Of Rocks & Trees
No.262: Friday, June 13, 2025
Welcome to The Square Inch, a Friday newsletter on Christianity, culture, and all of the many-varied “square inches” of God’s domain. This is normally (but not today) a paid subscription feature with a preview before the paywall, so please consider subscribing to enjoy this weekly missive along with a frequent Pipe & Dram feature of little monologues/conversations in my study, and Wednesday’s “The Quarter Inch,” a quick(er) commentary on current events.
Dear Friends,
In lieu of a regular edition of The Square Inch Newsletter, I am publishing here 15,000 words on the topic of Cornelius Van Til, Richard B. Gaffin, Jr., John Calvin, Reformed scholasticism, Natural Theology, and two recent critics—Joel Carini and Keith Mathison. If those topics interest you, click the link below to download a PDF of the essay, “Of Rocks & Trees: Christ and the Salvation of Human Knowledge.”
In each generation those who appreciate the work of Van Til must deal with misunderstanding and sometimes outright misrepresentation of his thought. I hope this clarifies some important things, and maybe even inspires a few to delve more deeply into the subject(s). As I think you will find, it has less to do with Van Til and his critics, and everything to do with the supremacy of Christ in all things.
Enjoy! Thank you for subscribing to The Square Inch, and have a wonderful weekend.
I downloaded Of Rocks and Trees, read a few words, and I'm already pulled in!
Awesome clarity here, thank you:
"One may further observe with little exaggeration that
no one in the entire history of theology and philosophy has
emphasized these very points as often, as clearly, as expansively,
and as relentlessly as Cornelius Van Til. Somehow
this does not deter in the slightest Joel Carini or Keith
Mathison from claiming that Van Til actually borrowed
Idealism’s epistemology. They do so on no discernible (let
alone argued) grounds other than that Van Til had a lifelong
interest in the topic and that it was the subject of his
doctoral dissertation."