Credo

Does Classical theology matter to the local church? This special episode of the Credo Podcast is from the 2023 Center for Classical Theology Panel Discussion moderated by Timothy Gatewood and featuring Carl Trueman, Kevin DeYoung, James Dolezal, and Matthew Barrett. The conversation revolves around the future of classical theology and its implementation in local churches. The panelists discuss the role of pastors and ministers in translating classical theology for congregants and note modern societal shifts that may impact the church. In their analysis, the panelists model how to engage with modern thought, emphasizing the need for philosophical engagement alongside theological discourse. The conversation also touches on the challenges and strategies for teaching classical theology effectively, highlighting the importance of contextualization and utilizing existing church practices like hymns to introduce theological concepts to congregants. Overall, the panelists stress the relevance and impact of classical theology on people's lives, with an emphasis on retrieving classical theology in the local church.

Step into the world of classical theology with Carl Trueman. At the inaugural event for The Center for Classical Theology (CCT), Trueman delivered a captivating lecture called "Classical Theology and the Modern Mind," demonstrating why a return to the orthodoxy of the creeds and confessions is the remedy to the challenges we face on this side of modernity. In the past, Trueman has diagnosed our turn to the modern self, but in this lecture he provides the remedy that begins with the doctrine of God.

The CCT annual lecture is sponsored by Crossway. In the aftermath of modernism’s deconstruction of dogmatics, each lectureship is committed to the renewal of dogmatics with the church catholic (universal)—from the church fathers to the medieval and Protestant scholastics. CCT summons the next generation of theologians to exemplify biblical reasoning, rational contemplation, and reformed catholicity that directs systematic theology to its spiritual end and most blessed hope: beholding the beauty of the Lord.

Driven by a commitment to contemplate God and all things in relation to God by listening with humility to his word with the wisdom of the Great Tradition, CCT strives to create a renewed vision for theology today in the spirit of faith seeking understanding. The CCT meets every November on the evening before the Evangelical Theological Society and invites one of the best theologians today to give a lecture, followed by Q&A with other theologians.

Come to the next lecture in San Diego this November (2024) to hear Reformed theologian Michael Horton. Registration opens in March.

Despite its polemic again the Roman church, the theological structures which emerged in the Swiss Reformation stood firmly on the traditional teaching of he church. This was achieved through a deliberate appropriation of the early church and a good deal of the medieval church. The Swiss reformers were grounded on historical continuity.” These words by Bruce Gordon at Yale assert that the Swiss, sometimes the most aggressive with reform, were nevertheless deliberate heirs of the church catholic (universal).

In episode 5 of this mini-series, Ronni Kurtz asks Matthew Barrett, author of the new book The Reformation as Renewal, whether a self-conscious reformed catholicity defined those like Zwingli, Bullinger, Bucer, and Calvin. Barrett also contrasts this reformed catholicity with those Radicals who abandoned catholicity in the name of primitive Christianity. And he sheds some new light on Bucer’s attempts to arrive at a Protestant unity that oscillates on catholicity. Barrett and Kurtz demonstrate that reformed catholicity should influence how we today understand everything from scripture and the creeds to ecclesiastical authorities and confessions.

In episode 4 of this mini-series, Samuel Bierig asks Matthew Barrett, author of newly released book The Reformation as Renewal (Zondervan Academic), about the intense divisions over the Lord’s Supper during the Reformation and whether there is more than meets the eye. As Barrett moves below the surface he shows that at the root of the debates between Luther and Zwingli are two contrasting perspectives on hermeneutics and Christology. With appeals to the creeds as well as the gospel itself, Luther and Zwingli alike considered their divide impossible to overcome. In this episode, Samuel Bierig and Matthew Barrett discuss everything from metaphysics to hermeneutics to understand the sacraments and how Christ’s person and work affect the way Christians today gather each Lord’s Day and participate in the Lord’s Supper.

In episode 3 of this mini-series, Samuel Bierig asks Matthew Barrett, author of the new book The Reformation as Renewal, to introduce us to another side of Martin Luther, that side of Luther often forgotten. Though the oppositional narrative claims Luther radically severed himself from tradition, Barrett shows there’s more to Luther than meets the eye. Narratives of Luther fixate on his 95 theses, but in 1517 another crisis haunted Luther. He was born and bred on the voluntarist-nominalist project of Scotus, Ockham, and especially Biel, a project that led Luther to despair. But in 1517 Luther called them out! If there was a break in the life of Luther, it wasn’t focused on the church catholic (universal) that he loved and desired to renew but on the via moderna which he came to reject, convinced it led him the way of Semi-Pelagianism. As Barrett explores the life of Luther he peels back other layers of misconceptions to arrive at the real Luther: What did Luther really mean by sola scriptura? Why did Luther embrace components of the medieval liturgy in Germany such as the creeds? Did Luther retrieve the lectio divina and put his own Protestant stamp on it as well?

In this episode, Bierig and Barrett bring Luther to life, unveiling the ways Luther wrestled with the past in his colossal effort to return to the Great Tradition as the path forward.

The Reformation has often been lamented, blamed for secularism, as if the Reformers cut the cord of participation in God by perpetuating the voluntarism and nominalism of their age. But in episode 2 of this mini-series, Sam Parkison asks Matthew Barrett, author of The Reformation as Renewal, to address the philosophical context of the Reformation. With a brief tour through classical philosophy, Barrett explains the differences between the scholastic realism of Aquinas and the voluntarism of Scotus or the nominalism of the late medieval scholastics like William of Ockham and Gabriel Biel. By introducing the via moderna, the modern way, Barrett puts his finger on the nerve, identifying the provocation for Luther's Reformation beginning in 1517.

In this episode, Parkison and Barrett discuss the influence of classical philosophy on the Reformers, exploring the basic building blocks of Christian Platonism and medieval metaphysics for a more balanced understanding of our Protestant history.

The Reformation has often been lamented, blamed for everything from secularism to schism. Meanwhile, others celebrate the Reformation either as a modern liberation or a biblicist break from tradition.

But in this new mini-series of interviews, Samuel Parkison asks Matthew Barrett what the Reformers themselves thought since he is the author of the soon-to-release book, The Reformation as Renewal: Retrieving the One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church (Zondervan Academic). Barrett says the Reformers saw themselves as faithful stewards of the one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church preserved across history. Distinguishing themselves from Radicals, the Reformers were convinced they were retrieving the faith of the church fathers and the best of the medieval Scholastics. But to understand the catholicity of this Reformation claim, this episode looks at the Reformation’s roots in patristic and medieval thought, exploring everything from mysticism to scholasticism.

In the second episode of The Credo Alliance, Credo Fellows Fred Sanders, J.V. Fesko, Scott Swain, and Matthew Barrett discuss the importance of theological method for classical theology. The method of modern theology will only take you so far with its allergy to reason and philosophy, but the classical approach reserves a judicious place for reason, pursuing not merely knowledge but wisdom itself. Sanders, Fesko, Swain, and Barrett pay attention to Truth with a capital "T." They follow the lead of church fathers like Augustine who appropriated Platonism's profound idea of transcendent truth but transformed its insight for the sake of classical Christian theology. Metaphysics in theological method is essential both for our interpretation of Scripture and our understanding of God and all things in relation to God. At the end of this episode, the Credo Fellows turn to the Trinity's inseparable operations as a test case to see what the classical method looks like and why the spirit of classical theology is so unique.

In this special episode, Credo launches a new series called The Credo Alliance, which brings together today’s best theologians to unite around classical Christianity, collaborating for the sake of renewal in the church today.

In this first episode, Credo Fellows Fred Sanders, J.V. Fesko, Scott Swain and Matthew Barrett share their stories, explaining how they were weaned off of modern theology and drawn towards the beauty of classical theology. They also give advice, suggesting entry points to the Great Tradition that can help the next generation. Yet they not only talk theology but philosophy, reflecting on the ways the church fathers used and bent ancient philosophy to support the biblical idea of divine transcendence.

What did Augustine and Athanasius, Origen and the Cappadocians, Boethius and Aquinas all have in common? They all critically appropriated Platonism. Platonism was not a set of doctrines that proved convenient. Rather, Platonism was an epic, even revolutionary outlook on transcendent reality that defied a materialistic understanding of God and the world. For example, Platonism prepared Augustine for Christianity's transcendentalism. Augustine left behind his Manichaeism after reading the Platonist books, which opened his eyes to an infinite God and the the spiritual meaning of Scripture. Nevertheless, Platonism could only take Augustine to the summit; apart from Christ he could only look at the homeland from afar. And yet, if corrected and transformed, Platonism's realism could be put into the service of Christianity. Augustine believed Christian Platonism could serve as a perennial philosophy.

John Peter Kenney, an expert on the history of Christian Platonism, joins Matthew Barrett to discuss Augustine's Confessions and City of God. Together they explore Augustine's metaphysic, listening to the church father as he explains how God providentially used Platonism to correct his reading of the Bible and prepare him for the humiliation of a crucified and risen Christ. Using Augustine as a test case, Kenney reflects on the significance of Christian Platonism for theology and practice today.