Birth Control in light of Redemptive Theology

Where so many Protestants go wrong in deliberating the morality of contraception is their failure to distinguish between creation and nature. As Brent Waters comments in his work, Reproductive Technology:Towards a Theology of Procreative Stewardship, “Although creation is good because of the imprint it bears of its creator, and its created order has been vindicated [...]

The Democracy of the Dead: In Response to the Arrogant Oligarchy of the Living

What do they know? Calvin, Luther, Wesley, and centuries of other great theologians of the Church — they never had access to RU486 (the abortion pill), so how could they really be against abortion? They never had the birth-control pill, so whatever birth-control they preached against was short-sighted, and out of touch with modernity, right? [...]

Luther and Natural Law? What hath the Reformer to do with Aquinas?

In his recent book, Retrieving the Natural Law: A Return to Moral First Things, J. Daryl Charles notes:
“It should be emphasized that Luther is perfectly content to allow the natural law and righteousness that comes by faith to stand side by side. The Protestant Reformers as a whole did not perceive general revelation to be [...]

Part Duex: Legislating Morality - Should the State Take a Stand on First Things? ala Peter Kreeft (with a little help from C.S. Lewis)

For those of you who had your interest piqued on the previous morality post, I thought I’d pass along these extremely interesting lectures by Dr. Peter Kreeft (author of “The Unaborted Socrates”), in which he attempts to answer the question: “Should the State take a stand on First things?”
Here’s part 1 (and I think you [...]

Reproductive Self-Determination and the Bondage of the Pill: Preaching like Calvinists and Procreating like Arminians

From Chapter 3 of the 1997 UNFPA “State of World Population”:
“In most of the world the initiation, timing and final level of fertility are now recognized as a matter of conscious choice. When asked in surveys, men and women are increasingly able to indicate how many [...]

Birth Control in Light of the Image of God: Part III - In The Shadows of a Technological Image

(The following post is part 3 of a multi-part series entitled “Birth Control in Light of the Image of God“, modified from a paper I wrote for an M.Div. course in Systematic Theology II, April 2008)
Technology changes the way we think about things. And reproductive technology is no different. In fact, it may indeed be [...]

IVF and Parental Dominion III: The Limited Dominion of Man

(The following is part 3 of a multi-part series entitled “In vitro Fertilization and Parental Dominion“, modified from a paper I wrote for an M.Div. course in Marriage, Infertility, and Assisted Reproductive Technologies, November 2007)
With few, if any, mainstream voices warning of the dangers of the technological fetishism in which we find ourselves, the infertile [...]

“Prayer Is A Wonderful Gift From God…”

So says the lyrics of one of my beloved Doyle Lawson songs. And oh how true it is. I was reminded again of that fact as I read these two quotes published in Don Whitney’s Spiritual Disciplines for the Christian Life this evening:
Charles Spurgeon wrote: “I cannot imagine any one of you tantalizing your child [...]

Bookstore Sales: The Crack of the Seminarian

As I stood in line at the Lifeway Bookstore today, the gentleman in front of me informed the cashier, “Bookstore sales are like crack for theology students.” Basically, we can’t pass them up…ever. lol.
And for better or for worse, he’s pretty right on. In the last week, I’ve encountered two bookstore sales and didn’t make [...]

Mach 2 Never Sounded So Good, and Theologically Solid

I did a speed read of J. Gresham Machen’s Christianity and Liberalism yesterday and found 2 quotes so far that I couldn’t let you go another day without mulling over. Add Machen to your list of Theological Studs…
“If Christ provides only a part of our salvation, leaving us to provide the rest, then we are [...]