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Writing

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

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Liturgy

The Temple Singers

Who were the company of singers who sang in the Temple built by Solomon? I think many people might answer “the Levitical singers.” That is not correct, because the Levites were not allowed inside the Temple; only the priests were. The Levitical choir and orchestra performed for Yahweh outside the…

by James B. JordanJuly 2, 2015
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Homosexuality

After Obergefell - A Pastoral Letter

Dear Congregation, Social media is awash with rants for and against the ruling from the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) yesterday regarding homosexual marriage ( Obergefell v. Hodges ). My contribution on Facebook was simply to quote relevant sections of the dissents written by the four judges in the minority. Even though…

by Jeff MeyersJuly 1, 2015
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Biblical Law

Law and Imagination

After the Civil War, the hobbled nation and fractured races looked about for leadership; animosity was high and envy was crouching at the door. Booker Taliaferro Washington, up from slavery, surveyed the rising tension and injustice, foreseeing civil unrest and chafing inequalities, eschewed, remarkably, a legislative remedy and advised a…

by Remy WilkinsJune 30, 2015
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Homosexuality

They Played the Flute for Me - But I Couldn't Dance

The ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges “came down” on Friday morning, June 26, 2015, like a bolt from Zeus. Many who refuse to bow to the dictates of our Olympians will write trenchant legal, theological, and cultural/political analyses of the court’s ruling. What I’m comfortable contributing to the historical record,…

by Jonathan BarlowJune 29, 2015
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American Culture

After Obergefell

Orthodox Christianity has lost all cultural potency in the U.S. No one defending traditional marriage before the court dared raise the fundamental question: Who creates marriage, God or the state? Theology has no public standing, no persuasive force in the culture at large. Obergefell is another nail in the coffin…

by Peter LeithartJune 27, 2015
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Poetry

Dust of Snow

One will rarely come upon a classical allusion in a Robert Frost poem. His poetic scheme was to follow the speaking patterns of common folk, to use their words and images to achieve his point. Despite this simplicity, there is a depth and richness to his poetry that can be…

by Remy WilkinsJune 25, 2015

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Philosophy

Hamann and Mendelssohn

I fell for it. Hamann begins a brief discussion of the temporality of truth apparently agreeing with Mendelssohn, “I, too, know of no eternal truths except those who are unceasingly temporal.” Stephen Dunning ( Tongues of Men ) explains the dense irony of the statement. Hamann is responding to Mendelssohn’s…

September 27, 2008
Uncategorized

Observation and prophecy

Hamann writes, “The spirit of observation and the spirit of prophecy are the wings of human genius. All that is present belongs to the domain of the former; all that is absent, the past and the future, belongs to the domain of the latter. Philosophical genius expresses its power through…

September 27, 2008
Uncategorized

Words and meanings

Hamann (“Metacritique”) says that “words as undetermined objects of empirical concepts are entitled critical appearances, specters, non-words or unwords, and become determinate objects for the understanding only through their institution and meaning in usage. This meaning and its determination arises, as everyone knows, from the combination of a word-sign, which…

September 27, 2008
Philosophy

Temporality of truth

Hamann agreed with Mendelssohn that there are “no eternal truths save as incessant temporality,” and in this he locates the difference between Judaism and Christianity: “it is solely a matter of temporal truths of history, which occurred once and never come again - of facts which have become true at…

September 27, 2008
History

Prophetic history

Hamann from “Golgotha and Sheblimini”: “the entire range of human events and the whole course of their vicissitudes would be encompassed and divided into subsections just as the starry firmament is divided into figures, without knowing the stars’ number. Hence the entire history of the Jewish people, by the allegory…

September 27, 2008

Multiplied curse

Before God tells creatures to “be fruitful and multiply,” He blesses them. Blessing is a verbal pronouncement that proliferates. But so is curse: “Your sorrows will be multiplied,” Yahweh tells Eve at the gate of the garden, and later wicked people multiply on the earth, long before the righteous do.

September 27, 2008

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