by Scott R. Swain B. B. Warfield’s 1915 ISBE article on the Trinity presents the Princeton theologian’s mature thinking on the biblical bases and meaning of the doctrine and offers a revisionist interpretation of the personal names of “Father,” “Son,” and “Spirit.” Instead of interpreting the personal names of the Trinity in terms of relations of […]
Read Your Bible with Self-Denial—and Find Yourself
by Scott R. Swain Jesus’s call to take up our cross has implications for the entirety of our lives, including how we read our Bibles. Building on this conviction, Q & A 157 of the Westminster Larger Catechism counsels us to read Scripture with “self-denial.” Unfortunately, this counsel is often ignored in evangelical Bible reading, preaching, […]
10 Things You Should Know about Systematic Theology
by Scott R. Swain 1. Systematic theology exists because the God who knows and loves himself in the bliss of the Trinity is pleased to make himself an object of creaturely knowledge and love through holy Scripture. Theology in its essence is “wisdom”—a knowledge that is ordered to love (practical wisdom), and a love that […]
The Importance of Theology
by Scott R. Swain & Michael Allen Systematic theology” is a label with admittedly clinical connotations. It conjures a picture of the theologian as someone who takes in hand the living Word of God only to dissect and dismember the body of biblical truth into various pieces so that he might label (often in Latin!) […]
Pro-Nicene Theology: Inseparable Operations
by Scott R. Swain The Living God The triune God is a living God and, as such, he is intrinsically active. The Trinity is active in knowledge, love, and beatitude. The Trinity is active in the production of creatures. And the Trinity is active in a care that extends, beyond bringing us into existence, to […]
Paul, the virtues, and theological conflict
I. Virtue: a brief introduction In my previous post, I briefly noted the threefold grace that Paul unfolds in Titus 2.11-14: (1) “saving grace,” which flows from God’s free mercy toward sinners in the redeeming death of Jesus Christ, (2) “training grace,” wherein the church becomes a school of virtue, and (3) “hope-inspiring grace,” which births in […]
