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Richard J. Mouw

Essays

Reformed Assessments of Arminianism: Praise from Unexpected Quarters

In a recent article in the Christian Century, Sarah Hinlicky Wilson and Thomas Albert Howard discussed the appropriate ways for Protestants to celebrate the forthcoming quincentennial of Luther’s issuing of the 95 Theses. They proposed that this commemoration should include some Protestant repentance for sins we have committed in our break with Rome. The same recommendation should apply, I want to insist, to the celebrations some of us will engage in of the adoption of the Canons of the Synod…
Richard J. Mouw
June 30, 2016
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Thinking about Commonness

Richard J. Mouw Like most people raised in North American Protestantism, I was taught songs in my early childhood about the love of Jesus. I can't remember a time when I did not know the words to "Jesus Loves Me" and "Jesus Loves the Little Children." These songs celebrate a divine love that sounds inclusive: Red and yellow, black and white, They are precious in His sight. Jesus loves the little children of the world. But there is another little…
Richard J. Mouw
July 1, 2013
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Those Surprising Ashes

Richard J. Mouw Lent always takes me by surprise. I'm never quite ready for it. This has always been my pattern, going back to my childhood days as a public school student when I would wander onto the playground on a warm spring morning to find that all the Catholic kids had ashes on their foreheads. I hadn't even known that Ash Wednesday was approaching. And when my high-church friends would ask me what I had decided to give up…
Richard J. Mouw
July 1, 2013
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“Those Years …”

JUNE/JULY 2012: ESSAY by Richard J. Mouw At a seminary in Asia, the dean of the school introduced me to one of his faculty members. "This is the president of Fuller Seminary,"; the dean said. I think the dean expected the faculty person to be impressed by my present institutional role, but his faculty colleague obviously had other credentials in mind. Extending his hand, the faculty member remarked, "But you were also at Calvin College." A little later he commented…
Richard J. Mouw
June 1, 2012
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The Selfsame One

Question 52. What comfort is it to thee that "Christ shall come again to judge the quick and the dead"? Answer: That in all my sorrows and persecutions, with uplifted head, I look for the selfsame One, who has before offered Himself for me to the judgment of God and removed from me all curse, to come again as Judge from heaven; who shall cast all His and my enemies into everlasting condemnation, but shall take me, with all His…
Richard J. Mouw
April 1, 2011
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24: The Moral Work of Watching

I'm sorry that Jack Bauer is gone. He has left us before, of course--there were always those many months between seasons in the series' eight-season run. This time, though, there is no next season. There is a possibility of a film version, but right now that is not a sure thing. I also followed Lost faithfully through it six-season run, but its final episode did not leave me with the same sense of loss. Actually, I was relieved when Lost…
Richard J. Mouw
October 1, 2010
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What the Millennialists Have Right

Back in the days when theologians in the world of conservative Protestantism got excited about the differences among premillennialists, postmillenialists, and amillennialists, it was not uncommon for someone to make light of the controversies by saying, "I don't know whether I am premil, postmil, or amil, but I do know that I am pro-mil--whatever the millennium is, I am for it!" I have never been able to dismiss the arguments quite that easily, although I do pretty much fall into…
Richard J. Mouw
December 1, 2009
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Wonderful Words of Life

These days, when appearing at events where I am scheduled to speak, I am often asked whether any hymns will be quoted. I think it is fair to say that I have gotten a reputation of sorts for doing that kind of thing, but it is a reputation that comes naturally. My preacher-father, who regularly quoted some lines from a hymn to nail down a point he was trying to make in a sermon, schooled me in the practice. Sometimes…
Richard J. Mouw
November 16, 2004
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To the End of the Earth

In the mid 1970s, Calvin College hosted a conference of educators from various Reformed institutions of higher education around the world, including both black and white delegates from South Africa. A decision had been made to devote one evening of the conference to a debate about apartheid. The auditorium was full that evening, and the discussion was very heated. At one point, late in the proceedings, the president of a white South African university was trying to defend his school's…
Richard J. Mouw
May 16, 2004