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Writing

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

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Easter

An Easter Meditation

The resurrection stories in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are among the strangest stories in all of the literature of the world, even among the strangest stories in the Bible. That is true of each Gospel’s accounts individually, but even more of the collection as a whole. On the one…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 20, 2025
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Technology

Ministering to Mooks on the Age of the Internet of Beefs

As a pastor, I’m interested in discipleship. Christians are called to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Discipleship has everything to do with the disciplines we walk by in our lives. Things like Bible reading, prayer, and fasting are hallmarks of standard Christian discipleship. The basic thrust is that…

by Michael HansenApril 15, 2025
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Chiasm

Immobility or Infinity: Chiastic Trajectories in Psalm 1

Psalm 1 is justly famous among biblical texts. It opens the Psalter, it’s a paean to the life-giving power of the Law, and it beautifully describes righteous life as a stable, fruitful tree. It subtly weaves the contrasting threads of wickedness and righteousness into a succinct summary of biblical wisdom:…

by Joseph RheaApril 8, 2025
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Hebrews

Eight Lessons on the Psalms from the Book of Hebrews

No book is more quoted in Hebrews than the Psalter: there are quotations and allusions to psalms on virtually every page. And many of the quotations are not passing references but closely considered and repeatedly cited as the author of Hebrews develops his central arguments. Much of Hebrews is exposition…

by Alastair RobertsApril 1, 2025
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Theology

The God Problem

Howard Bloom is a beautiful hypocrite. The author of books in as different subjects as Mohammed, scientific theory, and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s, he professes to be a “stone cold atheist.” Yet in spite of that profession, Bloom obviously writes as a Jew; that is, he writes with…

by Ralph Allan SmithMarch 27, 2025
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Art

The Comedic World of Flannery O’Connor

There may be some debate about who deserves the title “the King of American literature,” but, at least to my mind, there should be no debate over who deserves to be “the Queen” – let’s give the crown to Flannery O’Connor. She is, however, a very unlikely queen. Unlikely, not…

by Steve WilkinsMarch 25, 2025

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Theology

Theological Controversy

A couple of illuminating quotations from Robert Letham’s fine new book, The Holy Trinity (P&R): Letham defends Origen against charges of heresy and proto-Arianism (while duly noting some of the troubling statements in Origen’s writings), and adds: “Origen is a research theologian, advancing ideas for consideration and discussion as well…

December 16, 2004

Sermon Outline, Fourth Advent

INTRODUCTION Jesus came to reveal the Father, and claims that He is capable of revealing the Father because ?I am in the Father and the Father is in Me?E(John 14:6-9). This notion of ?mutual indwelling?E(the technical term in theology is ?perichoresis?E is an important concern for John?s gospel, and it…

December 15, 2004
History

Historical Change

In his Teaching Company tapes on Chaucer, Seth Lehrer claims that the medievals lacked a conception of historical change, and that one of the key cultural effects of the Renaissance was to introduce the idea that things change. This at least needs to be qualified, if not rejected, for two…

December 14, 2004
History

Soviet Apologists

It’s mighty hard to find apologists for Bolshevism these days, so I was surprised to find the following in the December 2 issue of the London Review of Books (in Neal Ascherson’s review of the recently republished books on Trotsky by Isaac Deutscher): The Bolshevik Revolution was more “authentic” and…

December 14, 2004

All Israel Shall Be Saved

The book of Ruth is not merely about the individual characters, but about Israel, moving from the barrenness of the period of the judges toward the new birth of the monarchy. Naomi is the barren, bereft Israelite widow, who ends the book with a child her knees and with plenty…

December 13, 2004

Pharisees and Intellectuals

Jesus charges in John 5 that the Jews seek glory from one another rather than the Father. It reminds me of a suggestion (I believe it came from Ken Myers) that the New York Review of Books should change its name to the New York Review of Each Other’s Books…

December 12, 2004

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