Volume 09 Issue 1

In This Issue

The Institute for Faith, Work, and Culture at Reformed Theological Seminary in Orlando conducted its first symposium last January. We are pleased to publish the five presentations in this issue. The essay by George Harinck is an address he delivered at Reformed Theological Seminary in Washington in November, 2023, as part of that campus’s Initiative... READ MORE

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Studies in Faith, Work, and Culture: Introduction

Damein Schitter

One of the most significant developments in evangelical Christianity over the past several decades is the “faith and work” (FAW) movement. This movement seeks to help Christians cultivate an integrated approach to their faith and work. Convinced that a Christian’s work should be neither a mere instrument for personal gain nor an idol that defines... READ MORE

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The Doctrine of God: Divine Fullness and Work

Fred Sanders

  Work and the Doctrine of God There are some obvious pitfalls to avoid in relating the doctrine of God to the world of human labor. Certain clichés beckon: a simple schema that correlates an uncreated worker with created workers; collaborative cooperation in a shared task that spans the divine-human distinction; a great chain of... READ MORE

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Faith and Work . . . for Others

Vincent Bacote

“Everyone is beginning to recognize the faith and work connection.” This is what I began to think around 2007. But what I have learned in the last decade or so about the faith and work conversation is that an increased mention of the topic does not mean widespread attention to and embrace of the efforts... READ MORE

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Work Under the Fall

N. Gray Sutanto

What is common or universal is not identical with what is normative. It is common, and, in fact, east of Eden, universal, that all human beings do err in grievous ways, but the Bible insists that though sin is universal, it is not normative. The universal human condition as we have it today is the... READ MORE

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Paradisial Gin and Tonics: On The Redemption of the Artifacts of Human Cultivation

Brian G. Mattson

Dad, will we have Chinese food in heaven?” That was the earnest and innocent question I received from my nine-year-old daughter as we were enjoying a culinary delight from the Far East. I quickly replied “Yes.” Why would a father go out on a tenuous limb and disappoint a child? But I knew she was... READ MORE

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First Principles and Last Things for a Theology of Work

Michael Allen

The faith-and-work conversation has turned with some frequency to the topic of last things. Here we do not suffer lack, theologically speaking, and yet we may still suffer. An eschatological shape to the life of work and to culture-making and culture-forming activities is not necessarily the same as a good or sufficient eschatological shape to... READ MORE

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“Broad and Wide and Far”: Herman Bavinck’s Catholic Vantage Point

George Harinck

Here we are, on a November night in 2023, at a seminary in Washington D.C., gathered together to reflect on a person who died more than hundred years ago in a country far away – Herman Bavinck. It seems there is not much that is more unlikely to do in this time and place. But... READ MORE

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Presbyterians, Celibate Gay Ordination, and the Westminster Standards

S. Donald Fortson III

In recent years both the Presbyterian Church in America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church have had to deal with the issue of a same-sex attracted ordained minister, and the question of whether or not that ordination is lawful. A celibate same-sex attracted Presbyterian minister, who openly declares a homosexual orientation that God has not promised... READ MORE

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