American Philistine Celebrates Black History Month

Edward the Black Prince (1330 - 1376)

Although Edward never became king - he died before his father, Edward III - he is remembered as a great medieval military hero, with notable victories against the French in the Hundred Years War.
Edward was born on 15 June 1330 at Woodstock in Oxfordshire, the eldest son of Edward III. He was created prince of Wales in 1343. He showed military brilliance at an early age, playing a key role in the defeat of the French army at the Battle of Crecy when he was only 16. In 1355, he was appointed his father's lieutenant in Gascony and the following year led another significant victory against the French at Poitiers, taking the French king prisoner.
In 1362, Edward married Joan of Kent and was created prince of Aquitaine and Gascony by his father. Edward and his wife went to live in his new French domains. In 1367, Edward led an expedition to Spain, to restore the deposed King Pedro of Castile, and proved himself again with victory at the Battle of Najera in northern Castile. Edward returned to Aquitaine, where he made himself unpopular with the nobility by levying taxes to pay for his Spanish expedition. They rose in revolt against him and in 1370 Edward besieged the city of Limoges. When it fell 3,000 of its inhabitants were massacred. A year later, Edward returned to England.
Edward died aged 45 on 8 June 1376, probably from an illness contracted in Spain, and was buried in great splendour in Canterbury Cathedral. His young son Richard succeeded his grandfather Edward III a year later.
During his lifetime he was known as Edward of Woodstock; the title of Black Prince developed after his death and may refer to black armour that he wore.

-courtesy of the BBC (Black Broadcasting Corporation)

Five Years Later

After 5 years, the Orthodox Presbyterian Church (OPC) has finally announced a denominational position on the “New Perspective on Paul” (NPP) and its subsidiary, the "Federal Vision/Auburn Avenue Theology " (FV). I commend the church for taking a definite stand on this, and I believe that the OPC’s decision to side with the Westminster Standards and the traditional Protestant reading of Paul, rather than with the latest theological trend, is a judicious one. I wonder just how ecclesially helpful this stance will be, though, coming as it does some years after the outbreak of a fairly serious controversy in conservative Presbyterian circles. It appears to me that most people affected in any way by the FV dispute made up their minds years ago as to what they thought of it. This new effort would seem rather to open old wounds than to heal them.

Furthermore, although I am encouraged by the denomination’s stand, which was announced by a series of articles on justification in the current issue of the official OPC organ, New Horizons (NH), I must admit that I am cringing at the poor quality of the various responses. Let’s remember, folks, that the NPP/FV theology, as equivocal and incoherent as it may be (especially in its FV manifestations), is being advanced by some of the brightest minds in conservative Presbyterianism--which, these days, isn’t saying much, but the fact remains. The several essays, all of which I have at least cursorily perused, seem more to represent a well-intentioned showcase of disputational no-nos than anything else. This would be a great resource for a high school logic teacher: “Alright, class, please identify the formal and informal fallacies present in each essay (there are at least two). Bonus points if you can make any one argument formally valid.” Sadly, this is true even though the essays focus on justification and (apparently) on these two main criticisms: 1. The NPP/FV position is not confessional, and 2. The NPP/FV position is not truly Pauline. One would think that such a narrow purview would facilitate honed, biting essays. One would think.

Reading the NH essays this morning, my mind kept wandering to the prospective carnage that will be wreaked on these poor professors, pastors, and elders. Don’t these guys read Credenda/Agenda, or at least remember the “Morecraft-a-roni and Cheese” spoof from Round 1 of this same debacle? And, to my shame, I determined to immediately re-subscribe to Credenda. Wrong or not, the FV boys just had an effortless slaughter hand-delivered to them, postage paid by the OPC.. Entertainment value aside, I sincerely hope that the denominational report, which comes out next month, will be more substantive. But I suppose you know where my money is.