Today’s Readings Podcast Description

When should zeal for purity refuse to split the Church? Calvin, following Augustine against the Donatists, warns that private persons must not separate themselves because elders cannot correct every vice at once, and pastors must not abandon their ministry or wreck the flock by unwonted severity. Discipline that bursts the bond of peace ceases to be medicine. False zeal, then as now, covers pride with the shadow of sternness and turns brotherly correction into schism. When sin has seized a multitude, teaching and admonition must temper the rod. Beyond the keys themselves, pastors may also call the people to extraordinary prayer and fasting in times of controversy, election, war, pestilence, or famine. A lawful fast has three ends: to subdue the flesh, to prepare the mind for prayer, and  ...