The Evangelical Library based near Baker Street Station in London has begun a new project to produce a Library of Reformed and Puritan works available at www.elebooks.org.uk.

Starting with rare works which have not been reprinted for many years the library has begun an ambitious effort to produce an evangelical library on the Internet. This project has tremendous potential to benefit the reformed community in that it is providing an access point for excellent literature which is already available freely as well as providing a mechanism for the production of electronic versions of texts which have not previously been available. These electronic books (e-books) can be downloaded using any internet connection around the world at very little cost and can be searched individually and collectively for key words, authors and bible references.

The project has started with two works which have not been reprinted and which are difficult to get hold of.

The first is a series of sermons by James Durham on the Subject of the Conscience. This is a subject on which 21st Century pastors need to rediscover Puritan insight and familiarity. Durham examines the main texts on the conscience from the New Testament and gives examples of Puritan application to the heart.
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Warfield
At the outset it should be mentioned that Van Til understood that both Warfield and Kuyper held to essentially the same solid, biblically based Reformed theology and that his critical appropriation of each was done with the goal of formulating an apologetic more consistent with the solid theology each man embraced.¹

As noted previously in (W1), Warfield was so convinced of the objectivity, intelligibility, and clarity of revelation to all men in nature and history that it was not reasonable for anyone to reject the truth of Christianity.² The evidence of the truth of Christianity is available for all to assess, regardless of spiritual condition. Arguing against the notion that the validity of the faith resides in the subjective change that occurs in regeneration, Warfield notes,

It is not true that the Christian view of the world is subjective merely, and is incapable of validation in the forum of pure reason. It is not true that the arguments adduced for the support of the foundation of the Christian religion lack objective validity. It is not even true that the minds of sinful men are inaccessible to the “evidences”…³

In other words, the evidence for the validity of the Christian faith was a matter of public record. It was not, conversely, merely about personal predilection. Warfield readily grants that the presence of evidence will not in and of itself convert an unbeliever to the faith, for that is the work of the Holy Spirit. But the work of the Holy Spirit in regeneration is not done in the absence of the revelation of God in nature and history.
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Rick Grush, Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, San Diego, is offering a free podcast of a lecture course entitled Basic Sentential Logic and Informal Fallacies. The course is a good introduction for those without basic philosophical training.

Bahnsen’s Schematic

Here I want to provide in brief outline form Greg Bahnsen’s schematic of Van Til’s critical appropriation of Warfield and Kuyper. In the following series of blog posts I will then seek to flesh out the points.¹

Bahnsen explains Van Til’s approach in the following manner:

According to Van Til, we find these three things in both Warfield and Kuyper: (1) a brilliant conviction of central importance which is relevant to our theory of knowledge and apologetics, (2) another notion, which is inconsistent with the first conviction, and then (3) a view of apologetics that is mistakenly inferred from that first conviction.²

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1. Bahnsen, Van Til’s Apologetic, 596-600.↩
2. Bahnsen, Van Til’s Apologetic, 597.↩

Cornelius Van Til’s presuppositionalist apologetic has often been understood as a critical rejection of the classical apologetic of Old Princeton stalwart Benjamin B. Warfield in favor of the viewpoint of Dutch statesman/theologian Abraham Kuyper. However, as Greg Bahnsen has pointed out, an accurate reading of Van Til qualifies this common assumption.¹

Of course Van Til is critical of Warfield and appreciative of Kuyper, but Van Til’s assessment of both Warfield and Kuyper is much more complex than a categorical rejection of Warfield and wholesale embrace of Kuyper would suggest. In fact, Van Til attempts to build on the strengths and eschew the weaknesses of both these two Reformed giants. Van Til provides a critical appropriation of both Warfield and Kuyper as he seeks to explicate his presuppositional approach to apologetics.
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What factors influenced the institutional development of the French Reformed church during the sixteenth century?   Glenn Sunshine argues that the typical perception of these churches as nothing more than miniature Genevan colonies fails to do justice to the innovative ecclesiastical model that arose in the French church as a result of their unique situation in Catholic France (Glenn S. Sunshine, Reforming French Protestantism (Kirksville, Mo.: Truman State University Press, 2003), pp. 10-11).  In fact, Sunshine’s central argument throughout the book is that the institutional development of the French Reformed church was not the result of a primarily imported Genevan ecclesiology, but rather the result of original structural innovations that occurred in response to their own unique circumstances.  Further, Sunshine argues, these French Reformed ecclesiastical features subsequently spread to other reformed churches abroad and became an integral part of the Calvinist tradition in Western Europe (Reforming French Protestantism, p. 167).  To support his thesis, Sunshine’s book documents the complexities of the institutional development of the French Reformed church in France during the sixteenth century. (Continue Reading…)

Please pray for John Piper, well-known pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church in Minneapolis, MN, as he battles prostate cancer. A letter to his church family can be read here. Piper has had a tremendous influence on my spiritual life and I pray the Lord will sustain him through this trial.

HT: Justin Taylor

Reformata would like to formally welcome Jeffrey Waddington as a contributor to the site.  Jeff is currently a Ph.D. student at Westminster Theological Seminary and his special area of focus is the philosophical theology of Jonathan Edwards.  We look forward to his contributions.