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Biblical Studies

Music and Hermeneutics

From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…

by James B. JordanNovember 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Of Preaching and Newspapers

Sermons are rarely more tiresome than when they strive for relevance. Drawing from the latest headlines transforms the preacher into a one-man MacLaughlin Group, a Crossfire without the cross though perhaps with some of the fire, and leave the congregation thinking, "If I wanted Meet the Press, I could have…

by Peter LeithartNovember 27, 1996
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Beer

Concerning Wine and Beer

Part One: The Old Testament “Drink is in itself a good creature of God, and to be received with thankfulness, but the abuse of drink is from Satan, the wine is from God, but the drunkard is from the Devil” Increase Mather in Wo to Drunkards (1673). 1. The “wine”…

by Jeff MeyersNovember 5, 1996
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Jeremiah

Jeremiah 52:28-30

28. These are the people whom Nebuchadnezzar carried away into exile: in the 7th year 3023 Jews. 29. In the 18th year of Nebuchadnezzar 832 persons from Jerusalem. 30. In the 23rd year of Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carried into exile 745 Jewish people; there were 4600…

by James B. JordanOctober 28, 1996
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Revelation

Concerning the Nations

Revelation 21:24 says, concerning the light shining from the New Jerusalem, "and the nations will walk by her light, and the kings of the land will bring their glory into her." Similarly, Revelation 22:2 says, concerning the Tree of Life, that "the leaves of the tree were for the healing…

by James B. JordanOctober 28, 1996
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Jeremiah

Countdown to Exile II: Rebellion Against God’s Order

Jeremiah and the Beginning of Jehoiakim’s Reign Now comes Jeremiah, at the beginning of Jehoiakim’s reign, with similar words (Jeremiah 26). Harken to God’s law, he said, or else God will destroy the Temple the same way He sent the Philistines to tear down the Tabernacle at Shiloh (Jeremiah 26:6;…

by James B. JordanOctober 28, 1996

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German Reforvolution

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy claims that the German Reformation qualifies for inclusion as one of the epochal revolutions of Western history ( Out of Revolution ). This is so partly because the German Reformation gave to Europe a new social role, the civil servant: “In the German revolution the drab, grey life…

October 25, 2017

Preaching, An Art of Division

The following is an excerpt from Peter Leithart's forthcoming two-volume commentary on Revelation (T&T Clark). Y ou must prophesy again concerning many peoples and nations and tongues and kings,” a voice tells John (Rev. 10:11). Then someone gives him a “reed like a rod” and instructs him to measure (11:1).…

October 24, 2017

Deep Comedy

The following is an excerpt from the introduction to my Deep Comedy (Canon, 2006). Viewed as a whole, the Christian account of history is eschatological not only in the sense that it comes to a definitive and everlasting end, but in the sense that the end is a glorified beginning,…

October 24, 2017

Time, Natural and Social

"To date," writes Norbert Elias in his Essay on Time , "enquiries into the sociology of time are almost non-existent” (38). This deficit, he suggests, is due to a dichotomy of the natural and human worlds, a dichotomy reflected in academic specializations (71). He blames the “conventional tendency to explore…

October 23, 2017

Two Kingdoms, Two Christs?

David VanDrunen, has worked out an understanding of natural law and the “two kingdoms” Christologically. He writes, “The Son of God rules the temporal kingdom as an eternal member of the Divine Trinity but does not rule it in his capacity as the incarnate mediator/redeemer” ( Natural Law and the…

October 20, 2017

Love Uber Alles

Benedict rejects the notion that Catholic social theory treats social and political institutions – the state, the economy, civil society, for instance – as – autonomous, extrinsically-related “subjects” with different logics. On this view, the economy would be the sphere of wealth-generation, politics the sphere of power, and civil society…

October 20, 2017

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