There is a reason why I changed the name of blog to: Athanasian Reformed (from The Evangelical Calvinist). By the standards of what counts as Calvinism today, I am not a Calvinist. By historic standards, though, I am Reformed. By national standards I am Swiss and Scottish Reformed (let the reader understand). And both nationalities are largely shaped by a Greek rather than Latin orientation (so, Athanasius) Selah. I just wrote the aforementioned for Twitter and Facebook. I want to expand, briefly, on this.

Clearly, for anyone who reads me you know that I am Calvinian, Barthian, Torrancean, Athanasian, Luther[an]. But of course, the tradition I think after is Barthian. We all think from this or that tradition, most evangelicals, though, are totally unconscious of this informing reality. I don’t want to function like most evangelicals. Instead, I want to be self-conscious and intentional, which is why I stand back and have moments like this every now and then.

Beyond this, I want folks to understand that the way we use Calvinism is as shorthand for Reformed. Like I noted, we are not Calvinists if that is understood from the popular frame of the 21^st century (which exclusively entails either Federal/Covenantal theology and/or Five Point “Baptist” Calvinism). I am historically Reformed, and that from an Eastern orientation as noted. When I attempt to enter the popular fray, particularly among the apologetically minded, when they see that I am “Evangelical Calvinist” they immediately presume that I am simply Evangelical + Calvinist, which of course couldn’t be further from the reality. What I am trying to bear witness to, when I enter such communities (online), is that there is a better and catholic way to think as a Christian. Even if we come with various informing traditions there is only one centraldogma to the Christian reality; that is, that Jesus is Lord. But this ‘Lordness’ is bounded up with 2000 years of history and catholicity behind it. Most in the popular evangelical sector have no sense of this. If they did much of the sectarian spirit would be elided, and then genuine non-binary theological disputation could unfold. But this requires greater work than sitting down in front of the webcam and claiming yourself to be something. This requires the work of a priest of Christ; of the sort that is willing to sacrifice other ventures in order to spend time with the fathers and mothers of the Church. If this becomes the person’s mode they will begin to experience a distanciation, at which point a sense of catholicity and the Cosmic Christ (see Maximos the Confessor) will so pervade their visio that they will be able to move onto the meatier things of the Evangel.

This is what stands, some, behind the blog name change. I want folks to understand that there is something deeper and greater going on behind things; greater than the evangelical debates between the Calvinists (so-called) and Arminians (and Provisionists). Soli Deo Gloria