Now, of course, I know I'm not Presbyterian; I'm a Catholic. A great deal of this blog goes to exclaiming and exploring that fact. All the same -- I was Presbyterian, and I was exceedingly happy as such. (And hey, so was Avery Dulles, more or less, in his tinder years at Harvard.) Today, Tim Enloe linked to a short piece by James B. Jordan, "The Closing of the Calvinistic Mind". In the piece, Jordan laments the absence of a once-outstanding thing: Calvinistic thought. He laments the robustness of traditional Reformed controvery going the way of user-friendly fluff. (Of course, if he wonders where many a good Presbyterian has gone, he should face the fact, no acrimony intended, that they've gone to Rome!)
But o, what a cord Jordan's piece struck! How I loved the throaty, lucid "texture" of Reformed thought. The drama of presuppositionalism![1] I miss those P&R books and all those poorly printed tracts of Bible warfare. More than that, I admit, I miss the extreme comfort I knew in growing up (for 20 years!) in my home Presby church. That's all I shall say about this now, but I realize once again, with a tinge of strange regret, that I am Catholic for every reason OTHER than a distaste for my Protestant roots.
[1] Yes, I know.
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