Monday, November 5, 2012

B. B. Warfield's birthday


It was on this day, 161 years ago, that the highly esteemed Reformed theologian Benjamin Breckinridge Warfield (November 5, 1851 – February 16, 1921) was born (near Lexington, Kentucky).

When it comes to Reformed theologians, B. B. Warfield is one of my personal favorites—I think it is safe to say that he is one of the top 10 Reformed theologians that American has produced—his substantial body of work (writings, sermons, and addresses) continues to influence a large number of English speakng Reformed folk.

I would like to honor this great man's birthday by providing some links to online resources that are dedicated to him:












[Please feel free to provide additional, germane links in the combox.]

Enjoy !!!


Grace and peace,

David

5 comments:

Ken said...

Glad you like Warfield - what do you think of his famous statement?

B. B. Warfield, “For the Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over Augustine's doctrine of the Church. “ (Warfield, Calvin and Augustine, p. 321-322)

I think it is very true and insightful, cogent.

David Waltz said...

Hi Ken,

Yesterday, you posted:

==Glad you like Warfield - what do you think of his famous statement?

B. B. Warfield, “For the Reformation, inwardly considered, was just the ultimate triumph of Augustine's doctrine of grace over Augustine's doctrine of the Church. “ (Warfield, Calvin and Augustine, p. 321-322)

I think it is very true and insightful, cogent.==

It depends on the position of the given Catholic one is dialoguing with, for as Dr. Charles Hodge so cogently pointed out over 150 years ago, "the decisions of the Council of Trent, as understood by one class of Romish theologians, are not less at variance with the truth; but not as they are in fact explained by another class of her doctors". (See THIS THREAD for greater context.)

Since Vactican II, there is a growing number of Catholics who read Trent in the sense that was delineated in the documents on justification produced by the joint commission of RCC and Lutheran theologians back in 1999; see THIS THREAD for links to the relevant documents in English.


Grace and peace,

David

Ken said...

It depends on the position of the given Catholic one is dialoguing with


Sounds like the Roman Catholic Theologians disagree with each other - I thought the Pope was there to be the umpire and "thus says the Lord" and solve any and all disagreements - so theoretically, dogmatically, there is not supposed to be any disagreement between them on importantly defined issues and all theologians are supposed to fall in line with the Pope.

Of course, in my opinion, Vatican 2 is a real contradiction to pre-Vatican 2 - that there is no salvation apart from the R. Catholic Church (Boniface VIII, etc. )

Ken said...

the link in these recent articles go to Justin Taylor's blog and there is discussion there between several Reformed folks and a couple of Lutherans - Rev. Paul McCain and Nathan Rinne and some R. Catholics - interesting discussion and seems to me that there really was no agreement that these talks on justification claim between Lutherans and RC - because the Lutherans who agreed are liberals and the RC are free to just say "we have never changed Trent" and "we agree with some aspects of Justification and Luther" - they don't seem to be honest with the realities of the actual history of the very real disagreement.

I wrote this one and pointed to the article of Chris Castaldo which was highlighted and summarized by Justin Taylor:
http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2012/11/stimulating-article-and-discussion-in.html

Then James Swan went there and joined in the discussion and to me, does a good job of assessing the situation.

http://beggarsallreformation.blogspot.com/2012/11/has-roman-catholic-church-modified.html

David Waltz said...

Hi Ken,

Thanks for the links. IMO, the opening post and comments in the original Chris Castaldo thread should take priority over the threads you linked to, for much of material in the latter threads falls under Castaldo's following assessment:

There are hard-boiled Reformed Protestants who reject anything short of full-blown anti-Catholicism. And there are ultra-conservative Catholic apologists who are equally combative and triumphalist. I am sorry to be ad hominem, but, having spent long hours and days arguing points through ridiculously long comment strings, I really don’t have the time nor motivation to do so with such people. (link)


Grace and peace,

David