About 120 gathered on 4 – 5 December at Regent Hall, Oxford Circus, for the 2018 Westminster Conference.
The format was the same as ever – three papers a day, with substantial and helpful discussion following each paper except for the last one. The conference focuses on historical theology and its relevance for today, with particular emphasis on the Reformers and Puritans.
Election
First, Paul Wells (recently retired from the Faculté Jean Calvin, Aix-en-Provence) gave an exceptionally clear and well-informed paper on Amyraldianism, explaining how Amyraut’s understanding of God’s decree of election differed from the classic Reformed understanding and exposing the difficulties from which Amyraldianism thereby suffers.
Geoff Thomas then gave a lively and informative account of the life of A.W. Pink, highlighting his Calvinistic orthodoxy as well as his difficulties in settling into church fellowship.
The day finished with a masterly presentation by Phil Arthur on the First World War and its effects on the Christian faith in Britain – his well-argued conclusion was that those effects were insignificant compared with the damage caused by 19th-century higher criticism and evolutionary theory.
The second day began with a paper by James Eglinton, who lectures in theology at Edinburgh University, on the life and work of Herman Bavinck, giving considerable insight into the Dutch political and religious context in which Bavinck laboured, as well as providing help with reading his works. Jeremy Walker then spoke insightfully on John Owen’s great, but perhaps undervalued, work on the person of Christ, Christologia. The conference finished with Nigel Graham speaking movingly and informatively on David Brainerd.
