John W. Yates II
John W. Yates, II is the retired Founder and Rector of The Falls Church Anglican, one of the first parishes in the Anglican Church of North America. With degrees from the University of North Carolina, Princeton Theological Seminary and Fuller Theological Seminary, Dr Yates served churches in Columbia, SC, and Sewickley, PA, before coming to…
Read MoreClarence E. Macartney
Clarence Edward Macartney was a towering figure in early 20th-century American Presbyterianism, best remembered for his unwavering commitment to traditional Christian doctrine during a time of tremendous theological and cultural upheaval. As pastor of prominent churches in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh and a key voice in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy of the 1920s, Macartney played a formative…
Read MoreIvan Illich
Ivan Illich, who has died of cancer aged 76, was one of the world’s great thinkers, a polymath whose output covered vast terrains. He worked in 10 languages; he was a jet-age ascetic with few possessions; he explored Asia and South America on foot; and his obligations to his many collaborators led to a constant…
Read MoreJohn Henry Hopkins
John Henry Hopkins Jr. may not have a name the average man or woman would recognize, but he was the author of a work virtually everyone knows, the Christmas carol We Three Kings of Orient Are. While he wrote other carols, hymns and songs, it is this Christmastime favorite that will forever afford him a…
Read MoreUlrich Zwingli
Other than Martin Luther, Heinrich Bullinger, and John Calvin, the most important early Reformer was Ulrich Zwingli. A first-generation Reformer, he is regarded as the founder of Swiss Protestantism. Furthermore, history remembers him as the first Reformed theologian. Though Calvin would later surpass Zwingli as a theologian, he would stand squarely on Zwingli’s broad shoulders. Less than…
Read MoreAnselm of Canterbury
Anselm was born in Aosta in the Piedmont region of northwestern Italy in 1033. The town was strategically located at the intersection of the Great St. Bernard Pass and the Little St. Bernard Pass. The former road dates back to the Bronze Age and connects Italy with Switzerland. The latter straddles the Italian and French…
Read MoreTertullian of Carthage
Tertullian, son of a Roman centurion from North Africa, was born around 160A.D. He received a good education in literature and thetoric and probably practiced law for a while before being converted to Christianity around the year 197A.D. It is the Church Father St. Jerome who tells us that Tertullian became a priest, but there…
Read MoreGeorge Whitefield
George Whitefield was born on December 27, 1714 (December 16 of the Julian calendar), in Gloucester, England. The youngest of seven children, he was born in the Bell Inn where his father, Thomas, was a wine merchant and innkeeper. His father died when George was two and his widowed mother Elizabeth struggled to provide for…
Read MoreAthanasius of Alexandria
The first three centuries following the death of Christ were difficult for believers. As early Christians went forth and spread the message of Christ, there was very little cohesion and unity among these pockets of Christ followers. Partially because of this, differing beliefs or doctrines regarding God, Christ, and the Bible, were everywhere. These differences…
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