“Keep Thy Church in Thy True Religion”: The Collect for the Fifth Sunday...
Really late with this this week; but here is the Collect for the Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States. The Fifth Sunday after the...
View Article“Look Mercifully on Our Low Estate”: The Collect for Sexagesima Sunday
I’m not really much of a Lent Respecter, myself, but the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States makes provision for its observance and the prayers continue to be good, so I...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (4)
In today’s post, consisting of theses 9-11, Hemmingsen defines what it means to “sanctify” something and then applies that definition to the Old Testament observance of the Sabbath. He then goes on to...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (5)
Today’s post includes theses 12-13. The first has to do with the transference of the day of religious worship from Saturday to Sunday. Like Zanchi, Hemmingsen asserts that this was done by the...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (6)
Today’s post includes theses 14 and 15, on the symbolic significance of the Old Testament Sabbath as it relates to the first two parts of Hemmingsen’s “threefold time,” the past and the present. Thesis...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (7)
Today we get theses 16 and 17 as Hemmingsen continues to unpack the symbolic significance of the Sabbath according to “threefold time.” Thesis 16 refers to time past and consists mostly of a quotation...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (8)
Here are Hemmingsen’s next three assertiones. Hemmingsen unfortunately lumps all Jews together in claiming that they completely misunderstood the Sabbath, which is obviously false. In assertio 20, it...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (9)
Three more theses for today; these are short. In fact, the first isn’t really even a thesis or assertio. Hemmingsen just kind of slips it in there as a point of transition. In these comments,...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (10)
Herewith the next three assertiones, on the major festivals of redemption and the memorials of saints. One notices the pedagogical and practical purposes 1 Hemmingsen sees for such observances, and the...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (11)
In today’s post, consisting of assertiones 27 and 28, Hemmingsen distinguishes his view of Christian festivals from what he considers both gentile and Romanist perversions. Here, one can clearly see...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christians Festivals (12)
In today’s theses, Hemmingsen discusses the very important topic of adiaphora, or things indifferent, for that is what undergirds his comments on “ceremonies.” What Zanchi does in the case of...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (13)
This post wraps up the series on Hemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian festivals. In these four assertiones, he concludes with some remarks on change, continuity, and authority. Of special...
View Article“By the Mystery of Our Savior’s Fasting and Temptation”: The Collect for...
I missed last week (sorry!) but here is the Collect for this week (Invocavit Sunday) from the Order of Worship for the Reformed Church in the United States, to accompany the Gospel reading from Matthew...
View ArticleMelanchthon on the Church and the Word (1)
A new week; time for a new series. This one, which will last for a while, will be on Melanchthon’s treatise De ecclesia et autoritate verbi dei (“On the Church and the Authority of the Word of God”),...
View ArticleMelanchthon on the Church and the Word (2)
This is just a short one for today. In this passage, Melanchthon sketches how one ought to affirm the supreme authority of Scripture without going overboard. His concern for antiquity echoes Zanchi’s...
View ArticleMelanchthon on the Church and the Word (3)
In today’s post, Melanchthon begins to marshal patristic support for his understanding of the relative weight of various authorities in theology. Melanchthon’s high view of both Scripture and patristic...
View ArticleMelanchthon on the Church and the Word (4)
In today’s post, Melanchthon cites one more patristic source (Origen) as an example of how the church’s authority is rightly deployed. He then proceeds to sketch his understanding of the relation of...
View ArticleMelanchthon on the Church and the Word (5)
In today’s selection, Melanchthon affirms both that the church has never ceased to exist, from its establishment in the time of Genesis all the way up to the present, and that it nevertheless has often...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (10)
Herewith the next three assertiones, on the major festivals of redemption and the memorials of saints. One notices the pedagogical and practical purposes 1 Hemmingsen sees for such observances, and the...
View ArticleHemmingsen on the Sabbath and Christian Festivals (11)
In today’s post, consisting of assertiones 27 and 28, Hemmingsen distinguishes his view of Christian festivals from what he considers both gentile and Romanist perversions. Here, one can clearly see...
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