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The Reformed/Puritans on Knowledge, Learning, and Christian Education

"The Puritans overwhelmingly defended the cause of learning and the faculty of reason against such attacks on the mind. For the Puritans, zeal was no substitute for knowledge. John Preston declared, “I deny not but a man may have much knowledge and want grace, but on the other side,…you cannot have more grace than you have knowledge.”16 Richard Baxter believed that “education is God’s ordinary way for the conveyance of his grace, and ought no more to be set in opposition to the Spirit than the preaching of the Word.”17 John Cotton claimed that although “knowledge is no knowledge without zeal,” yet “zeal is but a wild-fire without knowledge.”18 The sectaries and antinomians pictured faith and reason as antagonists. The Puritans rejected the perennial attempt to belittle reason in religious matters. “Faith is grounded upon knowledge,” said Samuel Willard; “though God be…seen by an eye of faith, yet he must be seen by an eye of reason too: for though faith sees things above reason,

Calvinists: Founders of Christian Nations

This post/list comes courtesy of Cody Justice: https://www.facebook.com/plymouth.weaver  Some #Thanksgiving #ChristianNationalism food for those who have appetite. "Calvin is the man who, next to St. Paul, has done most good to mankind." —William Cunningham "To omit Calvin from the forces of Western evolution is to read history with one eye shut." —Lord John Morley "It would hardly be too much to say that for the latter part of his lifetime and a century after his death John Calvin was the most influential man in the world, in the sense that his ideas were making more history than those of anyone else during that period. Calvin’s theology produced the Puritans in England, the Huguenots in France, the ‘Beggars’ in Holland, the Covenanters in Scotland, and the Pilgrim Fathers of New England, and was more or less directly responsible for the Scottish uprising, the revolt of the Netherlands, the French wars of religion, and the English Civil War. Also, it was Cal

Calvin on Christ's Agony in Gethsemane and Prayer

 Read more of Calvin's comments on this passage here: https://biblehub.com/commentaries/poole/luke/22.htm  Matthew 26:36 . Then Jesus cometh with them. Luke mentions the mountain of Olives only. Mark and Matthew add a more minute description of the place. But Luke expresses what is still more to the purpose, that Christ came there according to his custom. Hence we infer, that he did not seek retirement for the purpose of concealing himself, but, as if he had made an assignation with his enemies, he presented himself to death. On this account John says (18:2) that the place was known to the traitor, because Jesus was wont to come there frequently. In this passage, therefore, his obedience is again described to us, because he could not have appeased the Father but by a voluntary death. Sit here. By leaving the disciples at a distance, he spares their weakness; as if a man, perceiving that he would soon be in extreme danger in battle, were to leave his wife and children in a situation

Immanuel Kant Presentation

 With help from: http://www.sparknotes.com/philosophy/kant/section1.rhtml   OVERVIEW: Kant’s   primary aim is to determine the limits and scope of pure reason . That is, he wants to know what reason alone can determine without the help of the senses or any other faculties. Metaphysicians make grand claims about the nature of reality based on pure reason alone, but these claims often conflict with one another. Furthermore, Kant is prompted by Hume’s skepticism to doubt the very possibility of metaphysics.   1)       Kant thanks David Hume for awakening him from his “dogmatic slumber” that had kept him from questioning rationalist metaphysics. Although he was trained in the rationalist tradition, Kant was heavily influenced by the empiricist philosophy of David Hume.   2)       Kant is generally credited with effecting a synthesis between the empiricist philosophy that had dominated Great Britain and the rationalist philosophy that had dominated the European continent fo