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Revision: 2
Title: Reading List — Ethnic Sins Resolution
Author: Joshua Morrison
Date: 2026 Jul 17 at 18:27
Reading List — Ethnic Sins Resolution
Ordered by priority: Modules 1–2 are the defensive core (jurisdiction, unity of mankind). Read these first. Modules 3–5 fill out the doctrinal substructure.
Module 1 — Jurisdictional Foundation
Why the resolution stays within the Church’s competence. ☐ Chapter 31 – Of Synods & Councils, Section 4 | Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 (Memorize, Don’t Just Read)
☐ Chapter 31 – Of Synods & Councils, Section 5 | Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 (Memorize, Don’t Just Read)
☐ Question 1 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 2 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 3 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 4 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince ☐ George Gillespie, Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, Book II (“Of the Christian Church Government”) — the distinct-jurisdiction argument. Skip Books I and III for now.
Module 2 — Unity of Mankind (against Polygenism/Pre-Adamism, and grounding Ethnic Animus)
Your strongest defense if the charge is “racism.” ☐ B. B. Warfield, “On the Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race,” Princeton Theological Review 9 (1911): 1–25 — read in full, ~25 pages.
☐ Calvin, Institutes II.8 — moral law/Decalogue, especially the Sixth Commandment exposition following Christ’s reading in Matthew 5.
☐ Calvin, Commentary on Acts 17:26 — short; ties “of one blood all nations” to unity-in-Adam, linking Polygenism and Ecclesiastical Racial Exclusivism sections.
Module 3 — Catholicity of the Church
Grounds Ecclesiastical Racial Exclusivism as condemned. ☐ WCF 25.2 — the visible Church as catholic.
☐ Calvin, Institutes IV.1.1–4 — marks and catholicity of the visible church.
Module 4 — Ethnic Chauvinism (envy/pride, First Commandment root)
Most technical, lowest urgency. ☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.36 (envy) — read first; chauvinism is envy inverted, not pride simpliciter.
☐ Aquinas, ST II-II, q.162 (pride) — read after q.36 for the fuller scholastic architecture.
☐ Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, Book XXXI — homiletical source behind the envy/pride correlation; read last, after the scholastic categories are in hand.
Module 5 — Ethnic Affinity & Loyalty (ordo amoris / pietas) — grounds Article 5, “Over-Realized Ethnic Eschatology”
Grounds natural obligation to kin/nation as justice, not merely tolerated sentiment, and names the error on the opposite side from Modules 2 and 4. ☐ Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, p. 60 (confirm edition/pagination) — lead citation. Postlapsarian national distinction (“nationalism, within proper limits, has the divine sanction”) as providentially willed for a positive purpose, dependent on “relative seclusion” (note the qualifier — not absolute separation); prelapsarian unity and Gal. 3:28 unity belong to the ideal/eschatological brackets, not the present intervening period; imperialism (“obliterate all lines of distinction”) is condemned as “pagan and immoral.”
☐ Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana I.28 — rightly ordered love; nearness rightly governs the order of active love without being sin.
☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.101 (piety, as a part of justice) — debt owed to parents, kindred, and country as commutative justice.
☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.26 (the order of charity), articles 6–8 — whether those nearer to us should be loved more, and on what ground.
☐ Westminster Larger Catechism, Q.124 — Fifth Commandment’s “superiors,” extended to those bound by nearness of blood and place.
☐ Revelation 7:9 and Revelation 21:24–26 — consummated kingdom depicted as nations/tribes/tongues gathered, not dissolved; each still bearing distinct “glory and honor” into the holy city. Load-bearing for the corrected Article 5(c): union in Christ ends hostility, not distinction.
☐ Galatians 3:28, read per Vos as belonging to “the final eschatological dispensation,” not a present-age mandate — the text every side of this argument grants authority to; the dispute is over its redemptive-historical placement, not its truth.
Notes / open items
Knox’s “Give me Scotland or I die” — not used. No verified primary-source citation found (Knox’s History of the Reformation, letters, sermons); every source traced is devotional/secondhand. Category also mismatched — it’s soteriological zeal for Scotland’s conversion, not a natural-affinity claim. If a Knox source is wanted for Module 5, it needs to come from his actual corpus, not this popular quote.
Romans 9:1–3 — not used in Module 5 for the same reason: redemptive-historical zeal tied to Israel’s unique covenant privileges (v. 4–5), not a transferable natural-affinity principle.
Vos’s “relative seclusion” (means, toward a positive purpose) is not equivalent to “general separation” as a freestanding good — keep the qualifier “relative” and the instrumental framing (good for the fulfilment of a nation’s purpose) in any paraphrase used in the document.
Logos Library Search Terms
For adding to your personal Reading List tool (Tools → Reading Lists) — not the public topics.logos.com wiki, which is a separate, community-editable feature not suited to this material. “Westminster Confession of Faith” — confirm you’re on the Edinburgh/1646 text edition you use elsewhere; covers 31.4–5 and 25.2.
“Westminster Larger Catechism” — Q.124.
Gillespie, “Aaron’s Rod Blossoming”
Rutherford, “Lex, Rex”
Warfield, “Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race” — may appear under Studies in Theology or the collected Works of B. B. Warfield rather than as a standalone title.
Calvin, “Institutes of the Christian Religion” — Books II and IV.
Calvin, “Commentary on Acts” (search the “Calvin’s Commentaries” set)
Calvin, “Commentary on Genesis”
Vos, “Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments”
Aquinas, “Summa Theologiae” (Logos often lists this as “Summa Theologica,” Benziger Bros. translation) — Secunda Secundae (II-II) contains qq. 26, 36, 101, 162.
Augustine, “De Doctrina Christiana” — search “On Christian Doctrine,” Book I.
Gregory the Great, “Moralia in Job” — smaller resource base in Logos; confirm availability before assigning as required reading. |
Revision: 3
Title: Reading List — Ethnic Sins Resolution
Author: Joshua Morrison
Date: 2026 Jul 17 at 21:12
Reading List — Ethnic Sins Resolution
Ordered by priority: Modules 1–2 are the defensive core (jurisdiction, unity of mankind). Read these first. Modules 3–5 fill out the doctrinal substructure.
Module 1 — Jurisdictional Foundation
Why the resolution stays within the Church’s competence. ☐ Chapter 31 – Of Synods & Councils, Section 4 | Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 (Memorize, Don’t Just Read)
☐ Chapter 31 – Of Synods & Councils, Section 5 | Westminster Confession of Faith, 1646 (Memorize, Don’t Just Read)
☐ Question 1 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 2 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 3 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ Question 4 – Whether Government Be Warranted By A Divine Law | Samuel Rutherford. Lex, Rex, or the Law and the Prince
☐ George Gillespie, Aaron’s Rod Blossoming, Book II (“Of the Christian Church Government”) — the distinct-jurisdiction argument. Skip Books I and III for now.
Module 2 — Unity of Mankind (against Polygenism/Pre-Adamism, and grounding Ethnic Animus)
Your strongest defense if the charge is “racism.”
☐ B. B. Warfield, On the Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race | Princeton Theological Review, 1911 ☐ B. B. Warfield, “On the Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race,” Princeton Theological Review 9 (1911): 1–25 — read in full, ~25 pages.
☐ Calvin, Institutes II.8 — moral law/Decalogue, especially the Sixth Commandment exposition following Christ’s reading in Matthew 5.
☐ Calvin, Commentary on Acts 17:26 — short; ties “of one blood all nations” to unity-in-Adam, linking Polygenism and Ecclesiastical Racial Exclusivism sections.
Module 3 — Catholicity of the Church
Grounds Ecclesiastical Racial Exclusivism as condemned. ☐ WCF 25.2 — the visible Church as catholic.
☐ Calvin, Institutes IV.1.1–4 — marks and catholicity of the visible church.
Module 4 — Ethnic Chauvinism (envy/pride, First Commandment root)
Most technical, lowest urgency. ☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.36 (envy) — read first; chauvinism is envy inverted, not pride simpliciter.
☐ Aquinas, ST II-II, q.162 (pride) — read after q.36 for the fuller scholastic architecture.
☐ Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job, Book XXXI — homiletical source behind the envy/pride correlation; read last, after the scholastic categories are in hand.
Module 5 — Ethnic Affinity & Loyalty (ordo amoris / pietas) — grounds Article 5, “Over-Realized Ethnic Eschatology”
Grounds natural obligation to kin/nation as justice, not merely tolerated sentiment, and names the error on the opposite side from Modules 2 and 4. ☐ Geerhardus Vos, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments, p. 60 (confirm edition/pagination) — lead citation. Postlapsarian national distinction (“nationalism, within proper limits, has the divine sanction”) as providentially willed for a positive purpose, dependent on “relative seclusion” (note the qualifier — not absolute separation); prelapsarian unity and Gal. 3:28 unity belong to the ideal/eschatological brackets, not the present intervening period; imperialism (“obliterate all lines of distinction”) is condemned as “pagan and immoral.”
☐ Augustine, De Doctrina Christiana I.28 — rightly ordered love; nearness rightly governs the order of active love without being sin.
☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.101 (piety, as a part of justice) — debt owed to parents, kindred, and country as commutative justice.
☐ Aquinas, Summa Theologiae II-II, q.26 (the order of charity), articles 6–8 — whether those nearer to us should be loved more, and on what ground.
☐ Westminster Larger Catechism, Q.124 — Fifth Commandment’s “superiors,” extended to those bound by nearness of blood and place.
☐ Revelation 7:9 and Revelation 21:24–26 — consummated kingdom depicted as nations/tribes/tongues gathered, not dissolved; each still bearing distinct “glory and honor” into the holy city. Load-bearing for the corrected Article 5(c): union in Christ ends hostility, not distinction.
☐ Galatians 3:28, read per Vos as belonging to “the final eschatological dispensation,” not a present-age mandate — the text every side of this argument grants authority to; the dispute is over its redemptive-historical placement, not its truth.
Notes / open items
Knox’s “Give me Scotland or I die” — not used. No verified primary-source citation found (Knox’s History of the Reformation, letters, sermons); every source traced is devotional/secondhand. Category also mismatched — it’s soteriological zeal for Scotland’s conversion, not a natural-affinity claim. If a Knox source is wanted for Module 5, it needs to come from his actual corpus, not this popular quote.
Romans 9:1–3 — not used in Module 5 for the same reason: redemptive-historical zeal tied to Israel’s unique covenant privileges (v. 4–5), not a transferable natural-affinity principle.
Vos’s “relative seclusion” (means, toward a positive purpose) is not equivalent to “general separation” as a freestanding good — keep the qualifier “relative” and the instrumental framing (good for the fulfilment of a nation’s purpose) in any paraphrase used in the document.
Logos Library Search Terms
For adding to your personal Reading List tool (Tools → Reading Lists) — not the public topics.logos.com wiki, which is a separate, community-editable feature not suited to this material. “Westminster Confession of Faith” — confirm you’re on the Edinburgh/1646 text edition you use elsewhere; covers 31.4–5 and 25.2.
“Westminster Larger Catechism” — Q.124.
Gillespie, “Aaron’s Rod Blossoming”
Rutherford, “Lex, Rex”
Warfield, “Antiquity and Unity of the Human Race” — may appear under Studies in Theology or the collected Works of B. B. Warfield rather than as a standalone title.
Calvin, “Institutes of the Christian Religion” — Books II and IV.
Calvin, “Commentary on Acts” (search the “Calvin’s Commentaries” set)
Calvin, “Commentary on Genesis”
Vos, “Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments”
Aquinas, “Summa Theologiae” (Logos often lists this as “Summa Theologica,” Benziger Bros. translation) — Secunda Secundae (II-II) contains qq. 26, 36, 101, 162.
Augustine, “De Doctrina Christiana” — search “On Christian Doctrine,” Book I.
Gregory the Great, “Moralia in Job” — smaller resource base in Logos; confirm availability before assigning as required reading. |