Planned Series

Guten Nachmittag, allerseits! Good afternoon, everyone! In the downtime while I’m putting together the next post in the “Regulative Principle” series, I thought it might be helpful to put out a brief sketch of what kinds of topics I was thinking about covering in the future. Here’s a summary:

The Schwerpunkt (Point-of-Emphasis) topics will cover major principles that all the Puritan movements have in common. Right now, there are 2 series planned:

·         The Regulative Principle

·         Experimental Religion

The Anbetung (Worship) topics will cover various issues related to the public worship of God. Right now, I have 9 series I want to launch:

·         Exclusive Psalmody

·         Instrumental Accompaniment

·         Holy-Days

·         Liturgical Prayer

·         Liturgical Responsive Readings

·         Liturgical Creeds

·         Alms-Giving

·         Head Coverings

·         The Genevan Table

The Kirchenverwaltung (Church-Government) topics will deal with questions about how the Church itself is to be ordered, as well as how the Church relates to civil government. I ultimately want at least 4 series in this category:

·         Congregational Church-Government

·         Presbyterian Church-Government

·         Two-Kingdom Theology

·         Erastianism

The Geschichte (History) topics will cover the historical development of various Reformed churches. I want to study the church-histories of 7 regions:

·         The Swiss Reformation

·         The Huguenots

·         The Palatine Reformation & Reformed Pietists

·         The Scottish Reformation & Covenanters

·         The English Reformation & Puritans

·         New England Puritanism

·         The Dutch Reformation & Puritans

The Schrift (Script) topics will be mini-tutorials in how to read antiquarian print. They are sort of a grab-bag group that will talk about things like Sigla, Fraktur typeface, search strategies, and period translation dictionaries. These I’ll sort of cover on a whim.

The Schriftstück (Document) topics will be samples of my translation and transliteration work. What I translate will mostly be German and Latin publications. Right now, I have 2 projects in the works, and 1 that I am searching for original printings for:

·         Pfälzer Kirchenordnung (The Palatine Church Order) [in progress]

·         Christliche Confession weiland des Fürsten Friedrich III. (The Late Christian Confession of Prince Frederick III.) [in progress]

·         The Confession of the Heidelberg Theologians. [searching for print]

Achtung-Puritaner! is intended to be an educational blog for the edification of others, so I am also open to suggestions. If you have any, don’t be afraid to put them in the Comments section of this post. And if you don’t have your own ideas, please tell me which of topics that I’ve mentioned you’re most excited about, or which topics others are mentioning that you also would like to see.

And bear in mind, Klugheit ist wie ein Brunnen des Lebens dem, der sie hat,.—Understanding is a wellspring of life unto them that have it.