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

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Isaiah

The Desert of the Sea

Introduction Isaiah 21 can only be understood in the light of its placement in the architecture of the second “volume” of the prophecy (chapters 13–27). The contents are arranged in twin sevenfold “columns” that represent the great bronze pillars of Solomon’s Temple: Jachin and Boaz, priest and king. The priestly…

by Mike BullFebruary 20, 2025
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Isaiah

Jesus Enthroned on the Zodiac

A Biblical Reflection on the Purpose of the Constellations The starry heavens hold a place of wonder in the hearts of men. Since man’s creation we have looked up into the heavens and have beheld its glory. This is particularly true of the night sky. The stars, in their shinning…

by Matthew DarbyFebruary 19, 2025
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Matthew

An Overall Chiasm around Six Discourses in the Gospel According to Matthew  

The case for there being five discourses within the Gospel according to Matthew is a hard one to challenge: surely the closing formula “when Jesus finished these sayings” as found in 8:1, 11:1, 13:53, 19:1, and 26:1 settles it once and for all. And by the five instances of the…

by Benoit EngelFebruary 13, 2025
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Matthew

Exegesis of the Great Commission

The Long Commission The Great Commission of Matthew 28 has long been a cornerstone of American Evangelicalism. It has formed and fashioned the American church’s missional impulse. Yet when viewed from the wide lens of Scripture, from Genesis to Revelation, the Great Commission is revealed as one of the pillars…

by Ralph Allan SmithFebruary 11, 2025
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Lord's Supper

Genuine Paedocommunion

I am delighted to see that more and more churches in the Reformed tradition are now recognizing that all baptized children are members of the body of Christ and therefore ought to be communing with the rest of the body at the Lord’s Table. This has been decades in the…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 6, 2025
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Twitter and Emotional Sabotage

Good leaders have always been rare. In today’s world, they seem extinct. Joe Rigney’s recent book Leadership and Emotional Sabotage digs into the spiritual reasons for the leadership epidemic and recommends cures. Rigney starts with a summary of a book by Edwin Friedman called A Failure of Nerve . Friedman’s…

by Christian LeithartFebruary 4, 2025

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Philosophy

Shaftesbury’s Natural Self

Lori Branch describes the paradoxical pursuit of “natural” self in Shaftesbury’s private “Exercises.” It is not a pretty sight. He seeks integrity in unified affections, but this unity is achieved only at the cost of dismemberment: “In search of the natural self, Shaftesbury imagines himself with clothing removed and even…

January 18, 2007
Philosophy

Shaftesbury’s Natural Self

Lori Branch describes the paradoxical pursuit of “natural” self in Shaftesbury’s private “Exercises.” It is not a pretty sight. He seeks integrity in unified affections, but this unity is achieved only at the cost of dismemberment: “In search of the natural self, Shaftesbury imagines himself with clothing removed and even…

January 18, 2007
History

Secularism and suffering

Talal Asad suggests that secularism assumes that human beings live and choose on the basis of a “calculus of pleasure and pain.” Pain is unredeemable, and so secularism can respond to suffering only by trying to minimize it - soothing it with drugs, distracting through narcotic entertainment, reducing risk through…

January 18, 2007

Chiasm in 1 John 4

1 John 4:12-17 is organized as a chiasm: A. No one beheld God, 12a B. Mutual love, God abides, love perfected, 12b C. Abiding in God, He in us, 13 D. Bear witness to the Savior, 14 D’. Confessing that Jesus is Son, 15a C’. God abides in him, he…

January 17, 2007
Theology

Why Study Rosenstock-Huessy

Following are some notes from a lecture on Rosenstock-Huessy, the first session of a class on his work. The scope of his life work is amazing. He wrote on language, religion and the Bible, calendars, time, grammar, a massive and detailed history of the Western world, but he was trained…

January 17, 2007
Literature

Himmelfarb on Hard Times

Gertrude Himmelfarb has an excellent discussion of Hard Times in her book on poverty in the Victorian era. Below are some highlights. As Himmelfarb sees things, the problem in Coketown is not the factory but the way the factory spreads throughout, and shapes, the town. Himmelfarb: “Everything [in Coketown] is…

January 16, 2007

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