The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy: We\u27re All Dead (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: The Keynesian Revolution and Our Empty Economy: We\u27re All Dead by Victor V. Claar and Greg Forster. Switzerland: Springer/Palgrave Macmillan, 2019. 345 pp. ISBN: 9783030158071

Repose in Mystery: The Limit of Sobriety According to John Calvin

This is a revised version of a paper Dr. Jan van Vliet presented at the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, November 18, 2009, in New Orleans, Louisiana

Gambling on Faith: A Holistic Examination of Blaise Pascal\u27s Wager

Over three centuries after the publication of the Wager the sense of shock and dismay that meets Blaise Pascal\u27s unorthodox tool of apologetics is matched only by attempts to reinterpret and reconstruct it or by out of hand dismissal of Pascal\u27s claim to be Christian.This essay attempts to take a close and holistic look at the Wager - its premises and claims, as well as some attempts at reinterpretation. Do the reinterpretations stretch the integrity of the model or are they successful endeavors to push out the boundaries? We offer a tentative suggestion for conceptual and statistical extension of the Wager on its own terms, remaining faithful to its original construct. Any metaphysically - and epistemologically-consistent system has this­ worldly implications in the structure of values and ethics it enjoins. To obtain full appreciation of Blaise Pascal\u27s theological and ethical teaching, we comparatively examine Pascal\u27s value structure by studying the similarities and differences that surface between the implied ethics of the Wager, a more ­fully developed explicit value structure derived from Pascal\u27s own Pensees, and the ethical dimensions prescribed by a system of Christian-theistic ethics. Not only does this help us to place the Wager in a context more faithful to Pascal\u27s entire system of thought, but, in doing so, this method of pro­ceeding may go some distance in mitigating long-standing evangelical angst. The primary criticism of the Wager has been that it enjoins faith on purely rationalistic grounds. Therefore we examine Pascal\u27s use of reason in this apologetic tool, we draw some comparisons with the use of reason by the Puritans of his century and we scrutinize the Wager -its entire philo­sophical foundations-through the grid of the presuppositional apologetic pioneered by Cornelius Van Til

Engaging the Mental Wars of Our Times

Dr. Jan van Vliet’s paper is an edited version of a talk delivered at the annual meetings of the Evangelical Theological Society, in Washington, D. C., November 15, 2006

Experiencing Our Only Comfort: A Post-Reformation Refocus in the Heidelberg Catechism

Last year marked the 450th anniversary of the publication of the Heidelberg Catechism. In celebration of this momentous occasion and as a reminder of the contemporary applicability of this highly-regarded confessional document, this essay examines the earliest and most complete Puritan commentary extant: that of second-generation Puritan thinker William Ames (1576–1633), protégé of William Perkins (1558–1602), the “father” of the Puritan movement. We examine methodological considerations and two topical issues that arise when the venerated Catechism is placed in the hands of a practically oriented, post-Reformation divine for whom theology was none other than “living to God”: Theologia est doctrina deo vivendi. It will become evident that this package of catechetical instruction carries as much—perhaps more—practical relevance today as when it was first authored four and a half centuries ago

Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear (Book Review)

Reviewed Title: Christian Hospitality and Muslim Immigration in an Age of Fear by Matthew Kaemingk. Grand Rapids, Michigan: Eerdmans, 2018. 296 pp. ISBN: 9780802874580

Islam According to Journalist Abraham Kuyper

This paper was presented at the 2016 Kuyper Conference Religion and Journalism at the Abraham Kuyper Center for Public Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary, Princeton, New Jersey, April 15-16, 2016

An Ontology of Human Flourishing: Economic Development and Epistemologies of Faith, Hope, and Love

This chapter demonstrates that the presence of poverty, and its associated pathologies, is of concern to all humankind whose innate desire is to seek the flourishing of fellow humanity. The traditional, often unsuccessful, methods of poverty alleviation have been challenged in creative, bold, and refreshing ways that are superior in both identifying poverty and moving agencies and pathways toward greater success. This involves a technical application of quantitative microeconomics which is paired with expertise and insights on human behavior gleaned from the behavioral sciences. It turns out that human behavior is often better explained by behavioral categories such as hope than by traditional assumptions of rationality. Drawing from the western philosophical and Christian theistic traditions (between which there is considerable overlap), this innate desire to hope is explained as part of that triad of virtues—faith, hope, and love—that comprise the epicenter of the human condition. The Christian-theistic tradition postulates that this condition of hope for a physically and metaphysically-redeemed humanity requires certain lived behaviors in the present, even as we approach, ultimately, the very telos of our existence. Paramount among these behaviors is the pursuit of socio-economic justice. Much use is made of narratives to illustrate the lived reality of those living in desperation but buoyed by hope

From Condition to State: Critical Reflections on Cornelius Van Til\u27s Doctrine of Common Grace

What Cornelius Van Til calls the common grace problem has received considerable attention in the theological discussions of, especially, the first half of the twentieth century. Beginning with an exhaustive (three volume) attempt by Abraham Kuyper to interpret all the implications of this doctrine for the individual and for society and through the various refinements of the Amsterdam School to the suggested overhaul by Cornelius Van Til, the doctrine remains an unsettled one upon which there is no mutual agreement