Evening Prayer

McNiell, John Thomas. The History and Character of Calvinism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Dr. McNeil gives the names of several anti-Trinitarians posing as religious inquirers rather than dogmaticians. He gives them audiences and interviews. He opposes burning in one case, allowing the man to depart. Softer and less harsh treatment than Servetus received, the celebrated and dogmatic anti-Trinitarian. But, that a whole nuther story. We hear of the uncle and nephew, the two Socinians (183). Greg Allison’s “Historical Theology:” Prof. Allison gives a fair representation of the anti-Chalcedonian flat-liners (our words): Rauschenbush’s “revolutionary Jesus,” Borg’s “counter-cultural reformer,” Crossan’s “peasant Jewish mystic,” John and Hick’s “death of God.” The classical views are “absurd and incoherent” (Allison’s words). We would add that these decadent men looked to the pond and saw their own faces as the face of Jesus. Other deviants will be addressed including efficacious evangelical responses (385). J.G. Machen (our words): “Is it too late to tell you `I told you so.’” Edward Cairns’s “Christianity Through the Centuries:” Prof. Cairns outlines the rise and development of the English nation-state: Norman invasion of 1066, feudalism, Magna Carta in 1215, Edward 1’s Parliament of 1295 (Lords and Commons), the common law with Henry II, the Hundred Years’ War (1337-1453), the War of Roses (late 15th century), the Tudor setback along Machiavellian and Crumwellian lines (our words), yet with gradual development of a Constitutional monarchy (291). Millard Erickson’s “Christian Theology:” Prof. Erickson has described 19th-20th century decadence, Paul Tillach, and now introduced the “death of God” theologians of the 1950s-1970s. God stopped being Transcendental, gave it up, was absorbed in history, and the sacred/secular distinction (Erickson’s words) was erased. Worship, meditation, and the Word of God became an irrelevance. Marching in a civil-rights protest was as religious as a BCP-service (our words). We hear of Alitzer and William Hamilton—flat-liners with hostile heads (Rom.8.7), enemies of God (our words) (309). Justo Gonzalez’s “History of Christianity: Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation:” We hear of Augustine’s attendance at Ambrose’s sermons, initially to check out his rhetoric, but, soon enough, being taken by the doctrinal content (245). As a historian, we don’t see theological integration here by the Professor. An intentional purge? Shaped by flat-liners? Reformed hawks are circling.