Christ's work is a kind of deterrent to us, and a way of upholding the justice of God's divine government of the world.

I do think that I have been fortunate to make friendships with other scholars, and form reading groups where ideas are exchanged and papers are read. That is a real boon, and it is something I think every scholar or writer can benefit from.

[ Jonathan] Edwards is one of my heroes. I've learned much from him over the years.

[John Calvin] writes clearly, directly, without artifice, and gets straight to the practical heart of the matter.

That is the great contribution of Reformed thinking to the Christian church: theology for a life well-lived.

What I am trying to argue here [Save Calvinism] and in other works before this one is that the Reformed tradition as I have characterized it is much broader and richer than many of us today imagine. It is not just about "Five Points," and it was never just about [John ] Calvin's thought.

To my mind [ Jonathan Edwards] is an interesting figure because he is both a canonical Reformed thinker, and yet also someone that pushed the envelope in a number of key areas of theology.