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I. John Hesselink

Book Reviews

Exploring Calvinism’s Appeal

Saving Calvinism: Expanding the Reformed Tradition SAVING CALVINISM: EXPANDING THE REFORMED TRADITION OLIVER D. CRISP IVP ACADEMIC, 2016 $18 (PAPERBACK) 165 PAGES My initial response to the title of this book was, “Does Calvinism need saving?” Oliver Crisp, professor of systematic theology at Fuller Theological Seminary, thinks it does. His solution is to provide alternatives to what he considers unduly narrow or dogmatic positions taken in traditional Calvinism – for example, double predestination, total depravity and the bondage of the…
I. John Hesselink
April 30, 2018
Essays

A Friendship with Emil Brunner

Because I did my doctoral dissertation with Karl Barth at the University of Basel in Switzerland, it might seem strange that I had an even closer relationship with his Swiss Reformed contemporary in Zurich, Emil Brunner. (Once friendly, the two had a major falling out in the mid-1930s after Barth famously said “nein” to Brunner’s essay “Nature and Grace.”) I had a very good relationship with Barth, who was an exceptionally kind and helpful doctoral adviser, but my relationship with…
I. John Hesselink
February 29, 2016
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Marilynne Robinson: Calvinian

In Part One of this essay I explored "Marilynne Robinson: Distinctive Calvinist." Here the focus shifts to Marilynne Robinson as a Calvinian. Calvinians are those people who specialize in Calvin--experts and scholars who read Calvin closely, although they may not personally follow Calvin. In contrast, there are many Calvinists who admire and are shaped in a general way by Calvin, even if they actually know little about him, and what they know may be secondhand. ORIGINS It is not clear…
I. John Hesselink
March 1, 2011
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Marilynne Robinson: Distinctive Calvinist

Calvinists come in many stripes and colors. There are five-point Calvinists, who may believe they originated with Calvin, but actually owe more to the Canons of Dort; Westminster Calvinists who adhere more to the Westminster standards than Calvin; neo- Calvinists who find their inspiration in the theologies of Abraham Kuyper and Herman Bavinck; and neo-Orthodox Calvinists who are closer to Karl Barth than Calvin. And then there is Marilynne Robinson, a self-confessed Calvinist, whose Calvinism is not simply distinctive; it…
I. John Hesselink
January 1, 2011
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Calvin at 500–The Literary Beginning of a Quincentennial Celebration

July 10, 2009, marks the 500th anniversary of John Calvin's birth in Noyon, France. Special conferences and celebrations to commemorate the event are taking place throughout the world, ranging from Sao Paulo, Brazil, to Seoul, Korea. The Dutch couldn't wait and already had a Calvin conference at a modern castle near Putten, the Netherlands, in late October 2008. The lecturers included some of the leading Calvin scholars from Western Europe and the United States. Participants came from places as distant…
I. John Hesselink
June 1, 2009
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Prayer and Pastoral Care

One should not be misled by the title, Pray Without Ceasing, for this is not just another book about prayer. It is indeed about prayer, for there is a brief exposition of the Lord's Prayer as an illustration of prayers of petition, and there are lengthy discussions of prayers of intercession, prayers of lament, prayers of confession, and prayers of praise, thanksgiving, and blessing. These chapters are rich with insights about prayer as such, but the purpose throughout is to…
I. John Hesselink
June 1, 2007