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

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Apostle Paul

Paul Among the People

We've all heard it, too often to count. The Apostle Paul was a misgynistic homophobic pro-slavery authoritarian, probably a repressed homosexual himself, the first Puritan - Puritan here defined as "someone who cannot sleep if someone in the world is having fun." To call this a caricature is too generous.…

by Peter LeithartAugust 28, 2018
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How to Worship

Psalms for Exile: The Narrative Progression in the Fifth Book of the Psalter

Some of our forefathers believed in reading/singing the psalms in order. Today, when the psalms are even used at all, they tend to be used randomly, though sometimes tied to a church calendar or to the pastor’s sermon. The Bible does not bind us to any particular practice, but there…

by James B. JordanAugust 23, 2018
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1 Corinthians

The Rock That Followed Them

". . . and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). Paul’s passing comment about the rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness has often been treated as a bit of…

by Peter LeithartAugust 21, 2018
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Biblical Theology

Hezekiah’s Sign

The story of Hezekiah’s illness and recovery is familiar to every child who has attended Sunday School. Informed that he would die, faithful King Hezekiah pleaded in tears for a longer life. God heard his prayers and saw his tears, and promised fifteen more years. As a sign that He…

by Peter LeithartAugust 16, 2018
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Movies

The Last Man: Herod and Jesus in “Sunshine”

When viewed as an allegory of biblical history, the controversial third act of Danny Boyle’s gripping sci-fi adventure is transformed from an illogical divergence into a blinding revelation. The following analysis contains spoilers for the movie “Sunshine.” The Creation Week is the elementary type that orders everything God has said…

by Mike BullAugust 14, 2018
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Epistemology

Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World: Integration…and Things

In my last post , I told you the story of my current desire to understand philosopher D.C. Schindler’s metaphysical work. With this post, I start in to the venture. I begin by reflecting on what it is to be a thing. This matter always makes me laugh, and makes…

by Esther Lightcap MeekAugust 9, 2018

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Sexual Laws of Leviticus 18

The sexual laws of Leviticus 18 have long been puzzling on a couple of levels. The logic of the arrangement of the laws is difficult to discern; the gaps in the laws seems inexplicable (no prohibition, for instance, of father-daughter incest); and the question of how obedience to these laws…

November 2, 2004

Righteousness in Romans 1

The phrase “righteousness of God” in Romans 1:17 has been the subject of considerable dispute in recent years, with many abandoning a standard Protestant interpretation of the passage (i.e., that the righteousness of God refers to the righteousness that God gives) in favor of a more redemptive-historical understanding (righteousness as…

November 2, 2004

Matthew 8 and Sodomy

Theodore Jennings and Tat-Siong Benny Liew have a curious article in the Fall 2004 issue of JBL . They offer an alternative interpretation of the story of the centurion of Matthew 8, an interpretation that hangs on taking “PAIS” not as “slave” or “son” but as “boy-lover.” They find plenty…

November 2, 2004
Literature

Romanticism and Spain

In a review of Joseph von Eichendorff’s collected works ( TLS , October 1, 2004), Carol Tully points out the fascination of German Romantics for Spain: “For the poets and theoreticians of the Romantic age in German, Spain was somewhere very special indeed. The nation and its culture were eulogized…

November 2, 2004

Two Kinds of Righteousness

Some intriguing quotations from Luther’s treatise on Two Kinds of Righteousness . 1) The first sort is “alien righteousness”: “The first is alien righteousness, that is the righteousness of another, instilled from without. This is the righteousness of Christ by which he justifies though faith, as it is written in…

October 27, 2004

Eucharist Lecture #3

INTRODUCTION Because of the imperfections of the reformation of the Eucharist in the sixteenth century, and because of the alien influences that have affected the practice of the Eucharist in the centuries since, there is much left to do in order to renew the Table. The Reformation must at this…

October 27, 2004

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