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

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American Politics

How To Change the Supreme Court

Appalling as it is, the decision of the United States Supreme Court regarding marriage cannot come as much of a surprise to reformation minded Christians. At the same time, this event is a warning from which we might learn. It is parallel to the attack of AIDS in the homosexual…

by James B. JordanJuly 8, 2015
putin
Europe

Gay West and Straight East?

Should we trust Vladimir Putin, we could come to believe that the West is a gay paradise whereas Russia strongly defends traditional and even Christian morality. Similar conclusion could be drawn from polls, which say that the European Union and America are the parts of the world where the acceptance…

by Bogumil JarmulakJuly 7, 2015
street
City

Jane Jacobs: The Jane Austen of Economics

In 1974, Steven Goldberg published one of the books that radical feminists have since assiduously tried not to remember has ever been published: The Inevitability of Patriarchy . As David Gutmann said in a Commentary review: “Goldberg’s virtues as a scholar and a logician are formidable. . . .[He is]…

by Richard BledsoeJuly 7, 2015
stonewall
American Culture

A Pastoral Letter from Louisville

Since Friday’s SCOTUS decision in Obergefell v. Hodges , social media have been inundated with rainbows, tweets, quips, and essays both celebrating and decrying our new culture that has been officially codified in these United States. With a strong LGBT community in our city, we, no doubt, will see a…

by Bill SmithJuly 6, 2015
moses
Biblical Law

The Death Penalty in the Mosaic Law

During the course of recent debates among Evangelicals concerning same-sex marriage, critics of the traditional Christian position that homosexual acts and desires are sinful and unnatural have often pointed to Leviticus 20:13, where "he who lies with a man as with a woman" is condemned to death. In the following…

by Peter LeithartJuly 3, 2015
david-goliath-2
Homosexuality

When Obergefell Falls

We are being taunted. The giant’s name is Obergefell ; he is a six-fingered descendent of the Anakim. He has come out onto the battlefield arrayed in his impressive armor. He wears the media elites like a helmet of brass, and on his chest, he wears the deep pockets of…

by Toby SumpterJuly 2, 2015

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Product not sum

Saussure argues that syntagmatic relations are more like multiplication than addition. Adding - eux to desir is not putting together “independent units”; rather the two “form a product, a combination of interdependent elements, their value deriving solely from their mutual contributions within a higher unit.” At another level, we can…

March 27, 2008

Meaning and value

Would Saussure have agreed with Barr’s challenge to the notion that there is a difference between Greek and Hebraic mentalities evident in the differences between the languages? Barr appeals to Saussure at one or two points in his book ( Semantics ), and his project as a whole is reliant…

March 27, 2008
History

“Religion” in England

The English civil war, that is. Peter Harrison ( ‘Religion’ and the Religions in the English Enlightenment ) traces the notion of comparative religious study to the confessional disputes in England, and the “diachronic pluralism” of the English monarchy: “As Locke put it, the kings and queens of post-Reformation England…

March 27, 2008

Segmenting sounds

At a couple of points in his Course , Saussure suggests that the “primary characteristic of the spoken sequence is its linearity.” It is a “chain,” a “line.” I find this questionable, but he makes interesting use of the image: “In itself, it is merely a line, a continuous ribbon…

March 26, 2008

Chemical reaction

A “sign” in Saussure’s terminology consists of a signification (a concept or idea) and a signal (the “sound pattern” associated with the idea). He suggests some analogies: “This unified duality has often been compared with that of the human being, comprising body and soul. But the parallel is unsatisfactory. A…

March 26, 2008

Linguistic system

Saussure associates langue with collective social realities; it is the system created by society and existing, almost identically, in every member of a linguisitic community. He associates parole , in turn, with individual expressions within the system. The system is impervious to change: “changes are never made to the system…

March 26, 2008

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