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Writing

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

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Biblical Horizons

Writing and Thinking

During one of my AAPC lectures I read a portion of Richard Mitchell’s provocative little book The Underground Grammarian . Here’s the portion I read: The mind is a rudderless wanderer blown here or there by any puff of breeze. If I mention watermelons, you must think of watermelons; if…

by Jeff MeyersJanuary 14, 2008
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Biblical Studies

Psalms 23-29: Analysis

This is the donation thank-you essay for January 2008. Our studies in the Psalms go out month by month in response to donations. I’m putting this one up here as an example, and also because the version I actually mailed out contained several egregious arithmetical errors! So, here is the…

by James B. JordanJanuary 6, 2008
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Parts 1-7

Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of “traditional” or “canon” learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…

by James B. JordanDecember 5, 2007
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Theologia

On Forgiving Oneself: Nine Reasons Why It Can Be Appropriate

While “forgiving oneself” is widely accepted in the secular world as a legitimate and needful thing to do, Christians are rightly suspicious. After all, God is the one who forgives. When we sin against other people, we need to seek their forgiveness, not our own. Nevertheless after looking at Vine’s…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2007
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Biblical Studies

Every Word Matters to the Story

This was originally published as HIStory in the column, “A Pastor’s Perspective” in Ligonier Ministrie’s Tabletalk Magazine . I am not sure of the date but it was probably published in 1999 or 2000. Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2007
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Church Government

The Pastorate and the Presbytery

A Brief Explanation of What a Presbytery Is & Why Pastors in Presbyterian Denominations are Members of Them A belief in the primacy of the local congregation of the Church, I think, reflects the gut feeling of most North American Evangelicals. As a result, the form of Church government universally…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 2007

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Spirit As Fragrance

Cyril of Alexandria developed an intriguing conception of the Spirit as the “fragrance” of God. The Spirit is “a living and active fragrance from the substance of God, a fragrance that transmits to the creature that which comes from God and ensures participation in the substance which is above all…

March 4, 2004
Biblical Studies

Patristic Dispensationalism

Among the projects that Julian the Apostate took on was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This was intended to deflate Christian apologetics who pointed to the destruction of the temple as a sign of Judaism’s demise and Christianity’s ascendency, both divinely authorized. But there were also Christians who…

March 4, 2004
Literature

Walter Scott

Scott is the romantic’s romantic, and yet his novels display the struggle against romance that is common in early novel-writing ( Don Quixote ; Northanger Abbey ). Edward Waverley , the “hero” of the first of Scott’s novels, goes through various adventures with the Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince…

March 3, 2004
Economics

Culture and Development

Deepak Lal holds the James S. Coleman Professorship of International Development Studies at UCLA, and has produced a fascinating cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural study of the relation of culture and development, Unintended Consequences (Oxford, 1998). Many of his arguments are unpersuasive, but stimulating nonetheless. One of Lal’s main themes is to…

March 3, 2004
Literature

Deep Tragedy

As I’ve thought more about the issues of comedy and tragedy, it has become clear that Christianity not only brings “deep comedy,” but also produces a deepening of tragic sensibility. In one sense, Christianity is utterly opposed to tragedy and its outlook: the religious world of much tragedy with its…

March 3, 2004

Temple Worship in Ecclesiastes

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon repeatedly exhorts his readers to “eat, drink, and rejoice” as a response to the vaporousness of life” “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the…

March 3, 2004

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