the use of “Yahweh” for the tetragrammaton (YHWH). Most significantly, the CSB departs from its predecessor by positively embracing “gender-accurate” language, for example, by translating the Greek ἀδελφοί as “brothers and sisters” when the referent includes both men and women. In general, the CSB is a significant improvement over the HCSB in terms to both accuracy and style.

Coleman M. Ford

“Striving for Glory with God”: Humility as the Good Life in Basil of Caesarea’s Homily 20

Basil of Caesarea (c. AD 330–379) presents humility as the essence of the good life in his Homily 20. Humility was the chief virtue based on Christ’s own humility. Thus, true happiness was only possible through a life of humility. In this essay, I first assess the biblical and theological rationale for humility according to Basil in contrast with prior Greek and Roman notions of humility. Next, I analyze how Basil depicts humility in terms of “glory” in his Homily 20. The bestowal of glory is a gift of God and can only be achieved through a life of humble imitation of Christ. This notion gives Basil’s hearers the proper perspective to understand how the good life is lived in Christian perspective. I conclude with some practical implications for understanding Basil’s conception of humility as the good life.

C.J. Moore

Can We Hasten the Parousia?An Examination of Matt 24:14 and Its Implications for Missional Practice

Among the many possible motivations for mission participation, the eschatological motivation for missions has recently grown in prevalence. Many missionaries speak of their work as “hastening” or “causing” the Parousia. Because of a desire to see Christ come back “sooner,” the eschatological motivation has often led to missional malpractice, due to a lack of nuance and humility in biblical exegesis. Particularly, the eschatological motivation frequently leads to pragmatic practices that should be avoided, practices that hurt rather than help the Church’s mission. In this article, I examine Matt 24:14, the verse used most often in defense of the eschatological motivation for missions. Along the way, I offer my modified view, one that frees the missionary to simply proclaim the gospel of Christ with a proper recognition of God’s sovereignty over both salvation and the Parousia; and still – in some mysterious way – we can be sure that our gospel proclamation indeed plays some role in the second coming of Christ.

Jackson Wu

The Doctrine of Scripture and Biblical Contextualization: Inspiration, Authority, Inerrancy, and the Canon

This essay explores the relationship between contextualization and an evangelical doctrine of the Bible, with a special emphasis on biblical inspiration, biblical authority, biblical inerrancy, and the biblical canon. Readers will see how the doctrine of Scripture leads to a biblical view of contextualization. How might a robust doctrine of Scripture practically improve our approach to contextualization, both in principle and practice? This article not only affirms the importance of contextualization; it also identifies biblical boundaries for contextualization. In the process, readers consider specific ways to apply one’s doctrine of the Bible.

Zachary Breitenbach

The Insights and Shortcomings of Kantian Ethics: Signposts Signaling the Truthfulness of Christian Ethics 

Immanuel Kant proposed what he considered to be the one true ethical system – a system rooted in pure reason, without recourse to grounding morality in God, that sought to explain universal moral truth. This article argues that Kant’s ethical system, despite grounding morality purely in reason and in light of its own philosophical failures, contains significant insights that serve to illuminate the philosophical attractiveness of key biblical ethical principles. The article highlights three insightful objectives of Kant’s ethical view and compares them to three crucial ethical principles that are taught in the Bible. It then contends that Kant’s view of ethics fails to accomplish his desired objectives and makes the case that a biblical understanding of ethics succeeds. The shortcomings of Kantian ethics serve as a signpost to the truth of Christian ethics.

Drew Hunter

Hebrews and the Typology of Jonathan Edwards 

In appreciation for the recent resurgence of interest in biblical theology and typological interpretation, this article considers Jonathan Edwards’s typological interpretive practices and principles. The article examines what Jonathan Edwards’s interpretive reflections on Hebrews reveal about his typological interpretation of the Old Testament. The article then shows the unique contribution that Edwards’s principled typological method makes to current discussions about typology and the use of the Old Testament in the New Testament.

Book Reviews