The New Calvinism: A Triumph of the Old

John Piper's address for Westminster Theological Seminary's Seventh-Annual Gaffin Lecture was a notable example of an event being the very embodiment of its message. I say this because Piper spoke on the relationship of the New Calvinism to the Old Calvinism, a relationship that could hardly find better symbolism than New Calvinist Piper lecturing at Old Calvinist Westminster. Predictably, blog articles have cropped up critiquing and interacting with Piper's remarks. I would like to do the same, making observations about the intersection of the Old and the New within big-tent, big-God Calvinism in these early years of the 21^st Century.

My observations will come in four posts that make these points:

1. Old Calvinism should avoid being overly critical but should rejoice in the New.

2. Old Calvinism should not be threatened by or feel pressure to conform to the New.

3. Old Calvinism should humbly listen to the New, benefiting from its insights and critiques.

4. Old Calvinism should zealously seek to serve rather than to undermine the New.

In this first post, I would suggest that Old Calvinism should avoid excessive criticism but should generally rejoice in the New Calvinism. I say this because the New Calvinism represents a remarkable triumph of the Old. As Piper pointed out, the New Calvinism has arisen directly from Old Calvinist sources like the Banner of Truth, James Boice & the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals, and R. C. Sproul & Ligonier Ministries. It is in this respect that I consider the New Calvinism a triumph. Not the triumph of Old Calvinism - that would be Old Calvinism itself! - but a signal achievement by God's grace, for which we could scarcely have hoped thirty years ago. The most gospel-zealous leaders of the Old Calvinism longed to see the doctrines of God's sovereign grace spread far into the broader Baptist and Charismatic world of evangelicalism. Now that this has happened, how can Old Calvinism fail to rejoice in it? Keep reading

Photo: Calvin's Pulpit, St. Pierre Cathedral, Geneva