Thoughts on Religious Experience - Alexander, Archibald

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Résumé :
A lively Christian faith is the result of a heart and mind saturated in Scripture. Through God's gracious revelation of himself to his people, the church learns more of God's mercy, grace, and justice. The Christian has no reason for a cold, lifeless faith. However, religious experiences need not be equated with ecstatic frenzy. Reformed Christians are often charged with holding doctrine that results in a languorous life. Charismatics, on the other hand, are said to possess little doctrine yet have an authentic and experiential faith. Is the Christian faith a choice between truth and experience? Archibald Alexander brings the reasoned mind of a gifted pastor-scholar to the issue of Christian experience. He addresses some of the more complex components of the Christian life, such as the experiences of young children in the faith. Is the faith of a child to be judged on different grounds than the faith of an adult? This perennial question turns Alexander's mind to the general evidence of regeneration in all believers. Alexander naturally turns to spiritual warfare and backsliding, the peaks and valleys that every Christian will inevitably face. And with a pastoral pen, he finally addresses the experience of the death of a Christian and the proper understanding of death as release from the enemy.

Biographie:
Archibald Alexander was an American Presbyterian theologian and Princeton Theological Seminary professor. He was President of Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia for nine years and Princeton Theological Seminary's first professor for 39 years, from 1812 to 1851. Archibald Alexander was born on April 17, 1772, in South River, Rockbridge County, Virginia, as the son of William Alexander, a prosperous farmer. He was raised under the teaching and ministry of Presbyterian preacher William Graham (1745-1799), who had received theological training from John Witherspoon. His grandfather, who was of Scottish heritage, arrived in Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1736 and migrated to Virginia after two years. William, Archibald's father, was a farmer and businessman. His nephew was William Alexander Caruthers, an American novelist (1802-1846). On October 1, 1791, he was licensed to preach, ordained by the Hanover presbytery on June 9, 1794, and served as an itinerant pastor in Charlotte and Prince Edward counties for the next seven years. By the age of 21, Alexander had become a Presbyterian Church preacher.