If you are interested in knowing the “man” John Calvin better, then I suggest you head over to my friend’s blog, Der Evangelische Theologe; and check out a series of on-going guest posts by Travis’ friend, professor Dr. Adam Neder. You can find the first two installments here and here. Just to whet your appetite, here’s what Neder says of Calvin in his second part:

To most people, Calvin’s name is synonymous with the doctrine of predestination and the execution of Michael Servetus. And to the extent that people think about him at all, they think of him as a kind of bloodless misanthropic dictator, a sadistic genius, a sad and lonely man who never loved nor was loved in return. And there’s never been a shortage of critics ready to reinforce the caricature. To take just one influential example, in The Story of Civilization, Will Durant offers this little gem: according to Durant, “we shall always find it hard to love the man who darkened the human soul with the most absurd and blasphemous conception of God in all the long and honored history of nonsense.” And as far as Calvin-bashing goes, that’s pretty mild. — Adam Neder

So head on over everyone!

And not to be out-done, another “e-friend” of mine, Darren, is attending the Croall Lectures over in the UK (Scotland, New College University of Edinburgh). He is graciously jotting down a few notes from the Lectures being given by Professor Dr. Bruce McCormack (a la Princeton Theological Seminary). The series of Lectures will eventually be published, and it has to do with outlining and filling out a series of approaches to the Atonement; part of providing a concrete understanding on this is to survey various theologian’s approaches to this issue. Darren’s first three installments can be found here, here, and here. And here is how Darren describes the Lecture series:

The title of the lecture series is “Abandoned by God: The Death of Christ in Systematic and Historical Perspective,” and the overarching agenda is to offer a new typology for the doctrine of the atonement.

Darren’s is an ongoing series as well, so continue to visit his blog regularly. I believe McCormack will be doing a special lecture on TF Torrance’s approach this coming Friday; and then I do believe Darren will highlight that for us either that day, or sometime shortly after.

Enjoy the linkage!