Foundations 88 (June 2025)

Issue 88 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available from here (requiring an email address for a link to a downloadable pdf, though check here) which includes the below essays (abstracts posted where available).

Donald John MacLean

Editorial

Mostyn Roberts

The Power and Personhood of God

This paper explores the biblical and theological understanding of God's power, asserting that divine power is inseparable from God's personhood and character. It traces the expression of God's power through creation, providence, and redemption – culminating in the cross of Christ where power is paradoxically displayed in weakness. The paper contrasts God's righteous and purposeful exercise of power with human abuses of power, engaging critically with Michel Foucault's analysis of power-knowledge dynamics. It argues that true power in the church must reflect God’s character, aim at restoring believers into the image of Christ, and be exercised through godly leadership, spiritual means, and humble dependence on divine strength.

Robert Letham

Faith and Reason: Reflections on Theistic Proofs

When considering the nature and purpose of arguments for the existence of God, much depends on those for whom the particular argument is intended and what it is designed to achieve. Moreover, we must address the question of the legitimacy and validity of such an argument. This paper explores the classic theistic proofs – particularly those of Aquinas and Anselm – and evaluates their strengths and limitations in establishing the existence and identity of God. It argues that while a posteriori arguments (like Aquinas's Five Ways and modern design arguments) may suggest the existence of a supreme being, they cannot reveal the triune God of Christian revelation. Likewise, a priori arguments (such as Anselm's ontological proof) offer rich theological reflection for believers but are not designed to persuade sceptics. Ultimately, the paper contends that God is not the conclusion of human reasoning but its starting point, and that the knowledge of God is rooted not in abstract proofs but in divine self-revelation through Scripture and the person of Christ.

Thomas Brand

The God of Unchanging Glory: From Nicaea to Hegel and Back

This paper explores the enduring theological significance of divine impassibility – the doctrine that God does not suffer or undergo emotional change – in light of both its historic affirmation within classical theism and the modern movement toward divine passibility. Beginning with the rise of this modern trend, shaped by existential crises and philosophical developments from Hegel to Moltmann, the paper traces the consistent witness of the early church, scholastic theology, and Reformed orthodoxy in upholding God’s simplicity, immutability, and impassibility. Through theological, philosophical, and scriptural analysis, it contends that only the impassible God of classical theism can offer the steadfast hope and saving grace proclaimed in the gospel. In doing so, it also highlights what is lost – both doctrinally and pastorally – when divine impassibility is denied or diminished.

Steven Duby

The Weaknesses of Christ: Their Theological and Pastoral Significance

In studying God’s providence and difficult questions about God’s permission of evil and the Christian’s experience of trial and suffering, many things are worth considering. These include the wisdom and will of God, the goodness and justice of God, the nature of evil as privation (not some substance created by God), and our blessed hope – the face-to-face sight of God that will secure our everlasting joy. Yet at the centre of our life with God is the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ, whose own suffering indicates, among other things, that God did not choose simply to stay above the fray. Accordingly, this paper will focus on the faith and the human weaknesses and sufferings of Christ, with a view to how his way of navigating these things can be an example for us. For it seems to me that study of Christ’s faith, weaknesses, and sufferings provides us with a model that can help us both to clarify certain aspects of suffering and emotion and to move forward through suffering in a humane and spiritually healthy manner.

Michael McClenehan

The Trinitarian Resurgence?

Book Reviews

Foundations 86 (Summer 2024)

Issue 86 of Foundations: An International Journal of Evangelical Theology, published by Affinity, is now available from here (now requiring an email address for a link to a downloadable pdf) which includes the below essays.

Donald John MacLean

Editorial

Jonathan Bayes

Review Article: Neo-Calvinism: A Theological Introduction

Steve Bishop

Abraham Kuyper: Inspiration, Revelation, and Scripture

This paper examines Kuyper’s view of the Scriptures. It stresses Kuyper’s organic and pneumocentric view of the Scriptures. These emphases serve to show that Scripture is both of divine and human origin.

Lee Gatiss

John Owen and Relating to God as Father, Son, and Holy Spirit

This article presents the foundational importance of the Trinity for the Christian life. Considering the teaching of John Owen, and his context in the seventeenth century, helps us see that the great blessing of the Christian life is that we have fellowship with the one true and living God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit. And, in particular, that we have distinct communion with him as Father, as Son, and as Holy Spirit.

Roger Fay

John Wesley and Aldersgate

This article considers the significance of John Wesley’s experience on 24 May 1738 when his heart was “strangely warmed”. It argues against attempts to dilute the evangelical significance of this experience.

Ian Shaw

Slavery, the Slave Trade and Christians’ Theology – Part 1

In this article I explore the different positions taken by Christians in America and Britain, through the 17th to 19th Centuries, regarding slavery and the slave trade. In a second article I will reflect on the theological themes that framed how they thought, spoke and acted.

Thorsten Prill

Missionary – What’s in a Word? A Critical Discussion of a Disputed Term

This article discusses the meaning of the word “missionary” and its use in today’s church. It looks at the biblical, historical and contemporary understandings of a phrase which triggers a variety of responses even among Christians. Some insist that “missionary” has become a discredited term and others hold that it no longer reflects their broader understanding of mission. However, those who still use it find support both in the Scriptures and mission history. Given the similarity of the phrase “missionary” and the biblical term “apostle” one can argue that missionaries are followers of Christ who are sent to continue with the apostolic task without claiming the same authority as the Twelve or the Apostle Paul. Therefore, the preaching of the gospel, the planting of churches and the training of church leaders lie at the heart of their mission. This work might be accompanied by other activities, such as social, educational or medical programmes, but, as demonstrated by the early representatives of the Protestant mission movement, it should always be carried out with sensitivity, respect and humility.

Book Reviews

Primer

All 12 issues of Primer, published by the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, have been made available for free as pdfs.

From the website:

‘Primer was born out of a desire to help church leaders to stay theologically sharp. Sometimes, pastors train for ministry at a theological college but then find it hard to maintain further study after moving into ministry […]

‘[E]ach issue of Primer takes one topic of theology and expands on it six or seven long-form articles.

‘Each issue looks at what’s been said about the topic historically, and how the church is engaging with it today. There are often reviews of helpful books to encourage further reading as well as chapters focused on how the topic shapes pastoral ministry. There are even interviews now again with ministry leaders.’

The following volumes were published:

Issue 01: True to His Word – on the trustworthiness of Scripture

Issue 02: How Far We Fell – on the doctrine of sin

Issue 03: True to Form – a biblical approach to gender and sexuality

Issue 04: A Place to Stand – on justification by faith

Issue 05: Coming Soon – on the end times

Issue 06: Newness of Life – on sanctification

Issue 07: Show & Tell – on apologetics

Issue 08: How Great a Being – on the doctrine of God

Issue 09: All Being Equal – on the Trinity

Issue 10: This World with Devils Filled – on the devil, demons, and spiritual warfare

Issue 11: A Little Lower than the Angels – on the doctrine of humanity

Issue 12: In the Flesh – on the incarnation

See here for more information, and to download the issues.

Themelios 48, 3 (December 2023)

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

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

Dealing with Criticism: Lessons from Nehemiah

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Skin in the Game?

Andreas J. Köstenberger

Geerhardus Vos: His Biblical-Theological Method and a Biblical Theology of Gender

This article seeks to construct a biblical theology of gender based on Geerhardus Vos’s magisterial Biblical Theology. The essay first sets forth five hallmarks of Vos’s method: (1) putting God first; (2) focus on the text; (3) viewing Scripture as progressive divine revelation; (4) displaying a historical orientation; and (5) a belief in the practical utility of biblical theology. The remainder of the essay develops a biblical theology of gender as Vos might have developed it in keeping with the four major scriptural movements of creation, fall, redemption, and consummation.

David V. Christensen

The Lamblike Servant: The Function of John’s Use of the OT for Understanding Jesus’s Death

In this article, I argue that John provides a window into the mechanics of how Jesus’s death saves, and this window is his use of the OT. When interpreters look through this window and ask how John understands Jesus’ death, our eyes are caused – by the passages John chose – to see substitutionary atonement as essential to the inner mechanism of how Jesus’s death saves.

G.K. Beale

The Greco-Roman Background to “Fighting the Good Fight” in the Pastoral Epistles and the Spiritual Life of the Christian

What does Paul mean by the expression “fight the fight” in 1 Timothy 1:18 (NASB)? The Greek verb στρατεύω with the noun στρατεία can be also rendered “battle the battle,” or more generally “perform military service” or “serve in a military campaign.” This expression occurs often in Greco-Roman literature as a patriotic warfare idiom for good character revealed by persevering through warfare or military campaigns. It also occurs in legal contexts to affirm someone’s innocence and good reputation before the court. This idiom is applied to Timothy to demonstrate his good Christian character and reputation over against the false teachers’ bad character. Paul similarly exhorts Timothy to “struggle the struggle”… in 1 Tim 6:12, which most commentators recognize to be synonymous with “fight the good fight” in 1:18 (cf. 2 Tim 4:7).

Jeremy Sexton

Postmillennialism: A Biblical Critique

Postmillennialism had been pronounced dead when R.J. Rushdoony and his fellow Reconstructionists resuscitated it in 1977 with stimulating though non-exegetical publications. In the following decades, many in Rushdoony’s train added innovative biblical arguments whose interpretive methods do not withstand scrutiny. This article examines the hermeneutical idiosyncrasies and exegetical fallacies displayed in defenses of postmillennialism by Greg Bahnsen, Kenneth Gentry, David Chilton, Keith Mathison, Douglas Wilson, and others. Postmillennialists routinely keep textual details out of focus or interpret them tendentiously, in service of the belief that the prophecies of worldwide righteousness and shalom will reach fulfillment on earth before rather than at the second coming.

Jason G. Duesing

Beacons from the Spire: Evangelical Theology and History in Oxford’s University Church

Thought to be the most visited church in England, the University Church of St. Mary the Virgin in Oxford has hosted, from its pulpit, figures of note of English church history. This essay applies the metaphor of a signal beacon to trace the development of evangelical history and theology through the examination of significant sermons preached in St. Mary’s by Thomas Cranmer in the 16th century, John Owen in the 17th century, John Wesley in the 18th century, the evangelical response to the Anglo- Catholics in the 19th century, and C.S. Lewis in the 20th Century.

N. Gray Sutanto

Cultural Mandate and the Image of God: Human Vocation under Creation, Fall, and Redemption

While the term “cultural mandate” is well-recognized as a way of understanding the relationship between Christianity, culture, and human vocation, its origins from within the Dutch neo-Calvinist tradition are less known. Drawing from this tradition, then, this essay sketches the logic of a neo-Calvinistic account of the cultural mandate through the states of creation, fall, and redemption.

John Jefferson Davis

Is the One God of the Old Testament and Judaism Exactly the Same God as the Trinitarian God – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – of the New Testament and Christian Creeds?

This article argues that the One God of the Old Testament and Judaism is exactly the same God as the Trinitarian God of the New Testament and Christian creeds. The standpoint presupposed is that of the orthodox biblical teachings on the Trinity expressed in the Nicene and Athanasian creeds. The paper presents new arguments supporting the unity and coherence of Old and New Testament revelation, employing (1) new analogies from modern physics, and (2) new philosophical insights concerning the properties of objects nested in a larger whole, and how those objects are to be properly counted in relation to the larger whole.

Gary J. Cundill

Do Companies Have Social Responsibilities?

Business and Christianity do not always enjoy the most comfortable of relationships. One approach Christians have taken when considering business’s place in the world is to describe it in terms of corporate responsibility, i.e., that business has a responsibility not merely to deliver financial returns but to offer broader societal benefits. This article surveys the biblical evidence for such a view and finds it unconvincing. Rather, it is evident that Christians, not businesses, have social responsibilities and can and should discharge these in the world of business. Practical suggestions are offered in conclusion.

Jonathan D. Christman

A Biblical Framework for Deciding Workplace Moments of Conscience

A well-known Christian intellectual and cultural commentator, John Stonestreet, has often publicly spoken of the need for Christians to develop a theology of “getting fired.” This call is not one for mass exodus of Christians from the workplace. Rather, this call recognizes that more and more Christians are facing moments of conscience in their workplace, when the obligations of a job – one’s current calling or vocation – come into conflict with one’s beliefs or convictions. Grounding both calling and convictions in Scripture, this article proposes an overarching framework and practical guide for analyzing, assessing, navigating, and deciding those workplace moments of conscience. Doing so entails both individual and corporate dimensions that are grounded in wisdom, humility, the means of grace, and life-giving community in the body of Christ.

Robert P. Menzies

Pentecost: Not Really Our Story Afterall? A Reply to Ekaputra Tupamahu

Menzies responds to Tupamahu’s post-colonial critique of the Pentecostal reading of Acts and the missionary enterprise. According to Tupamahu, the disciples are marginalized Galileans who move from the periphery to the center of the Roman world. Thus, white American Pentecostals need to rethink their vision of the expansionist mission. Menzies argues Tupamahu’s racially colored, post-colonial reading of Acts distorts Luke’s intended meaning, reflects a diminished view of the gospel, and betrays the legacy of Pentecostal leaders like William Seymour. In Acts the disciples are commissioned by Jesus (Luke 24:46–49; Acts 1:4–8). Their mission centers on the Spirit-inspired proclamation of the gospel. Luke emphasizes that their mission is our mission (Luke 10:1–16; Acts 2:17–18). Thus, to reject our mission is to repudiate the significance of our message and to resist the leading of the Spirit.

Book Reviews

Didache 21, 2 (2022)

The latest issue of Didache (sponsored by the International Board of Education of the Church of the Nazarene) is now online. The summaries are adapated from Dean Blevins’ Introduction. It, and the individual essays, are available from here.

Dean G. Blevins

Introduction

Francisca Ireland

Wesley’s Aesthetic Practical Theology

Francisca Ireland offers a new vision for theological aesthetics, arguing that John Wesley’s practical theology provides an ‘engaged aesthetics’ of body and imagination, allowing practitioners to reflect theologically on one’s own and others’ experiences.

C.P. Troutman

John Wesley, Ethnodoxologist: Engaging Missionally with the Ethnodoxology Conversation

Troutman argues that Wesley provides a theology that motivates an embrace of various cultural forms of music and celebration, commensurate with Wesley’s own vision.

Vinicius Couto

Synod of Dordrecht: An Iconographic Analysis

Vinicius Couto utilises an aesthetic methodology and historic artwork to explicate the theological issues underlying the Synod of Dort and the division around Arminian and Calvinist discourse.

Jorge Alberto Baños Peña

What is Biblical Preaching? Its Importance and Purpose for the Church’s Work

Jorge Alberto Baños Peña offers a rationale for biblical preaching, providing a grounded presentation demonstrating the interplay between artistic expression, Scripture, and theological reflection.

Joseph Bankard

Forgiveness as Process and Virtue: How to Overcome Feelings of Anger and Resentment

Joseph Bankard revisits the multifaceted practice, and virtue, of forgiveness. Bankard notes that this is interpersonal and intrapersonal, with the process entailing three elements: omissions, actions, and emotions.

Sarah Legreid

Death and Life: Reading 2 Corinthians 4:7–12

Sarah Legreid introduces a trauma hermeneutic into a detailed study of Paul’s theology through his Corinthian correspondence, arguing that 2 Corinthians reveals a nuanced and balanced trauma dynamic within Paul’s life of suffering and resilience.

Hannah Jones-Nelson

Perichoresis and Missional Theology: Humanity’s Invitation into the Mission of God

Hannah Jones-Nelson’s treatise addresses the theological concept of perichoresis as the intimate relationship, or dance, of the Trinity – a relationship that allows humanity to both extend and fulfill the missio dei.

Vern S. Poythress on the Mystery of the Trinity

Vern S. Poythress, The Mystery of the Trinity: A Trinitarian Approach to the Attributes of God (Phillipsburg: P&R Publishing, 2020).

A recent book by Vern Poythress on the attributes of God explored through the lens of the Trinity has been made freely available in its entirety. Here’s the blurb:

‘Starting with the doctrine of the Trinity, Vern Poythress addresses six challenges concerning the compatibility of God’s independence with his activities in the world. The eternal activities among the persons of the Trinity offer a foundation for God’s activities in the world. Alternative metaphysical frameworks for explaining God’s transcendence and immanence run the danger of overriding the truths of biblical revelation.’

The book (which comes with some sterling endorsements but has had mixed reviews) is available here as a pdf.

The Master’s Seminary Journal 32, 2 (2021)

The latest Master’s Seminary Journal has been posted online, this one focused on the Trinity.

A pdf of the journal can be downloaded here.

Peter Sammons

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

The Covenant of Redemption and the Ordo Salutis

In this article Dr. Fesko brings rich historical insight into the necessity for the pactum salutis and its relationship to the ordo salutis. This article retrieves the historical consensus that intra-trinitarian processions, missions, and ordo salutis are all interrelated. Drawing from the WCF and Vos, he proves that to neglect, minimize, or disregard any one of these has crushing ramifications. While establishing the necessity of these doctrines and answering objections, Fesko demonstrates a precision in Trinitarian thought which helps establish long-lost guard rails that need to be regained by evangelicalism.

Richard C. Barcellos

Change in God Given Creation?

In this article Dr. Barcellos takes on the important question often asked, “Was there any change in God when He created the world?” Or, how can a Triune being act in creation and remain immutable? Barcellos answers these often-raised questions by relying on a rich history of the Church. If the Church has univocally answered this question and yet modern “Christians” are starting to answer it another way, what does that mean for modern Evangelicalism? Is there anything historically Christian about the modern answers? What are the ramifications of equivocating on this important issue? All that and more are aptly addressed in this article by Barcellos as he tackles the Theistic Mutualists new take on the Trinity and Creation.

Kevin Zuber

Indications of the Trinity in the Old Testament

The Trinity is not explicitly revealed in the Old Testament, but after the revelation of the Trinity in the New Testament and after that revelation was given greater clarity in the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed (AD 325/381), it became possible to recognize the indications of the Trinity revealed in the Old Testament. This article examines key Old Testament texts that contain these indications. This examination includes: Texts that Reveal Aspects of the OT Doctrine of God (that are pertinent to the doctrine of the Trinity); Texts that Reveal Indications of the Trinity including: Texts that Reveal Plurality / Triads—Conversation Texts and in a Blessing and Vision; and finally, Texts that Reveal the Indications of “Others” in Relation to Yahweh—the Angel of the LORD, the Spirit of the LORD, the Servant of the LORD, and Wisdom. This study demonstrates that the revelation of the Trinity in the Old Testament, while not explicit, does disclose truth about the Trinity that is pertinent to a full appreciation and understanding of the biblical doctrine of the Trinity.

Peter Sammons

When Distinction Becomes Separation: The Doctrine of Inseparable Operation in the Contemporary Evangelical Church

The doctrine of the Trinity has made a rich impact on the believer’s theological taxonomy. In fact, Christians cannot even explain divine action without utilizing the precise, time-tested language upon which Trinitarianism rests. Sadly, many Bible scholars today are so narrowly focused on their modest field of “expertise” that they intentionally exclude this type of language in the name of academic fidelity. The modern exegetical task, therefore, has been hamstrung by a focus on the myopic. This article seeks to demonstrate that those Bible scholars who refuse to utilize historical- theological categories and terminology in their exegetical method will be left proliferating inadequate exegetical conclusions at best or damning errors at worst. A test case of John 1 will confirm the inadequacy of the ahistorical exegetical method to explain divine action apart from the nomenclature of inseparable operations. In this instance, such a method ends up resorting to either inaccurate language or practical tritheism. Furthermore, this article aims to prove that the taxonomy of inseparable operations is the necessary ramification of classical theism (in accordance with the doctrines of pure actuality and divine simplicity in particular). Therefore, classical theism—and the terminology supplied therein—functions as a proper guardrail for explaining divine action in a way that keeps the exegete from the pitfalls of tritheism or social trinitarianism.

Phil Johnson

A More Excellent Name: Eternal Sonship and Psalm 2:7 in Hebrews 1

In this article Executive Director of Grace to You, Phil Johnson, masterfully addresses the pitfalls with Incarnational Sonship while retrieving the Biblical necessity for Eternal Generation. Johnson focuses on the New Testament (Hebrews 1) use of the Old Testament (Psalm 2) as a key to properly retrieving the doctrine of Eternal Generation. In this piece Johnson shows how the church of recent generations has neglected and abandoned Eternal Generation on faulty grounds, misunderstanding monogenes, and aims to aid the church in retrieving this precious doctrine taught in Scripture.

Fred Sanders

Incorruptible Trinity: Sketch of a Doctrine

The doctrine of divine incorruptibility deserves more focused attention than it has generally received, especially in the modern period. This article draws the doctrine from its Scriptural sources (especially making use of the phthora word-group) and sketches its basic shape for systematic theology. First, it establishes the doctrine as a statement about God’s nature (that it is not subject to decay), and then traces its implications through Christology and soteriology. Finally, with the overall doctrine sketched out, the article suggests what is especially trinitarian in the doctrine of God’s incorruptibility.

Glenn Butner

The Obedience of One Man

This excerpt from The Son Who Learned Obedience, is excellent evidence why proper Trinitarian orthodoxy informs the taxonomy of incarnational theology. Modern evangelicalism has been too swift to violate the principle of Communication of Properties (from Theistic Mutualists, to social trinitarians, to EFS and ERAS, to name a few), where they read back into the Metaphysics of Trinitarian dogma (the ontological trinity) by ignoring the taxonomy of ecumenical councils. This trend has created a new Christology that is not Trinitarian in the historic sense of the term. Butner aptly shows why this error must be avoided if the church is to maintain its creedal confessions for future generations. In this article Butner invites us to sit at the feet of Maximus the confessor and see what’s really at stake in the Son’s Obedience.

Craig A. Carter

Denying Divine Eternity: Can Evangelical Theology Resist the Temptation?

In this article Craig Carter addresses the new wave of assaults on divine timelessness. This assault has ranged from quarters of liberal Protestantism from Moltmann, to Kant, to Open Theism, but most importantly has found a home in Evangelicalism. Modern evangelicals have fallen in love with the seeming simplicity with which these quarters of liberalism have answered the difficulty of explaining the Eternal Trinity and the Economic Trinity. In this article Carter masterfully demonstrates why giving up on the metaphysical attributes under the anti-metaphysical pressure of late modernity is a bad idea.

Mike Riccardi

Triune Particularism: Why Unity in the Trinity Demands a Particular Redemption

The doctrine of the Trinity is the fundamental doctrine of Christian theology, and thus is rightly brought to bear on every doctrinal locus. Trinitarianism is particularly relevant to the doctrine of the atonement, and the extent of the atonement more specifically. The doctrine of inseparable operations (grounded in consubstantiality) has implications for the unity of the saving intentions and acts of the persons of the Trinity, namely, the Son cannot act to atone for the sins of any more or any fewer persons than the Father has elected and than the Spirit will regenerate. Particular redemption coheres most consistently with a particular election and a particular regeneration, and thus inseparable operations provides a theological argument for embracing a particular rather than universal atonement. These conclusions are vindicated by examining how the multiple intentions view of the extent of the atonement fails to account for Trinitarian unity, demonstrating that particular redemption is most consistent with orthodox Trinitarianism.

Matthew Barrett

What Is Eternal Generation? (and Interview)

This contribution by Matthew Barrett is an excerpt from his book Simply Trinity. In this piece Barrett helps present the doctrine of Eternal Generation and its importance to a proper doctrine of the Trinity. Following this excerpt, we have an original interview between the TMSJ managing editor Peter Sammons and Matthew Barrett on some of the most pointed questions facing Christian education concerning the doctrine of the Trinity.

Reviews