The tensions and inconsistencies that I have attempted to illustrate in this book review beg another question: What kind of reformation is The Gift of Life after? The answer Professor Vorster appears to provide is one of “flourishing personhood” that roots out of church and society the dehumanizing idols of racism, sexism,Continue Reading
At this point it is worth asking: what informs Professor Vorster’s overarching moral vision? Throughout The Gift of Life, the contention is that definitions of human dignity found in the liberal democratic and human rights traditions can be translated into Christian value (84, 97). In other words, humanist conceptions of equalityContinue Reading
North-West University Professor J. M. Vorster’s The Gift of Life: Towards an ethic of human personhood (2021) represents a crowning of his career as a Reformed pastor, theologian, and ethicist in the South African context. I review this volume as a fellow office-bearer within the Reformed Churches in South Africa (RCSA) withContinue Reading
By Simon Jooste, pastor of RCSS Embodiment is central to salvation, so is suffering in the body. Without the incarnation, passion, and ongoing enfleshed intercession of Christ, there is no redemption. This was the heartbeat of the apostle Paul’s preaching in ancient Corinth, a city pulsing with ideas and illicitContinue Reading
Rev. Simon Jooste, the pastor of RCSS, preached at the morning devotion at Westminster Seminary in California on 4 October 2022. Simon received his Master of Divinity from Westminster Seminary in 2009. The theme of his message was “Imaging God in Justice” (Gen. 1:26-27; Gen. 9:6; 2 Cor. 3:18). ClickContinue Reading
On 21 September 2022, RCSS pastor Rev. Dr. Simon Jooste gave a presentation at Westminster Seminary in California on the proposal for his book, Pilgrim politics: recovering the cruciform in our creed. The book proposal is below. I. Book topic and rationale for its writing The Apostle Paul once wroteContinue Reading
Electronic media tend to dis-incarnate and distance people from their embodied lives. While excellent at disseminating information, electronic media tend to isolate us from face-to-face interaction. Social media, in particular, cannot replace, and often even undermine, the fabric of personal relationships which strengthen fellowship with God and each other. ChurchContinue Reading
This is a classic case of begging the question, i.e., assuming what has to be proved. People regularly say that amillennialism is “pessimistic” but postmillennialism is “optimistic”. Who is pessimistic about what? Define pessimism. Who says? By what standard? I say that amillennialism is truly optimistic in the way the New Testament is optimistic.Continue Reading
Was there a more un-sanctified and immature congregation of which we have an apostolic record than the Corinthian congregation? From a reading of Paul’s two canonical letters to them, they were beset by power struggles and schisms within, tolerant of gross immorality, besotted with flowery rhetoric, and unimpressed by theContinue Reading
Did you know that some parts of the Bible are more important than other parts? Yes, all the Scriptures are God-breathed, infallible, inerrant, sufficient and authoritative, but some parts are more important (not more God-breathed, etc.). The Holy Spirit had the Apostle Paul pen these familiar words: For I deliveredContinue Reading