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Writing

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

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Creation

Why Genesis Matters

Creationism is debated widely in the US, especially when it comes to teaching creation as an alternative theory of origins in public schools. Every few months, there’s another poll showing that many Americans still believe Ussher’s claim that the world was created around 4000 BC, which always elicits a contemptuous…

by Peter LeithartAugust 20, 2014
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Books

Canary in the Coal Shaft

Walker Percy died in 1990, but his six published novels and his collections of essays are more relevant than when he wrote them. Percy was an American Dostoevsky, and that was no accident. “The European novels,” he says in a 1974 interview, “are more philosophical, more novels of ideas.” Dostoevsky,…

by Peter LeithartAugust 18, 2014
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Children

Parenting in the Spirit

The Spirit is God’s agent for renewing the creation, for restoring bonds between nations, for knitting together people into the body of Christ. The Spirit is the renewer of the world, and the bond of all relations. That means that if you want your family to be knit together, if…

by Peter LeithartAugust 13, 2014
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Revelation

Hunter Into Prey

In their basic physical sense , the verbs translated as "persecute" in the Bible mean “chase” or “pursue,” and that fits the context quite naturally. As Pharaoh “pursued” (LXX, dioko ; Heb. radaph ) Israel into the wilderness, for example, so the dragon chases the woman back to her place…

by Peter LeithartAugust 11, 2014
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Books

Edwards Our Contemporary

Seng-Kong Tan’s Fullness Received and Returned is a densely argued, thoroughly researched, contextually sensitive study of participation in the soteriology of Jonathan Edwards. Along the way, Tan deals with many of the central themes in Edwards’s theology. As with many recent studies of Edwards, Tan’s monograph demonstrates both Edwards’s creativity…

by Peter LeithartAugust 6, 2014
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Art

Portrait of the Artist as Aesthetic Martyr

The title of James Joyce’s first novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man indicates that it is a bildungsroman , a story of formation that describes the formative experiences of a poet who aspires to artistic greatness. The education described is Joyce’s own. The novel recounts the failing…

by Peter LeithartAugust 4, 2014

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Buildings and Battles

A s soon as David becomes king (1 Chronicles 13), he wants to bring the ark of God into Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 14). His plan comes to an abrupt halt when Yahweh kills Uzza fir stretching out a hand to touch the ark. The ark disappears from view for a…

September 1, 2016

Is Nationalism Racist?

I t’s the puzzle of the 2016 Presidential race. It’s the question that’s dominating European politics in the aftermath of Britain’s exit from the EU and after a summer of immigration turmoil. Everything was going so swimmingly toward a global future. Everyone seemed so happy. Suddenly, so it seems, nationalism,…

September 1, 2016

Formed in Secret

I n Psalm 139, David says that darkness and light are alike to God, night bright as the day (v. 12). Such a God can form a man in a secret place (v. 15). A God for whom night shines is a God who sees what cannot be seen, David's…

August 31, 2016

Masterpiece for One

Maitre Frenhofer stands with Pygmalion and Orpheus in the pantheon of influential fictional artists. The painter of the Unknown Masterpiece (or Unrecognized Masterpiece ) in Balzac’s Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu , Frenhofer’s utter devotion to his art inspired Cezanne, Picasso, and Rilke. The best-known testimony comes from Emile Bernard’s recollection of…

August 31, 2016

Sit Down

I t may look quaint to contemporary Christians, but once upon a time there were vigorous debates about the proper posture for receiving communion. Puritans and Presbyterians objected to the custom of kneeling to receive the elements, arguing that it perpetuated the Catholic practice of venerating the consecrated Host. In…

August 30, 2016
Architecture

Word Made Number Made Building

I n his study of the Symbolism of the Christian Temple , Jean Hani offers a brief analysis of the “numerical harmonies” of the Troyes Cathedral. The main building is constructed according to ancient “golden” proportions, but this is overlaid by “a yet more mysterious [harmony] of a mystical order”…

August 29, 2016

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