Journal: Puritan Reformed Journal
Volume: PRJ 04:2 (Jul 2012)
Article: From The Editors
Author: Anonymous

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PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 1

From The Editors

Sola scriptura has been the great watch-cry of the Reformed tradition, and, contrary to the viewpoint of liberal theologians, this watch-cry gave rise to a great exegetical enterprise that carefully sought to discern the mind of God in His holy Word. Above all things, the Reformed tradition has been a great conduit of exegetical riches. Witness the interpretation of the Song of Songs by Reformed divines as ultimately typological of the great love our Savior has for His church. Numerous scholars in the twentieth century have disagreed with this interpretation, however; it is refreshing to have Pieter de Vries take us back, with careful exegesis, to the older exegetical perspective. This issue contains a second piece of biblical scholarship that also touches on the issue of love—a sermon by Maarten Kuivenhoven explores the love of God’s people that enables them to exercise forgiveness of those who sin against them. Then Gerald Procee tackles an issue that has divided commentators over the years, namely, are the baptism of John the Baptist and Christian baptism to be regarded as one and the same? Very helpfully, he shows us why they should not be so regarded.

In our section on systematic and historical theology, we present three papers on varied historical subjects: an overview of Calvin’s key work on why the church needs reforming (Kevin Carr), a look at the Antinomian controversy in New England through the lens of the Antinomian radical John Eaton (Jonathon Beeke), and a fresh consideration of the impact of Calvinistic thinking upon African-American Baptists between 1750 and 1900 (Eric Washington). The sole paper in our usual section on experiential theology is Joel Beeke’s helpful overview of the Puritan pastoral analysis of the conscience and its functioning in the human person.

This issue focuses particularly on pastoral theology, presenting six papers. This is a helpful reminder that theology can never be divorced from pastoral practice (praxis). A number of these papers approach the topic of pastoral theology from a historical standpoint: thus, David Saxton looks at John Knox’s pastoral theology, Allen Stanton considers Old Princeton’s view of the ideal minister, Brian

PRJ 4:2 (July 2012) p. 2

Najapfour examines how the Puritans used the Lord’s Prayer, and Maarten Kuivenhoven discusses what we can learn from the preaching of two Puritan preachers, William Perkins and Richard Baxter. Rounding out this section are two papers on important issues for the spiritual health of the local church: a study of corporate prayer by Ryan McGraw and Joel Beeke’s reflections on how children within the Christian community need to be ministered to.

As usual there is a great selection of boo...

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