In this insightful book, Donald K. McKim explores the basic tenets of Presbyterian theology and doctrine, from their beginnings to their meaning for the church today. Throughout McKim emphasizes the how Presbyterian history can inform current and future challenges. Without prescribing solutions to contemporary challenges, McKim's six brief chapters provide the foundation for broadening and strengthening a Presbyterian faith the lives today. Each chapter ends with suggestions for further study.

In Active Spirituality, Brian Hedges allows us to read someone else's mail. In a series of warm pastoral letters, written to a young Christian, the letter's recipient dives into the paradox of grace and effort in the life of faith.

Is my Christian life about trying or trusting? Would I describe my relationship to God as running or resting? Is my life more characterized by grace or effort? The wisdom in the letters makes clear that it is both: trying and trusting, running and resting, dependence on grace and exerting disciplined effort. This balance is not about getting my doctrine right, but is key to living a healthy Christian life.

So, pull up a chair, settle in, and read over the shoulder of Chris, a struggling young adult trying to find a church, overcome discouragement, live a chaste life, and develop a plan for spiritual growth, all while learning to rest in the finished work of Jesus.

This is an annotated transcription of the Rev. Dr. James Muir's personal diary from 1805. Born in Ayrshire, Scotland in 1757, Rev. Muir served as the third minister of the Presbyterian Church in Alexandria, Virginia, now known as the Old Presbyterian Meeting House, from 1789 until his death in 1820. The Old Presbyterian Meeting House was originally known as Alexandria's Presbyterian Church and then as its First Presbyterian Church. Rev. Muir's diary provides a historical document that, in its account of a single calendar year in the life of one individual, both raises and answers questions about a bygone era. It also provides a historical guide to aspects of the remarkable heritage that continues to this day in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia; a heritage that exists today in the vibrant religious community of the Old Presbyterian Meeting House and in the larger community, where the streets that Muir walked, and so many of the houses and places he visited still exist. A discussion of Alexandria in 1805, an examination of the original diary and its transcription, and a biographical sketch of Rev. Muir precede the diary. Appendices include: the diary's title page and handwritten notes that appear on end pages of the diary, a list of the Bible texts of sermons by Rev. Dr. Muir during 1805 (in the order delivered), and a list of the published works of the Rev. Muir. A bibliography and an index to full-names, places and subjects enhance the text.

In Calvin's Company of Pastors, Scott Manetsch examines the pastoral theology and practical ministry activities of Geneva's reformed ministers from the time of Calvin's arrival in Geneva until the beginning of the seventeenth century. During these seven decades, more than 130 men were enrolled in Geneva's Venerable Company of Pastors (as it was called), including notable reformed leaders such as Pierre Viret, Theodore Beza, Simon Goulart, Lambert Daneau, and Jean Diodati. Aside from these better-known epigones, Geneva's pastors from this period remain hidden from view, cloaked in Calvin's long shadow, even though they played a strategic role in preserving and reshaping Calvin's pastoral legacy. Making extensive use of archival materials, published sermons, catechisms, prayer books, personal correspondence, and theological writings, Manetsch offers an engaging and vivid portrait of pastoral life in sixteenth- and early seventeenth-century Geneva, exploring the manner in which Geneva's ministers conceived of their pastoral office and performed their daily responsibilities of preaching, public worship, moral discipline, catechesis, administering the sacraments, and pastoral care. Manetsch demonstrates that Calvin and his colleagues were much more than ivory tower theologians or "quasi-agents of the state," concerned primarily with dispensing theological information to their congregations or enforcing magisterial authority. Rather, they saw themselves as spiritual shepherds of Christ's Church, and this self-understanding shaped to a significant degree their daily work as pastors and preachers.

2013 Reprint of 1963 Edition. Full facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. While Morgan's literary portfolio shows remarkable diversity, it is studded with works on Puritanism. "Visible Saints" further solidifies his reputation as a leading authority on this subject. An expanded version of his Anson G. Phelps Lectures of 1962 (presented at New York University), this slender volume focuses on the central issue of church membership. Morgan posits and develops a revisionary main thesis: the practice of basing membership upon a declaration of experiencing saving grace, or "conversion," was first put into effect not in England, Holland, or Plymouth, as is commonly related, but in Massachusetts Bay Colony by non-separating Puritans. Characterized by stylistic grace and exegetic finesse, "Visible Saints" is another scholarly milestone in the "Millerian Age" of Puritan historiography.

Just how reformed do you think you are? With clarity of insight that comes only from firsthand experience, the authors of Kinda Christianity take on their own cultural-theological movement, offering tips and tricks for all you New Calvinists. From what to wear to who to marry (and how to court them) to what to read, Ted Kluck and Zach Bartels help you work out your reformedness with fear and trembling. "Kluck and Bartels don't wanna talk, they wanna scream at people, but they don't wanna listen or problem solve and that's what's frustrating about the dynamic of the group."-Richard Slade, M.Div., Princeton Theological Seminary "This is one of those seminal works that embodies a significant portion of our Reformed theological heritage. We all should rejoice to see this material finally available in English "-Cory Hartman, age 12 "Demonstrates an indirect relationship and similarity between the perichoretic 'intra divine' communion and the complementary 'divine-human' relation."-Robert Rusigliano, professional boxer; mason

Description: From eternity past God intended that the most vivid and profound demonstration of his glory would come in the form of His work of salvation on the cross of Christ. God then made man to punish him. He made him perfect and thus unlikely to ever need punishing, or, for that matter, a Savior. By a happy coincidence, and against all the odds, this perfect man sinned, thus allowing God to fulfill His purposes for both the man and Christ. When he sinned, God, who is suddenly confronted with the prospect of being able to fulfill all of His original plans, becomes furious. What you have just read is not a joke. I wish that it were. Rather, I have simply enumerated the points that comprise the Calvinist theological system, or, as I call it: the Happy Coincidence model of sin and salvation. It reflects what can only be described as an Alice-in-Wonderland reality, in which the only sense is nonsense, and logic is the enemy. This book will seek to explore some of its many logical inconsistencies and, in the process, propose a perfectly viable--and biblical--alternative.

The Christian doctrine of God has traditionally been presented in two parts: an account of the existence and attributes of God on the one hand, and an account of God's triunity on the other. This study offers an analysis of Karl Barth's doctrine of the divine attributes (or 'perfections'), as it appears in his 'Church Dogmatics II/1'.

With the rise of Pentecostalism in the early twentieth century and growth in the charismatic movement since, a resurgence of interest in the Holy Spirit and Christian spirituality in both theology and the church's life has become evident. Along with increased interest in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, there are criticisms of the treatment of the doctrine in church history for having neglected the Holy Spirit in both theology and the church's life. Critical studies of the treatments of the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in church history have been laboriously conducted. However, there have not been many studies on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit in Reformed orthodoxy, particularly in its confessional standards. Recognizing the gap in the history of scholarship, this work explores and provides a systematic account of the person and some aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit as presented in the major Reformed confessions and catechisms of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Attention is particularly given to those aspects of the work of the Holy Spirit that have not been greatly explored but are pertinent to contemporary discussions.

So you think you're a Protestant? Can you tell me what you are protesting? This is the question we all must ask ourselves. Unfortunately, it is the question many seem to be without an answer for. Take a look into history regarding the Roman Catholic Church and the Reformed Protestant views of the doctrines of grace. It is only when we know our past and our present that we can truly understand the marvelous grace of God and how He has chosen to display His love for us through a means that we can only partially grasp this side of Heaven.

Alongside essays on aspects of Calvin s Theology, Calvin: The Man and the Legacy includes studies of Calvin as pastor, preacher and liturgist and traces the influence of Calvin as it was conveyed through Scottish migration to Australia and New Zealand. Fascinating stories are told of the ways in which the Calvinist tradition has contributed much to the building of colonial societies, but also of the ways it has attracted ridicule and derision and has been subject to caricature that is sometimes deserved, sometimes humorous, but often grossly misleading."

Over the past half century, there has been a proliferation of scholarship on the great American theologian Jonathan Edwards. However, the vast majority of this output confines itself to the details of his work. With some welcome exceptions, the forest has often been missed for the trees. In this ground breaking study William Schweitzer presents a new reading of Edwards: He starts with the question what is distinctive in Edwards' theology? The answer comes in Edwards' insight into Trinitarian life. God is eternally communicative of his knowledge, love, and joy among the Three Persons of the Trinity, and this divine communicativeness was for Edwards the explanation for why God created the universe. More specifically, however, Edwards believed that God's communication carries with it the Trinitarian hallmark of "harmony." This hallmark is not always east to discern, even for the regenerate. Edwards' lifelong project-as demonstrated by the common purpose of all three unfinished "Great Works"-was to interpret the harmony found in and among the several media of revelation.