Evening Prayer

McNiell, John Thomas. The History and Character of Calvinism. New York: Oxford University Press, 1962. Dr.McNeill refers to Calvin’s early edition of the Institutes, his Reply to Sadoleto, the first Psalter, Forms of Prayer, Commentary on Romans and his Little Treatise on the Holy Supper. These were early works. A vast treasure of letters gives crucial insights into the mind of the Reformer. His works may be classified as liturgical, exegetical, catechetical, systematic and polemical (203). A retour of the Institutes is in the queue. Greg Allison’s “Historical Theology:” Prof. Allison offers quotations from Prof. Charles Hodge in his support of penal, substitutionary and satisfactionary atonement. Hodge anticipated objections that would be perennial, e.g., God is love and has little taste for justice and satisfaction of legal claims, e.g., Socinus, Grotius, and Bishop N. T. Wright (406). Expiation and propitiation are out for these diminishers of God’s justice. Edward Cairns’s “Christianity Through the Centuries:” Prof. Cairns gives details of 1521 and 1522 for Luther while in hiding. Melanchthon is busily at work including his 1521 Loci Communes, predicated on his studies of Romans (317). Luther thought is a masterpiece and we, again, differ with Luther on this, like other things. Luther had solid points, but he was surely not infallible. Millard Erickson’s “Christian Theology:” Prof. Erickson tours additional texts from Paul on Trinitarianism, including a few suggestions that the "structure" of Paul's epistles as well as direct "content" reflect the One-in-Three God, e.g., Romans and Galatians. Justo Gonzalez’s “History of Christianity: Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation:” Prof. Gonzalez introduces the Benedictine monastic movement in the West, more practical and more communal than more ascetic and retreatist Eastern versions (277). Stand by, the Muslims will be on the rampage against all takers.