From the Editor. The doctrine of man is central to the modern debate about sexual identity. The rejection of transcendent reality by the modern mind sets people free to seek to redefine the human. In my editorial essay, “Diminishing Humanity: How the Modern World Is Dehumanizing Us,” I explore the theme of dehumanization in modernity. Carl Trueman reviews the work of a relatively unknown twentieth-century Italian political and cultural philosopher in his review of Augusto Del Noce,
The Crisis of Modernity. His exploration of the disenchantment of modern life in terms of an assumed materialism is profound.
The human quest for rest without God leads to the exhaustion of hope. God has designed it that way, so that we may not find rest outside of resting in him. The Sabbath trajectory of human life is meant to drive us to our Creator, in whom true rest may only be found. I explore this theme in George Herbert’s poem “The Pulley.”
John Muether continues the celebration of Reformation 500 as he explores the confessional development of the Reformation with “Reformed Confessions: Canons of the Synod of Dort (1619).” This demonstrates the doctrinal consistency of biblically based ecclesiastical symbols forged in the ecumenical spirit of a truly ecumenical endeavor.
In another area of historical exploration, Danny Olinger gives us chapter 10 of his Vos biography, “Geerhardus Vos: Grace and Glory,” in which he explores the sermonic production of Vos. Few in number, Vos’s sermons provide a rich example of biblical theology applied appropriately and powerfully to the Princeton seminary students of Vos’s day.
David Noe’s review article on Kirk Summers,
Morality after Calvin focuses on another volume of historical theology studies that demonstrates the genetic connection with the theology of the magisterial reformers. Theodore Beza (1519–1605) is considered to be among the first generation after the magisterial reformers. Beza’s high commitment to exegesis as the basis of his theology undermines the false thesis that Post-Reformation dogmatics is a synthetic system built on human logic rather than divine revelation.
William Kessler reviews Joel Beeke’s and Randall Pederson’s
Meet the Puritans. This great resource for one of the central streams of our tradition is encyclopedic in its scope.
Finally, enjoy the simple profundity of John Bunyan’s “The Shepherd Boy’s Song in the Valley of Humiliation.”
Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds
FROM THE ARCHIVES “ANTHROPOLOGY”
Subject Index
- “Defining the Human: Personal Identity in Theological Perspective.” (A. Craig Troxel) 17 (2008): 138–41.
Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God-glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high-quality editorials, articles, and book reviews, we will endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.
