Round the Sphere Again

A church history—or maybe not—edition.

See update below!

Octavius Winslow
You may have read many Winslow quotes, but I bet you don’t know much about the man, do you? Here’s good news, then: There’s a new blog dedicated to placing “in one site all information known about Octavius Winslow” where you’ll find biographical information, quotes, and more.

Irish Puritans
Kim Shay explains some of the reasons why spreading the gospel in Ireland was so difficult for the Puritans.

The Puritans, at the very core of their beliefs, wanted to promote the pure gospel of Jesus Christ.  This was hard to do in Ireland given not only the mix of individuals, but also given the animosity that was directed against the English.

Now go read the whole post.

Jonathan Edward
Someone’s been having even more fun than Karl Malden at JE’s expense. (Justin Taylor)

Update on Wednesday, February 17, 2010 at 12:13PM by rebecca

Extra! Extra!
Because church history has late-breaking news, too: Monergism.com just added a link to S. M. Houghton’s Sketches in Church History, which has very readable—short and with pictures—articles on the early church down through the 19th century. This book was intended for “those who, approaching church history for the first time, wished for a general coverage of the subject before they proceeded to works of greater detail.” Here’s the table of contents.

Reformation Day

One of only very few early printings of Luther’s hymn: “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” There are no known first edition printings left. This book is a second edition, and extremely rare. It is in the holdings of the Lutherhaus museum in Wittenberg, Germany. Photograph by Paul T. McCain. June 2006. Wittenberg, Germany.

Today is Reformation Day and Kim is marking the day by taking a look at some of the factors that lead to the Reformation (The Upward Call).

History of the Westminster Confession of Faith

From Living for God’s Glory by Joel Beeke:

The confession of faith produced by the Westminster divines has undoubtedly been one of the most influential documents of the post-Reformation period of the Christian church. A carefully worded exposition of seventeenth-century Reformed theology, the calmness of its sentences largely hides the tempestuousness of the political backdrop against which it was written.

The Westminster Assembly was convened in 1643 after years of tension between England’s King Charles 1 and his increasingly Puritan Parliament. Meeting under the chairmanship of the learned William Twisse against the king’s express wishes, its vision was to effect closer uniformity of faith and practice throughout Charles’ realm. The original task of the mostly Puritan delegates was to revise the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England, but following the signing of the Solemn League and Covenant between Parliament and the Scottish Covenanters in 1643, this developed into the more specific and exacting task of framing theological and ecclesiastical formulas that would bring the Church of England into conformity with the doctrine and practice of the Presbyterian Church of Scotland. … 

For all practical purposes, [the] Scottish delegates constituted the most powerful group among those who gathered in the Chapel of Henry VII and later in the Jerusalem Chamber at Westminster Abbey, London, during the years of discussion and debate. While the majority of the delegates seem to have been of Presbyterian persuasion to varying degrees, Episcopalians and Independents were also represented, the latter group … at times exasperating the Scots.

…Despite disagreements, the divines produced on of the truly monumental documents of church history, which has instructed, directed, and profoundly influenced Presbyterian churches worldwide ever since.