Jordan Ballor
<p>Jordan J. Ballor (Dr. theol., University of Zurich; Ph.D., Calvin Theological Seminary) is a research fellow at the Acton Institute and serves as executive editor of the <em><a href="/%3Ca%20class%3D"html-attribute-value html-external-link" href="http://www.acton.org/pub/journal-markets-morality" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">/pub/journal-markets-morality" title="http://www.marketsandmorality.com/">Journal of Markets & Morality</a></em>. He is author of <a href="/%3Ca%20class%3D"html-attribute-value html-external-link" href="http://www.getyourhandsdirtybook.com/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.getyourhandsdirtybook.com/"><em>Get Your Hands Dirty: Essays on Christian Social Thought (and Action)</em></a> (Wipf & Stock, 2013), <a href="/%3Ca%20class%3D"html-attribute-value html-external-link" href="http://www.v-r.de/en/title-0-0/covenant_causality_and_law-1008125/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.v-r.de/en/title-0-0/covenant_causality_and_law-1008125/"><em>Covenant, Causality, and Law: A Study in the Theology of Wolfgang Musculus</em></a> (Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2012), and <em><a href="/%3Ca%20class%3D"html-attribute-value html-external-link" href="http://www.clpress.com/publication/ecumenical-babel" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.clpress.com/publication/ecumenical-babel" title="http://www.clpress.com/publication/ecumenical-babel"><span title="http://www.clpress.com/publication/ecumenical-babel">Ecumenical Babel: Confusing Economic Ideology and the Church's Social Witness</span></a></em> (Christian's Library Press, 2010). He is also associate director of the <a href="/%3Ca%20class%3D"html-attribute-value html-external-link" href="http://www.juniusinstitute.org/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.juniusinstitute.org">Junius Institute for Digital Reformation Research</a> at Calvin Theological Seminary.</p>
My scholarly interests include Reformation studies, church-state relations, theological anthropology, social ethics, theology and economics, and research methodology.
Thanks for this post, Karl. I've actually raised the topic of the "Call" in relationship to the diaconate in a follow-up post today. The questions you raise are precisely the ones we ought to be...
I look in vain for such a requirement in 1 Timothy 3:1-7. The text does say that the elder should be able to run his own household. Presumably that would include the ability to judge for his own...