June–July 2012 Ordained Servant

My original intention was to have this issue address higher education among Christians. But since there were a number of concerns expressed about David Noe’s article “Is There Such a Thing as Christian Education?” in the April OSO, it turns out that the title of the current issue has been slightly changed. I considered the title “Education: Christian or Otherwise,” given the range of the offerings in this issue.

Benjamin Miller has written a thoughtful response that fundamentally disagrees with Noe. Noe in turn has been given opportunity to reply to this response, as is the custom of this journal. My editorial “Education, Natural Law, and the Two Kingdoms” seeks to frame the discussion to help readers understand the wider context and my position on publishing the Noe article to begin with. I am grateful for the level of discussion carried on by Miller and Noe. I believe that this is just what the important larger topic of the relationship between Christ and culture needs over the coming years and even decades. While I do not want OS to become a debate forum, I do think that it serves us well if on occasion we engage in such exchanges.

I hope to have a number of articles over the coming years exploring the contributions of Christian institutions of higher learning. So in this issue Robert Tarullo reflects on the relationship Geneva College has had with the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. This is a well researched piece. Then James Gidley critically analyses the well-known classic Frankenstein—probably best known through cinema. Gidley explodes three myths and demonstrates Shelley’s concern with the relationship of technology to our humanity.

Finally, Darryl Hart reviews The Anointed: Evangelical Truth in a Secular Age, by Randall J. Stephens and Karl W. Giberson. It seems that the authors need to apply their critique of depending on experts to their own enterprise.

Copies of the print edition (2011) of OS should be arriving shortly.

A new set of updated indexes, covering through December 2011, should be posted shortly. Should you notice a typographical or other sort of error, please inform me. Thanks to John Muether for his skillful indexing given as a gift to OS.

Blessings in the Lamb,
Gregory Edward Reynolds

Ordained Servant exists to help encourage, inform, and equip church officers for faithful, effective, and God glorifying ministry in the visible church of the Lord Jesus Christ. Its primary audience is ministers, elders, and deacons of the Orthodox Presbyterian Church, as well as interested officers from other Presbyterian and Reformed churches. Through high quality editorials, articles, and book reviews we endeavor to stimulate clear thinking and the consistent practice of historic, confessional Presbyterianism.