Next five questions below, about the Covenant of Life and sin.

Quaestiones XXVI-XXX

xxvi. Quid promisit Deus in foedere vitae?

Se Adam vita donaturum esse, si Deo perfecte pareret.

xxvii. Quid minatus est Deus in foedere vitae?

Se Adam morte puniturum esse, si Deo non pareret.

xxviii. Tenuitne Adam...

The next five in our ongoing series, on creation and the covenant of life…

Quaestiones XXI-XXV

xxi. Quomodo cognoscis animum vitam in aeternum esse acturum?

Quod Scripturae sanctae mihi hoc docent.

xxii. In quo statu Adam Hevamque constituit Deus?

Deus eos in sanctitatis et beatitudinis statu...

Today we continue on with the next five questions of the First Catechism translated into Latin, which concern the creation of Adam and Eve.

Quaestiones XVI-XX

xvi. Qui erant primi nostri parentes?

Adam et Heva.

xvii. Qualem hominem creavit Deus?

Deus hominem creavit masculum et feminam, iuxta...

Yesterday I posted the first 10 questions of the First Catechism in Latin. Today we’re back with the next five.

xi. Potesne Deum videre?

Deum videre non possum, sed Deus me videt semper.

xii. Scitne Deus omnia?

Deus omnia scit, et nihil ei latet.

xiii. Potestne facere omnia Deus?

Deus totam...

It used to be standard practice in Protestant academies to catechize in Latin. That is obviously much less the case now, perhaps a cause of nostalgia for those of us who are (a) Christians and who also (b) teach Latin to small children.

But nostalgia is dumb, and always has been.

In an effort,...

Originally published in 1908, Herman Bavinck’s book The Christian Family was only just translated into English in 2012. Throughout the book, Bavinck lays out a Christian theology of the family, and he gives practical advice on how families can withstand modern challenges and...

With the recent publication of Herman Bavinck’s Reformed Ethics and the forthcoming first English translation of his Christian Worldview ¹, more and more readers are discovering the genius of the Dutch neo-Calvinist afresh. Picking up Bavinck’s Ethicsor Dogmatics, however, can be...

At long last, below you will find the final prayer included at the end of Andreas Hyperius’s Elementa Christianae Religionis. This one is to be used before reading or hearing the Bible. Once again, the attempt (doubtless insufficient) was made to put it in Cranmerian Plain Style. The...

The next of Hyperius’s prayers, this onefor the evening, is translated below. It is a good bit longer than his morning prayer; but it is also quite good. After this, only one more remains to be done. 

An evening prayer.

Lord God, most generous Father, for thy kindnesses both internal and...

A couple of years ago I translatedtwoprayers by Andreas Hyperius from hisElementa Christianae Religionis (Elements of the Christian Religion). There are a few more from that final section of the work, so I figured, well, why not. They’re good. All of them, including those I translated back...

Plato, in thePhaedo, had Socrates claim that philosophy was “practice for dying and death.” It was a sentiment that was to exercise great influence down through the centuries, all the way to Heidegger’s “Being-toward-death” and beyond. (That last part works better if...

The 200th anniversary of the birth of America’s greatest writer of fiction just passed.

I mean Herman Melville,...

InInstitutes3.3.19, John Calvin gives a “summary of the gospel” (cf. 3.3.1), in which he makes the important point that “the gospel,” the good news that Scripture and the church proclaim, includes not only the forgiveness or remission of sins (justification), but also...

On August 1, 1537, Philip Melanchthon wrote a letter to the Lutheran poet Eobanus Hessus intended to serve as prefatory material for his versification of the Psalter, thePsalterium Davidis carmine redditum (David’s Psalter Rendered in Verse), in which Hessus put all 150 Psalms into Latin...

InSermon 162C (Dolbeau 10), on Paul’s rebuke of Peter in Galatians 2 (on the history of the exegesis of this passage, cf. my essayhere), ¹ Augustine gives a helpful sketch of the various “levels” on which one can speak of the genesis and authorship or “voice” of...

George Buchanan was perhaps the finest Latin poet to write after the close of antiquity. I’ve discussed him previouslyhere,here, andhere. 

One of his most-loved works in verse is hisPoetic paraphrase of the Psalms of David (Psalmorum Davidis paraphrasis poetica), the first complete...

We’ve treated the Protestant educational legacy at various times here in the past: see, for example,this; orthis; orthis.

One aspect we haven’t touched on is the premium that Presbyterians in particular placed on the education of women. This is arguably a legacy of the Ulster...

Those who honor Christ only as their Mediator are easily tempted to call in his help as the physician for one’s sin-sick soul, but then, once that soul is conscious of its salvation and healing, to treat the Savior as we often do our earthly physicians — once healed, we let them go and...

In his famous “Third Theological Oration,” Gregory of Nazianzus gives this rule for interpreting biblical passages about Christ:

To give you the explanation in one sentence.  What is lofty you are to apply to the Godhead, and to that Nature in Him which is superior to sufferings and...

Martin Luther’sLarge Catechism, ¹ the current text for Reformed Theological Seminary’sPaideia Center reading groups,is a wonderful source of simple, practical, straightforward exposition of the essentials of the Christian faith, covering the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’...

Fyodor Dostoevsky’s characters, like Fyodor Dostoevsky himself (surprise!), often betray a hostility to Protestantism, and to Western Christendom in general.

One can see this inThe Brothers Karamazov. For instance, in “The Grand Inquisitor” Ivan refers to “a terrible new...

“Article 36 of the Belgic Confession Vindicated against Dr. Abraham Kuyper”.by P. J. Hoedemaker Ruben Alvarado (Translator) Pantocrator Press (2019)

Abraham Kuyper (1837-1920) rightly stands as a towering figure in late 19^th and early 20^th centuries. Moreover, he is known for key...

Augustine is well known for the degree to which he was influenced by Neoplatonism in the first phase of his career. (It is sometimes assumed–incorrectly–that this makes his early works insufficiently “Christian.”) In the preface to his first completed extant work, for...

This year marks the 400^th anniversary of the Synod of Dort. Thus, I was not surprised to come across another article on its Canons. I am always one who is encouraged to find popular Reformed authors defending the Reformed confessions of the 16^th and 17^th centuries. In fact, if there is one document...

Anyone familiar with the Simpsons’ Groundskeeper Willie, knows that old-fashioned Presbyterians did not celebrate holidays. Even Christmas was seen as illegitimate, and Christmas was not celebrated in early Puritan America. This stance has given way pretty decisively, and in the present day,...