Churchman Spring 2019

In this edition we welcome our new editor, Archbishop Peter Jensen, who begins the volume with his editorial, "Always Let your Conscience Be your Guide?", a look at the phenomenon of 'secular Puritanism' and the biblical view of conscience:

"...the funny thing is that I and all my generation could have sworn that puritanism was a church disease. With the decline of church influence, then the old stiff and bossy rectitude would collapse. And, indeed, it has, if we are talking about Christian concerns about alcohol, gambling, pornography, promiscuity and the like. But the tolerant society we were promised by secularists has not emerged—far from it. It is just that a new set of commandments, inspired by autonomy and an optimistic individualistic anthropology, has arrived with a vengeance. The new puritans are upon us. And they are even tougher than the old, for they know nothing of forgiveness and they do not value love. Twitter is a great way to put offenders in the stocks."

Articles include Mark D. Thompson's essay considering the historical, biblical and theological aspects of the statements in the Church of England formularies concerning Christ’s descent into hell. He concludes that the descent into hell is a richly comforting doctrine for Christian men and women.

The remaining articles are a mix of church history and historical theology: Coleman M. Ford takes us to Celsus's On the True Doctrine for a look at anti-Christian polemic as social scrutiny. Andrew Kloes examines 35 unpublished sermons of Augustus Toplady to see how pastoral his preaching was. Finally, in a review article, Ro Mody considers Stephen J. Chester's Reading Paul with the Reformers: Reconciling Old and New Perspectives.

As always, the journal concludes with a wide range of book reviews, including commentaries, pastoralia, church history, a Hebrew textbook and a children's picture book!

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