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Complete List

Writings

complete listing

The following is a complete alphabetical listing of all writings, artwork, reviews, and documents available on this website.

• "Annunciation"
  a pen and ink drawing



• "Aristotle on Anger"
  an analysis of anger, good temper, and how virtue can be vicious



• "Bahnsen on Self-Deception"
  a critique of certain aspects of Bahnsen's apologetic



• "Baptism in Matthew and Mark"
  an exploration of the theologies of baptism within the Gospel narratives



• "Baptism: Reformed and Catholic"
  an examination of the Reformation development of the rite of baptism



• "Baptismal Regeneration and the Westminster Confession 28.6"
  an argument that belief in baptismal regeneration is well within the bounds of the WCF



• "A Brief Catechesis on Covenant and Baptism"
  answers to a series of questions posed to me regarding the nature of the covenant and initiation into that covenant by baptism



• "Cast Down the Peoples, O God"
  a meditation on Psalm 56



• "Catholicity and Authority"
  a brief sketch of some thoughts on the nature of the church and the relation between churches



• "Covenant Conditions"
  an extended reflection upon the language of "conditions" with regard to biblical covenants



• "D.A. Carson on Postmodernsim"
  a critique of remarks in The Gagging of God and MR magazine along with some explanation of postmodern thought, particularly Derrida and Lyotard



• "Deconstructing the Secular"
  a summary of John Milbank's Theology and Social Theory



• "The Doers of the Law"
  a reflection on Romans 2:13



• "Downame on the Visible Church"
  an excerpt from Downame's A Sum of Sacred Divinity concerning the place of the church in the economy of salvation



• "The Early Scots Reformed on Baptism"
  a brief survey of some major figures among the earlier Scots Reformed theologians regarding their doctrine of baptism



• The Epistle of Davenant
  A 17th century letter from John Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, to Samuel Ward, Master of Sydney Sussex College, Cambridge concerning infant baptism and perseverance of the saints



• "Ex Opere Operato"
  the history of this teaching and why Protestants object to it



• "Fiesta and Eucharist"
  a brief meditation on the Latin fiesta as analagous to eucharistic celebration



• "Fix"
  a poem



• "Hans Urs von Balthasar: a Sketch"
  a presentation of the life, influences, writings, and legacy of one of this century's greatest Catholic theologians



• "'Holy Children' in 1 Corinthians 7:14"
  a discussion of the passage with some implications for paedobaptism



• "In Broken Bread"
  a review of Robert Lethams's The Lord's Supper



• "Instruction in Christian Doctrine for Young Children"
  a translation of Calvin's catechism for young children, composed in Strasbourg 1538-9 and likely used in Geneva until 1553



• "Interpreting Tarantino"
  originally in About Such Things literary magazine (volume 1, number 2: Spring 1997)



• "Inventing 'the Bible'"
  a historical and philosophical inquiry into the concept of revelation and biblical interpretaion in relation the changing phenmenology of scripture as text



• "The Irish Articles of Religion"
  the 1615 Irish Articles, which served as a primary source for the Westminster Confession of Faith, with modernized spelling



• "'I Will Sprinkle Clean water': Baptismal Efficacy and the Reformed Tradition"
  a Reformed systematic account of baptismal efficacy built up an exposition of its biblical theology
  
  
• Joy Comes in the Morning: Comedy and the Christian Narrative
  a lecture presented 8 April 2005 at the Art & Soul Conference – Baylor University – Waco, Texas



• "Liberty of Conscience"
  an examination of conscience as it functions within the theologies of Thomas Aquinas, Martin Luther, John Calvin, and contemporary Catholicism



• "Madonna and Child"
  a scratchboard drawing



• "Mark's Jesus and Our Suffering"
  how Mark's story of Jesus as the suffering son of God brings meaning to our own sufferings



• "Matthean Apocalypse and the Parable of the Talents"
  an investigation of Jesus' parable within the context of the Olivet Discourse



• "The MVP Final Report: Some Initial Reflections"
  remarks and questions regarding the report, which I hope will help defuse some of the more heated and intransigent differences and misunderstandings currently afoot within the PCA



• "The MVP Précis on the "Federal Vision": A Response to Its Referencing My Writings"
  some clarifications regarding the way in which my writings have been misrepresented by the MVP report



• Nathaniel Stephens on Infant Baptism
  from his A Precept for the Baptism of Infants out of the New Testament (1651)



• "Nominalism and the 'Modern'"
  a genealogical narrative of the origins of the "modern" from within late medieval thought



• "No Shadow of Turning"
  two lectures that seek to explicate and defend classical theism in the light of open theism



• "Not In Their Genes"
  a review of the film Gattaca that first appeared in About Such Things literary magazine (volume 2, number 1: Fall 1998)



• "Of Creation and the Freedom of God"
  an essay briefly defending the thesis that God might have chosen another possible world



• "Of Derrida, Rousseau, and Wanking"
  a discussion of language, supplementation, and sexuality in Derrida's Of Grammatology



• "Of Holy Communion"
  a review of N.T. Wright's The Meal Jesus Gave Us



• "On Regeneration, Baptism, and the Reformed Tradition"
  an essay briefly outlining the various ways in which the term "regeneration" functions within the Reformed tradition and how it connects with baptism



• "On Spiritual Gifts"
  a brief meditation on the gifts of the Holy Spirit



• "On the 'Catholic Question'"
  an evaluation of a current debate



• "An Ontology of Peace"
  a lecture presented at La Salle University



• "Pentecost, Baptism, and the Promise to Children"
  a discussion of Peter's Pentecost sermon and the practice of paedobaptism



• "A Primer on Presuppositionalism"
  an overview of van Til's apologetic with some objections and replies



• "Rahner and de Lubac on Nature and Grace"
  an expository essay, with some critique of Rahner



• "Renewing Liturgy"
  an attempt to propose a vision for renewing and being renewed by Christian liturgy



• "Ritual, Word, and Synagogue"
  a critique of Schlissel on Christian worship



• "Sacraments and the Solas"
  a short argument that sacramental efficacy is a way of affirming reformational doctrine



• Samuel Ward on Infant Baptism
  from a letter to James Ussher, Bishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland (May 25, 1630)



• Scottish Baptismal Rite
  the "Order for Baptism" as found in John Knox's 1556 Book of Common Order, in use by the Church of Scotland from 1564 to 1645



• "A Sixth Sense"
  a review of Luigi Giussani's The Religious Sense



• "Table of Plenty"
  some remarks on the film Babette's Feast



• "Taking a Risk"
  a review of Luigi Giussani's The Risk of Education



• "There Is Another King: Gospel as Politics"
  a critique of modernist notions of the political with a positive account of biblical political theology



• "Turretin on Baptism"
  reflections upon some puzzles concerning Turretin's assertion that the sacrament of baptism "bestows regeneration"



• "Uniformity in This Kirk"
  the 7 February 1645 Act of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, implementing uniform worship practices in connection with the Westminster Directory



• "'Zdq' in Isaiah"
  some analysis of the use and semantic of "zdq"-related words in Isaiah