23 January 2024

The Evangelical Roots of New Calvinism

 While attending a New Calvinist congregation this last Sunday, we were disappointed to discover that a woman connected to the pro-life movement was there to give a pre-sermon presentation. It in fact amounted to a mini-sermon, and then an exhortation to support local pregnancy centers and the like as well a rather skewed narrative of the movement, and an overall call to action.

14 January 2024

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (II)

All things considered, I don't disagree with Wyman's general narrative regarding the rise of the modern West and how it surpassed previous super-power states and cultures like that of the Ottoman Empire.

But rather than celebrate Capitalism and the way it has reshaped the world, I would offer some different narratives to consider.

Musing on The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (I)

Patrick Wyman's The Verge: Reformation, Renaissance and Forty Years that Shook the World (published in 2021 by Twelve) focuses primarily on the years1490-1530. He argues this period was critical for understanding the modern world as the West moved through these four decades of transition.

In the process of surveying some of the main historical events of this period, he teases out key cultural markers that (he argues) set the stage for the coming period and the world we know today.

01 January 2024