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

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Sacramental Theology

The Gospel According to the Sacraments, (Part 1)

My first title for this series of posts was “Evangelical Sacramental Ecumenism” – not exactly a clickbait title. But those three words, evangelical, sacramental, and ecumenical, say a lot: The centrality of the gospel; a focus on baptism, bread, and wine; and the quest for visible unity among diverse churches.…

by Michael SpalioneDecember 12, 2017
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Baptism

Baptism and Contextualization, (Part 1)

I can imagine someone reading the title of this essay and saying to himself, "I have two questions. First, what in the world is “contextualization”?" Second, even before hearing the answer to the first question, he may wonder, "what does baptism have to do with such an awkward and vague…

by Ralph Allan SmithDecember 7, 2017
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Deuteronomy

Law of the Rebellious Son

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 My colleague Ralph Smith has recently written on this passage, here . I entirely agree with Ralph's thrust, which is typological, that the passage is ultimately aimed at the entire nation of Israel itself as the rebellious son. But what I am thinking is from another perspective, perhaps…

by Richard BledsoeDecember 5, 2017
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Baptism

Like A Dove (Part 2)

In the previous article in this series, I drew attention to the threefold meaning of the Spirit of God descending as a dove on Jesus at His baptism. On a related note, I also argued that 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Titus 3:3-7 were parallel passages that addressed the same issues…

by Ralph Allan SmithNovember 30, 2017
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Politics

What’s in a Flag?

The National Anthem protest is misguided. So too the conservative backlash. The Church’s response has been disappointing. I address each in turn. The greatest triumph of the American Civil Rights Movement was its seizing of the moral high ground in American politics. It did so by insisting only on those…

by A. K. ShaukuNovember 28, 2017
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Baptism

Like a Dove

Peter Leithart’s book, The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism , argues that baptism is parallel to and the fulfillment of the old covenant rite of priestly ordination. But this is not something explicitly stated in the New Testament. Why, then, should we believe it? Leithart shows in…

by Ralph Allan SmithNovember 23, 2017

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God in Ancient China

Finding God in Ancient China by Chan Kai Thong and Charlene Fu is one of a number of studies attempting to show that the ancient Chinese worshiped the God of Noah and of Israel. The authors assemble evidence from ancient writings, the Chinese language, ancient Chinese beliefs about God, and…

June 17, 2014

Fourth Political Theory

Alexander Dugin, the man sometimes called “Putin’s brain,” outlines a “fourth political theory” in a book of that title. Communism and Fascism have collapsed, and liberalism, the final twentieth-century ideology, turned into libertine postmodernism as soon as it triumphed. The collapse of modern ideology opens space for what modernity excluded,…

June 17, 2014
Gratitude

Gratitude

You can hear Beeson Divinity School Dean Timothy George interview me about Gratitude: An Intellectual History on the Beeson podcast .

June 17, 2014

Spirit in the Midst

Isaiah 63:10-14 reviews Yahweh’s history with Israel. He saved them through the “angel of His face,” lifted them up from the sea and carried them (like the daughter of Pharaoh rescuing Moses from the Nile). He put His Spirit “in the midst” ( qereb ) of Israel. But they rebelled,…

June 16, 2014

World’s Policeman

Writing at the New Yorker , Dexter Filkins argues that America’s withdrawal from Iraq left the Iraqi Prime Minister with freedom to destroy the country: “When the Americans invaded, in March, 2003, they destroyed the Iraqi state—its military, its bureaucracy, its police force, and most everything else that might hold…

June 16, 2014

Book of Beginnings

James Jordan teaches the first course of Trinity House’s 2014-15 year, an August course on the book of Genesis. Click here for information and registration.

June 16, 2014

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