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Writing

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

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John

What did Jonah Know?

When a certain Samaritan village refused Jesus’ attempt to visit, James and John asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven upon it. The allusion to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is evident, but, as the story shows, James’ and John’s thinking was entirely warped. Jesus rebuked…

by Ralph Allan SmithOctober 25, 2018
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Aristotle

The Relevance of Aristotle and the Role of Christ (Part 2)

In the first part of this essay, I considered paideia (formation)and mimesis (imitation) in the context of Aristotle’s virtue ethics and that of the New Testament. The overall concern is to realize how relevant is Aristotle’s ethics both to diagnosing our current malaise and to enculturing our children, though we…

by Bret SaundersOctober 23, 2018
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Epistemology

Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World: D.C. Schindler: The Integrative Ministrations of Delight

In these posts I am inviting you into my philosophical reflection about integration , the absence of which we feel palpably in our fragmented world. My hope is for us to understand it more deeply, and to be ourselves reintegrated in the process. At this point in this extended inquiry…

by Esther Lightcap MeekOctober 18, 2018
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Aristotle

The Relevance of Aristotle and the Role of Christ (Part 1)

It’s hard to imagine someone, centuries from now, mistaking our culture for a moral highpoint in the history of the West. Increasingly the news is dominated by school shootings, abusive policing, sexploitation of women, and increasing rates of suicide, addiction, and divorce. In response, the Left calls for regulations, surveillance,…

by Bret SaundersOctober 16, 2018
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Prayer

God’s Promise to Hear Us

“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Ps. 34:17-18) God is listening. He is listening when we ask Him for financial provision,…

by Lindsey TollefsonOctober 11, 2018
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Baptism

Transfiguration and Jesus’ Baptism

The allusions to Mt. Sinai in the transfiguration story point to Jesus as a new Moses and even more as Yahweh, the God who met Moses and Elijah on the mountain. The fact that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke of Jesus’ “exodus” suggests that the mountain of transfiguration was intended…

by Ralph Allan SmithOctober 9, 2018

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Interruptive Word

David Nelson’s The Interruptive Word is a lucid exploration of the difficult theology of Eberhard Jungel, stressing, as Nelson’s subtitle has it, “the sacramental structure of God’s relation to the world.” At the center of Jungel’s theology is the claim that, in Nelson’s words, “God comes to the world by…

March 1, 2014

Speech, Space, Time

Rosenstock-Huessy argues in Speech and Reality that speech creates space and time: “Without speech, the phenomena of time and space cannot be interpreted. Only when we speak to others (or, for that matter, to ourselves), do we delineate an inner space or circle in which we speak, from the outer…

March 1, 2014

Poetry About Nothing

Deflating postmodern irony has been a long time coming. Donald Nichol sees it aborning already in the heyday of classicism, with Alexander Pope’s third, and last, great poem. ” The Rape of the Lock represents Pope’s acknowledgement of the triumph of style over substance – a mock-salute to the spirit…

March 1, 2014

Humble Champions

“What makes this team special?” a reporter asked UVA basketball coach Tony Bennett after his Cavaliers beat Syracuse to sew up the regular-season ACC championship. “Humility,” Bennett replied, then looked down and waited for the next question. He explained a moment later: His team plays together, doesn’t care who gets…

March 1, 2014
Technology

Outsourcing Romance

Evan Selinger reports at Wired on BroApp , which helps you manage relationships by sending automated messages to the object of your eternal devotion. BroApp’s creators describe it as “a ‘clever relationship wingman’ (their words) that sends ‘automated daily text messages’ to your significant other. It offers the promise of…

February 28, 2014

Other Worlds

Astronomers keep discovering undiscovered planets: “NASA . . . announced a torrent of new planet discoveries, hailing a ‘bonanza“‘of 715 worlds now known outside the solar system thanks to the Kepler space telescope’s planet-hunting mission. A new method for verifying potential planets led to the volume of new discoveries from…

February 28, 2014

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