“In many ways the book [Saving Calvinism] is trying to argue for a more popular audience things I've said in some more scholarly works, namely, that the Reformed tradition is broader and more variegated than is often reported today, and that we need to recapture something of this in order that we don't end up unnecessarily narrow in our doctrine and in order to keep some perspective.” WayNeedsTryingSaidBookEndsTodayOrderAudiencePerspectiveTraditionArguingDoctrineSavingScholarlyCalvinism Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“Christ's work is a kind of deterrent to us, and a way of upholding the justice of God's divine government of the world.” WorldWayKindGovernmentChristJusticeDivineDeterrentJustice Of God Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“There are constraints on what counts as "Reformed." It's more than a name or a label. It's about belonging to a particular theological stream or tradition, which is shaped in important respects by particular thinkers and their work, particular arguments and ideas, a particular community (especially, particular church communities, denominations, and so on), particular liturgies or ways of worshipping and living out the Christian life, and particular confessions that inform the practices of these communities.” WayImportantIdeasChristianNamesCommunityChurchPracticeParticularArgumentTraditionChristian LifeLabelsStreamsBelongingThinkerConfessionConstraintsTheologicalDenominationsLiturgyChurch Community Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“In the twentieth century the Reformed tradition was developed in several ways including additional confessions (Barmen, the Belhar Confession, the 1967 Confession of the PC(USA), and so on). It was also significantly augmented by the work of important thinkers like Karl Barth, T. F. Torrance, Jürgen Moltmann, Emil Brunner, Kathryn Tanner, and so on.” WayImportantCenturyTraditionIncludingUsaThinkerConfessionTwentieth CenturyBarmen Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“The Reformed tradition at the beginning of the twenty-first century is different as a consequence of this - and different in nontrivial ways. Some may scoff at this, saying that such "developments" don't represent Reformed thought. But by what standard? Perhaps by the Westminster Confession. But this is only one Reformed confession, and it was only ever a subordinate standard.” WayFirstsMayDifferentCenturyDevelopmentStandardsConsequenceTraditionTwentiesConfessionSubordinatesWestminster Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“It is often reported that the Five Points of Calvinism are the conceptual hard-core of Reformed thought. That is very misleading. The Five Points supposedly originate with the Synod of Dort in the early seventeenth century. Yet we find important Reformed leaders who were signatories to that documentation who don't think that limited atonement is the right way to think about the scope of Christ's saving work. How can this be? The answer that recent historical theology has thrown up is that the canons of the Synod don't require adherence to the doctrine of limited atonement.” ThinkingWayImportantHardChristAnswersLeaderFiveCenturyHistoricalCoreTheologyDoctrineSavingThrownRight WayScopeMisleadAtonementCanonAdherenceCalvinismDocumentationHard Core Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“[John Calvin's] treatment of the person and work of Christ, of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer, of prayer and liturgy, of the sacraments, and of the way in which we have an in-built sense of the divine that we suppress to our great sorrow - these are all immense contributions to Christian thought. The same could be said of his commentaries, which are still regularly consulted by biblical critics today.” WayPersonsSaidStillsTodayChristianSpiritChristPrayerDivineSorrowHolyBuiltCriticsBelieverHoly SpiritContributionTreatmentImmenseBiblicalSacramentsCommentaryLiturgy Author:Oliver D. Crisp
“I recommend Doug Sweeney's recent book [Jonathan] Edwards the Exegete (Oxford University Press, 2015), which is a terrific treatment of the way in which Edwards was steeped in the Bible, so that it shaped the whole of his thinking.” ThinkingWayBookWholePressesUniversityTreatmentTerrificOxfordOxford UniversitySweeney Author:Oliver D. Crisp
