This phrase may be found on T-Shirts at Mars Hill Church in Seattle. Minister Mark Driscoll is a proponent of the New Calvinism. Driscoll's theology goes as follows: "You are not captain of your soul or master of your fate but a depraved worm whose hard work and good deeds will get you nowhere, because God marked you for heaven or condemned you to hell before the beginning of time."
The New Calvinists reject forms of religion that focus on the self, and evidently delight in affirming God's ultimate power in salvation and providential work. From The Christian Century, December 1, 2009.
My church voted not to call Jonathan Edwards to its pulpit in 1750. 83 years later our remaining Calvinists left in a huff, and we haven't looked back since. Edwards, meanwhile, had to settle for his next-best job offer, the presidency of Princeton.
ReplyDeleteGeorge Marsden's biography of Jonathan Edwards is a fascinating read. Edwards and his wife had 11 kids, and visitors showed up and stayed for months at a time. Evidently, he would spend 12 hours a day or more in his study, reading, writing, and praying.
ReplyDeleteI have heard the grievances against him at Northampton summed up as his being "invisible for six days a week and incomprehensible on the seventh."
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