Tuesday, May 30, 2006

More Theologicalish Stuff

Some additional conclusions.

1) Gordon Clark is wrong. Van Til, though I think he may still have problems in places, got some very very important things right.

2) John Frame is onto something with his "multi-perspectivalism"(there's something of a summary in point 21 here). And Joseph Minich gets a good bit right here. (This is a really long article...the parts most focused upon theology in general are in sections IV and V).

3) Artists will do theology differently than scientists will. (EDIT: Now I actually have a link for this!)

4) When I found out that Peter Leithart was a Federal Visionist (what the whole Minich article is about), I figured I'd better wade back into TULIP-infested waters for a time, and see what was up.

And was promptly reminded of one reason I'd sworn off reading Reformed theologians for a time. We're like pirhannas...and cannibalistic ones at that.

Still...wow. Union with Christ as central, election in the context of covenants, eschatological vision, reality of the visible church, real possibility of both assurance and apostasy, reaffirmation of God's goodness, baptism as actually meaning something, a rooted basis for church unity, an evangelistic pitch of "join the people of God"... Unsuprisingly, Marie's grand initial reaction was, "An aesthetic, big-picture, high church, joyfully missional Calvinism? You're kidding me! Where's the catch??"

It seems to fly, actually. And rings very true...and I'm knee-jerkedly attracted to it just as strongly as a lot of people are knee-jerkedly repelled. ::quickly dashes for the bank, and hopes that pirhannas haven't evolved legs::