This collection of writings contains articles and book reviews that are not readily accessible to most readers. Many of them are written for a wider audience of informed lay students of Scripture, as well as seminarians. They have been brought together here in a fresh way with other new writings. As a result, this study is somewhat unique, drawing upon the author's career in theology and church music. Over the course of four decades of scholarly research and writing Mark Karlberg has also been engaged in the music ministry of the church, serving as organist and choir director. Chief influences in his study and practice of music in the church have been Robert Elmore and Gerre Hancock, leading organists, choral masters, and composers of our generation. In the course of their stellar careers Elmore and Hancock have served in different ecclesiastical settings--Moravian, Presbyterian, Southern Baptist, and Anglican. What they both share in common is their exceptional skill in the art of improvisation. Part of their accompaniment was "off the written musical score," resulting in service-playing that was creative and engaging. In the spirit of their artistic expression we offer this collection of writings bearing as its theme the great Song of Redemption, composed by "the singing Christ" (Heb 2:12).

The Reformed Two-Kingdom project has generated a great deal of literature. However, this literature is often characterized by inflamed rhetoric. Further, though it is standard fare to assume that Kline was the architect of the project, in reality, there has been very little scholarly examination of this point. In response, Kline's system is analyzed through the means of a dialectical discourse with three differing models within the Reformed tradition--the Theonomist, Perspectivalist, and Dooyeweerdian schools. Through this means, the study keeps away from surface-level polemics and instead directs readers to the critically important substructural level of current discussions. While clarifying some of the key differences between Kline and his interlocutors, often-overlooked points of nuance are also highlighted. These points are shown to be important in that they present the potential to lessen frustration and impasse in the ongoing dialogue.

Central to the mission of the church with each passing generation is the elucidation of the gospel of Christ, which is the heart of the Christian message. Witness to God’s saving word in Scripture comes in response to discussions and debates arising over the course of church history. Our study highlights some of the unity and disunity found within the Reformed tradition, Reformation and modern. Beginning with the subject of the development of doctrine over the course of church history, we take up the foundational issue of biblical hermeneutics (the question of how we are to interpret the Bible). The year 2017 marks the Protestant Church’s 500th anniversary (October 31). We consider, secondly, Protestantism’s two leading theological principles—the formal (the doctrine of Scripture) and the material (the doctrine of justification by faith alone). In the final section, we critique departures from the teaching of historic federalism found within contemporary Reformed orthodoxy, which strikes at the very heart of what it means to be “Reformed” in theology. Crucial in this long-standing and ongoing dispute is the interpretation of the Mosaic Covenant as in some sense a “republication” of the original Covenant of Works with Adam at creation. Covenant and justification are the focal doctrines under study.

Internationally acclaimed scholars offer a progress report on current evangelical thinking about God's being and attributes in light of current controversies.

This fully updated second edition is a selective annotated bibliography of all relevant published resources relating to church and worship music in the United States. Over the past decade, there has been a growth of literature covering everything from traditional subject matter such as the organ works of J.S. Bach to newer areas of inquiry including folk hymnology, women and African-American composers, music as a spiritual healer, to the music of Mormon, Shaker, Moravian, and other smaller sects. With multiple indices, this book will serve as an excellent tool for librarians, researchers, and scholars sorting through the massive amount of material in the field.

More than any other theological tradition, Reformed federalism has recognized the importance of the biblical teaching on the covenants in its system of doctrine. This tradition came to mature confessional status in the writing of the Westminster Confession of Faith (and Catechisms). The place of the Westminster tradition within the stream of Christian history and theology is remarkable indeed. Westminster not only gained recognition as the epitome of Calvinist teaching at the close of the Protestant Reformation (the middle of the seventeenth century), it also earned the reputation for precision and comprehensiveness in doctrinal formulation. It became the measure by which biblical interpreters defended their systems of doctrine - either in agreement or disagreement with the theology of the Westminster divines. These writings are the climax of three decades of research and study, and they appear as the third in the series of collections published by Wipf and Stock, beginning with Covenant Theology in Reformed Perspective, followed by Gospel Grace: The Modern-day Controversy. The critical teaching in dispute in each of these studies is the classic Protestant antithesis between the Law and the Gospel, what serves as the basis for the Reformed doctrine of the twofold covenants, the Covenant of Works and the Covenant of Grace. Protestant-Reformed Orthodoxy now stands at the crossroads; the plight of Westminster Seminary (East and West) is merely illustrative of the depth and the intensity of the contemporary theological dispute, one impacting the future of Protestant evangelicalism as a whole. The battle is between historic Reformed-Protestantism and modern-day revisionism of a radical sort. The rapid rise of postmodernism (or nonfoundationalism) is indicative of the rapidly changing mood and posture in ("evangelical") biblical scholarship at the opening of this third millennium of Christian interpretation. Without question, the modern church continues to loose her biblical moorings. Forsaking the basic theological convictions of the Protestant Reformation it has attempted to subject the Word of God to vigorous academic (i.e., "scientific") investigation (the return of rationalism). In doing so, it has abandoned the Scripture principle, which recognizes the uniquely authoritative and inerrant character of the Word of God. Lost in the shuffle is the uncompromising proclamation of the one, true Gospel - the Gospel of justification by grace through faith alone. Lost also is the doctrine of the perspicuity of Scripture. Nothing less than a new Reformation in our day will halt travel down the road leading to destruction. --From the Preface

In this exciting volume, new and emerging voices join senior Reformed scholars in presenting a coherent and impassioned articulation of Calvinism for today's world. Evangelical Calvinism represents a mood within current Reformed theology. The various contributors are in different ways articulating that mood, of which their very diversity is a significant element. In attempting to outline features of an Evangelical Calvinism, a number of the contributors compare and contrast this approach with that of Federal Calvinism currently dominant in North American Reformed theology, challenging the assumption that Federal Calvinism is the only possible expression of orthodox Reformed theology. This book does not, however, represent the arrival of a "new Calvinism" or even a "neo-Calvinism," if by those terms are meant a novel reading of the Reformed faith. An Evangelical Calvinism highlights a Calvinistic tradition that has developed particularly within Scotland, but is not unique to the Scots. The editors have picked up the baton passed on by John Calvin, Karl Barth, Thomas Torrance, and others, in order to offer the family of Reformed theologies a reinvigorated theological and spiritual ethos. This volume promises to set the agenda for Reformed-Calvinist discussion for some time to come.

Tapio Luoma examines Thomas F. Torrance's claim that modern empirical sciences are actually an outcome of the Christian theology of the early church. He shows how Torrence's reformed concern for the doctrine of election has affected his view of realism.