Editor’s note: Hugh Whelchel was featured in an interview with Praxis Circle. Below are a few highlights of that conversation, which you can watch in full here.
Who are some of the great authors of the Christian worldview?
Obviously Luther’s work, Calvin’s work, and many of the early reformers.
Read more IFWE blogs about Luther’s work:
- Martin and Katie Luther: The ‘Blessed Alliance’ Behind the Reformation
- Metaxas’s Luther: Compelled by Conscience, Paving the Way for Religious Freedom
- How Vocation Inspired Martin Luther to Launch the Reformation
- Martin Luther’s Contributions to the Church’s View of Vocation
Read more IFWE blogs about Calvin’s work:
- John Calvin’s Contribution to the Biblical Doctrine of Work
- What We Can Learn About Sacrifice from John Calvin’s School of Death
Even if we fast forward to some of the people in the Dutch reformation movement and even into the early 1900s, Kuyper probably is the classic example of that movement. There are others, but Kuyper is definitely the ultimate example. Those are the people who have had the most impact on me.
Read more IFWE blogs about Kuyper:
Who are some of the modern pastors of the reformation?
Some of the contemporary pastors are people like Tim Keller at Redeemer in New York City. What I like about what Keller’s done is that he realized early on that he had to contextualize the gospel, that’s one different way to reach the people in his church. So I really like some of the stuff he’s done in that area. But there are some other contemporary guys who have done some really good stuff as well.
I think that there also is a danger of getting swept up in what’s working and using it just because that works. Keller had a reason to contextualize; he didn’t do it because everyone else was doing it. He did it because he needed to do it in this specific instance. So I think we need to be careful about that.
Read more IFWE blogs about Keller:
- Watch Tim Keller Talk about Creation, Creativity, and Entrepreneurship
- Reenvisioning Cities to Enhance Biblical Flourishing
- A Reformed Theology of Work in New York
- The Creative Class & the Church
Which reformer has had the most influence on you?
I cannot tell you what influenced Kuyper to have such a huge influence on me. And really Kuyper talks about his lectures on Calvinism. They were called the “Stone Lectures” that he did at Princeton. You can find them online and they are phenomenal, absolutely phenomenal. Because it shows that really Calvinism is a worldview in itself, and how that worldview is still applicable to what we’re doing today. That was one hundred years ago and it’s even more so now than when he said it. To me, that’s a monumental piece.
Read the Stone Lectures here.
Read more IFWE blogs about Calvinism:
Francis Schaeffer is great. I love his stuff but he’s not quite as structured as some of the other guys; it’s kind of hard to nail him down in some areas. Yet he’s very creative and very much solid on the gospel, he’s not drifting. And that’s what we have to be—can’t drift.
Read more IFWE blogs about Francis Schaeffer:
- Francis Schaeffer’s Call to End the Sacred-Secular Divide
- Why Sufjan Stevens Would Make Francis Schaeffer Proud
- Hip-Hop Engaging the Totality of Life: How Francis Schaeffer Makes Sense of the Controversy Surrounding Lecrae and Reach Records
- 9 Essential Points on the Theology of Work
(Watch this part of the interview here.)
