Our Evangelical Calvinism Book: Introducing Some of Our Theses

As many of you know, Myk  Habets and I have co-edited/authored a multi-author book that is currently being made ready for publication this March 2012. The book’s forthcoming bibliographic information is:

Evangelical Calvinism: Essays Resourcing the Continuing Reformation of the Church. Princeton Theological Monograph Series. Eds. Myk Habets and Bobby Grow. Foreword by Alasdair Heron. Eugene, OR.: Pickwick Publications.

The blurb which will be on the back cover of the book reads like this:

Blurb: 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 the Federal Calvinism that is 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.

[To read more about the book, and to take a preview of the table of contents; click: here]

In light of this, and leading up to its release date (TBA: sometime in March 2012); Myk and I would like to share a bit of the material from a chapter that Myk and I co-authored entitled: “Theses on a Theme.” This is the last chapter of the book, and serves to codify what Myk and I envision as some of the basic contours of Evangelical Calvinism. What I will be doing, up and until the release of the book is sharing at least one Thesis a month, from the multiple Theses that we have; in order to provide exposure for the book, and also to potentially receive “critical” feedback from you the reader. You have the potential to alter the shape of a particular thesis (or multiple theses); if you provide feedback prior to the date that we receive the final proofs. And we deem your point to be something that should cause a change that is of material or grammatical import; then we may well edit whatever the point may be based upon your constructive criticism (no guarantees).

Be on the look-out for the first Thesis to be posted; I think I will do that probably this Sunday (American pst).

Let me clarify something about what we are calling ‘Evangelical Calvinism.’ We are not intending to create a movement, or sect within Calvinism; instead we are trying to identify a mood that has been current within the history of Calvinism (most predominately in its Scottish form). Certainly, Myk and I have sought to identify certain contours that we see in constructive ways vis-á-vis ‘Evangelical Calvinism;’ but this should not be taken in a way that signals anything other than me and Myk’s own proclivity towards a certain doctrinal core. In other words, not everyone identifying as an ‘Evangelical Calvinist’ needs to sign off on our ‘Thesis Statements’; many of our authors for the book, do not (but some do)! Stay tuned …