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Nicholas Wolterstorff

As We See ItSexuality

Response to Matthew Tuininga on Sexuality and Scripture

Let me begin by warmly thanking Matthew Tuininga, who has become my good friend, for the generous spirit of his response to the talk I gave on same-sex marriage at Neland Avenue Christian Reformed Church, Grand Rapids, Michigan, on October 13 last year. Would that all discussions of this intensely controversial topic breathed such a spirit of respect and friendship! It will help the reader understand my response to Tuininga if I briefly summarize what I said in my talk:…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
February 28, 2017
Sexuality

Response to Matthew Tuininga on Sexuality and Scripture

Let me begin by warmly thanking Matthew Tuininga, who has become my good friend, for the generous spirit of his response to the talk I gave on same-sex marriage at Neland Ave. CRC (Grand Rapids) on October 13 of the past year. Would that all discussions of this intensely controversial topic breathed such a spirit of respect and friendship! It will help the reader understand my response to Tuininga if I briefly summarize what I said in my talk. I…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
December 4, 2016
Uncategorized

Richard Mouw: Reflections on His Writing

Nicholas Wolterstorff When Rich Mouw became president of Fuller Seminary twenty years ago, I and others anticipated that his career as a writer was more or less over; almost all his time would henceforth be consumed by administration and fund-raising. We have been astounded. Rich's pace of publication has quickened during his presidency. By my count, five titles appeared before 1993 and eleven since, not counting those co-authored with others. A little voice says, "They must be potboilers." The little…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
July 1, 2013
Uncategorized

Liturgy and Lament

JUNE/JULY 2012: INSIDE OUT by Nicholas Wolterstorff "In all their affliction, he was afflicted." Isaiah 63:9 As we human beings travel through life we experience pain and suffering--in part our own, in part that of others. Some of this pain and suffering is noninnocent suffering; it is punishment for, or the consequence of, moral evil. But not all of it is that. The suffering of the Israelites in the brickyards of Egypt was not the consequence of their sin, nor…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
June 1, 2012
Uncategorized

Forty Years Later

Editor's Note: The following convocation address was delivered at the Institute for Christians Studies in Toronto on May 9, 2008, on the occasion of the Institute's 40th anniversary. Founded in 1967 as a distinctly Christian graduate school in the Reformed tradition, the Institute began granting first masters-level degrees and then by 1980 doctoral-level degrees in conjunction with the Free University of Amsterdam. The Institute is now affiliated with the Toronto School of Theology and continues to carry out its mission…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
April 1, 2009
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Can Human Rights Survive Secularization? Part II

Nicholas Wolterstorff A considerable amount of the work of the twelfth centurycanon lawyers consisted of commenting on passages from the Church Fathers; and in some of the Church Fathers there is unmistakably a recognition of natural human rights. This comes out especially in what the Church Fathers have to say about the status of the poor. Let me quote a passage from a sermon of the great preacher of the Orthodox Church, John Chr ysostom. John preached the sermon in…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
April 1, 2008
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Can Human Rights Survive Secularization? Part I

Every society has a characteristic moral culture, by which I mean a characteristic set of concepts for thinking about moral issues and a characteristic way of applying those concepts. For almost a millennium now, a characteristic and distinctive feature of our moral culture in the West has been our employment of the idea of natural human rights. The most dramatic employment of this idea has been in the human rights movement of the past fifty years. Not far behind was…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
March 1, 2008
Uncategorized

In Reply

The editors of Perspectives invited me to respond to Steve Mathonnet-VanderWell's very interesting article, "Reformed Intramurals: What Neo-Calvinists Get Wrong." I happily accepted the invitation. I have found composing my response difficult, however, since there's little I disagree with and a simple "Amen," I feel sure, is not the response the editors were looking for. A vigorous "Nein" will have to come from someone else. Mathonnet-VanderWell recalls being inspired in his youth by the Reformed Journal. What inspired him was…
Nicholas Wolterstorff
February 1, 2008