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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Biblical Studies

The Literary Structure of the Whole Bible

In this essay we will think about how the whole Bible is structured as one Word of God. To begin with, there is only one Bible, not two. While we divide the Bible into Old and New Testaments, that division has no more meaning than divisions into chapters and verse,…

by James B. JordanMay 16, 2019
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Catholicity

Catholicity and Integrity

How should one badly bruised and inadequate church relate to another? (I am not addressing the blessed possessors of absolutely perfect churches, naturally.) I believe there are three things to bear in mind. First, we must be open to the values in other Christian traditions - even Roman Catholic and…

by James B. JordanMay 14, 2019
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Chiasm

Fertile Meaning

The third and sixth day have a second creative act. Note the chiastic arrangement of the material in these special acts and the parallelism between them, see the figure below. The author arranges the description of each day as a chiasm. Each line in the chiasm is mated with a…

by Scott FairbanksMay 9, 2019
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Biblical Theology

Nakedness and Clothing

Now the two of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they did not sense shame (Genesis 2:25) The nakedness of Adam and Eve requires several comments. First of all, against those who think that nakedness is what God intended for humanity as a permanent estate, we have…

by James B. JordanMay 7, 2019
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Epistemology

Restoring the “Other” in Mother

I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of integration, and our longing for integration in a fragmented world. I’ve been connecting my own covenant epistemology further with the thought of scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi, artist Makoto Fujimura, and Classical Christian metaphysician D.C. Schindler. In my last post , and now in this…

by Esther Lightcap MeekApril 30, 2019
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Hermeneutics

Go Tell that Vixen!

Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 23, 2019

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Philosophy

Augustine’s Decentered Self

Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality…

June 23, 2006
Philosophy

Augustine’s Decentered Self

Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality…

June 23, 2006

Blogs and the Reformation

In a characteristically thoughtful meditation on the strengths and weakness of blogs (on the Books and Culture site), Alan Jacobs includes these reflections from CS Lewis: “As I think about these architectural deficiencies [of blogs], and the deficiencies of my own character, I find myself meditating on a passage from…

June 23, 2006
History

Constructive knowledge

In his fascinating study, The Conversion of Imagination, Matthew Maguire offers notes that “imagination is not always best understood as an emancipatory faculty that moves separately from or against scientific rationality.” Rather, citing the work of Amos Funkenstein, Maguire suggests that “a variant of exalted imagination - that is, one…

June 23, 2006

St Charles and St John

“When the Church and Monarchy were restored on 19 May, 1660, Canterbury and York, being the two primacies of the Church of England, assembled their convocations and canonized King Charles, adding his name to the ecclesiastical calendar in the Book of Common Prayer. In the time of Queen Victoria this…

June 23, 2006

Sermon Outline, June 25

INTRODUCTION After Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple, Josiah embarks on a thorough reform of Judah’s worship. But his reformation extends beyond the borders of Judah; Josiah not only reverses the sins of the kinds of the South but the sin of Jeroboam the son of…

June 22, 2006

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