Deus Misereatur

From my interactions with Protestant parishioners over the years, it seems to me that there is this high brick wall between the present and the past. Most are fairly in-tune with recent history (sort of), barely in-tune with Reformation history up to the near present, and utterly out-of-tune with anything before 31 October 1517. That's where the high brick wall looms, with no perceptible way to climb it and gaze on the other side. But recently Christian Focus has happily published a handy, 152-page paperback, "Reclaiming the Dark Ages: How the Gospel Light Shone from 500 to 1500." The authors, Iain Wright, pastor of Covenant OPC, and Yannick Imbert, who holds the William Edgar Chair of Apologetics at Faculté Jean Calvin, Aix–en–Provence, southern France, and serves on the theological committee of the National Council of French Evangelicals, have sought to give Protestant Christians a boost so they can gaze over the wall, and a nice boost it is. Wright and Imbert don't...

  In a season of bad press, fallen leaders, naysayers, and kooks, how does one convey the positive side of the church’s story? Recently Luke H. Davis, teacher of ethics and Church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, has given readers a new and final installment in his “Risen Hope” series that brings his account of the church’s story up to the present. In this 176-page softback, “Resolve: The Church That Endures Onward,” Davis takes on more contemporary Christian men and women to show how they dealt with evil and difficulties in their allegiance to the Lord Jesus. The book is written for teenagers but will be valuable for older adults as well.   The author covers a wide array of people from multiple continents and Christian traditions, to give a solid sampling of fidelity and endurance. He covers Sammy Morris, J.C. Ryle, Francis Grimke, C.S. Lewis, Benjamin Kwashi, and many more to give readers a quick tour from the early 19 th century to the late 20 th ...

 I jokingly say that most modern American Christians think church history began with their grandmother. It's sad, but too often true. Luke H. Davis, a teacher of ethics and church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, is doing his part to rectify this in his "Risen Hope" series written for teenagers. The newest of newest installments is a 176-page paperback that addresses different streams of the Church's changes and movements after the Reformation, in "Renewal: The Church That Expands Outward".  This is a handy, easy-to-digest volume that walks readers through the years between 1600 and 1900, with fourteen attention-catching sketches. The value of the work shows up in the short retellings of the lives of various people. For example, did you know there was an Eastern Orthodox patriarch who had strong Calvinist leanings? Did you know that Harry Hosier was the first Black man to preach to a congregation in America and the first Black pastor of...

  Two major trends seem to be emaciating much of Christianity in the West: (1) dwindling knowledge of the Bible, and (2) a deficiency of the history of the church. To recover in both areas would build mass and muscle. Luke H. Davis, a teacher of ethics and church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, is doing his part to remediate the lack regarding church history in his "Risen Hope" series written for teenagers. The newest installment is a 176-page paperback that addresses the Protestant movement in the 16th Century, "Reform: The Church at the Birth of Protestantism".  This is quite a handy, easy-to-digest volume that walks readers through a very complicated historical season with twelve attention-catching sketches. But there's more here than just chronicled events. Davis takes the time to develop the role and significance of the five solas to the reformation churches. He shows what these meant, and still mean, and why they were and are import...

  For many, the Middle Ages are appropriately called “The Dark Ages,” mainly because that era is unknown to them and fraught with phantasmal folk tales. Recently a new 176-page paperback has surfaced to help shine some light into a few of the nooks and crannies of those years. “Reign: The Church in Middle Ages” is for kids from 12 and up. It’s a retelling of stories of men and women in the western Church who lived through those centuries. Luke H. Davis, who teaches ethics and church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, and has authored several fiction and nonfiction works, has taken thirteen of those lives and retold their tales in an enjoyable, memorable, and personable fashion. This is the second installment of the growing “Risen Hope” church history series printed by Christian Focus Publications. Davis takes on the stories of Benedict, Columba, Gregory the Great, Anselm, Wycliffe, and a host of others from the 6 th through the 15 th Centuries. He retells th...

  Decades ago, a Christian artist penned a delightful song reflecting on Jesus’ boyhood. The artist was Rich Mullins, and in that song lie these words: “And did they tell You stories 'bout the saints of old? Stories about their faith? They say stories like that make a boy grow bold. Stories like that make a man walk straight” (Rich Mullins, “Boy Like Me/Man Like You”). Those song lyrics resonate in my head on occasion, especially when diving into church history. And those words sang out as I read a new 176-page paperback, “Redemption: The Church in Ancient Times” written for kids from 12 and up. It’s a retelling of stories ‘bout the saints of old, stories about their faith. Stories that make a boy grow bold. Stories that make a man walk straight! And Luke H. Davis, who teaches ethics and church history at Westminster Christian Academy in St. Louis, and has authored several fiction and nonfiction works, has made these stories enjoyable, memorable, and personable.   Davis take...

This volume, a part of the Library of Christian Classics series, has been out since 1951. It's is not an exhaustive collection of everything that these early church pastors-theologians wrote, but it gives one a good feel. There are large portions of Tertullian's "Prescriptions Against the Heretics" and "On Idolatry".  Also, a significant sampling of Cyprian of Carthage's "Unity of the Catholic Church" and letters on the lapsed and baptism. Then, there are hefty samplings of Ambrose of Milan's letters dealing with the Council of Aquileia, the Altar of Victory, the battle of basilicas, and several others. Finally, Jerome arrives with letters 14, 15, 52, 107, 108, and the important 146.  Each pastor-theologian receives their own introduction. And the editors give the individual works their own introductory backstory. The footnotes which give Scripture quotation references, and historical tidbits, are helpful and valuable. It's a great reso...

Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Christianity in the West, 350-550 AD Peter Brown Princeton University Press 41 William Street Princeton, New Jersey 08540 USA https://press.princeton.edu ISBN: 9780691161778; $24.95; 2012 When Jesus remarked, “Truly, I say to you, only with difficulty will a rich person enter the kingdom of heaven. Again I tell you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God” (Matthew 19.23-24, ESV), how did earlier Christians perceive his statement and engage it? And in what ways would this have coincided or conflicted with their cultural environment? These, and other questions, are addressed in sizable detail by Peter Brown, the Philip and Beulah Rollins Professor of History (Emeritus) and Senior Historian at Princeton University, in his voluminous 792 page paperback, “Through the Eye of a Needle: Wealth, the Fall of Rome, and the Making of Chr...

In Search of Ancient Roots: The Christian Past and the Evangelical Identity Crisis by Kenneth J. Stewart My rating: 5 of 5 stars “Evangelical Protestantism is not the problem; evangelical Protestantism that has severed its roots in early Christianity is a problem” (273). So concludes Kenneth J. Stewart, professor of theological studies at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, in his new 304 page hardback "In Search of Ancient Roots: The Christian Past and the Evangelical Identity Crisis." The author carefully and conscientiously presents his case in a way that is understandable for pastors, interested adults and those in the academy. “In Search of Ancient Roots” develops the idea that Protestantism, including Evangelicalism, has roots that run back through popular late medieval movements and the earlier Patristic and Christian eras. Stewart contends that early Protestantism “chose to present itself as embodying a return to the less encumbered doctrinal allegian...

The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond Geoffrey R. Treloar InterVarsity Press PO Box 1400 Downers Grove, IL 60515-1426 www.ivpress.com ISBN: 978-0-8308-2584-4; $35.00; March 2017 Obtain a Copy and Dive In; 5 Stars of 5 Reviewed by Rev. Dr. Michael Philliber for Deus Misereatur (mphilliber.blogspot.com). Hot and steaming off of the press, with the fresh smell of newness, comes “ The Disruption of Evangelicalism: The Age of Torrey, Mott, McPherson and Hammond ”. It is the fourth volume in a planned five volume series chronicling a history of evangelicalism. The author, Geoffrey R. Treloar, is director of learning and teaching at the Australian College of Theology, visiting fellow in history in the School of Humanities and Languages at the University of New South Wales, and veteran writer.  This volume readably recounts approximately 50 years of evangelicalism’s story as it moves from the 19 th into the first half ...