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Writing

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

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Esther

Genesis 1 and Genesis 8

I mentioned last month ( BH 82) in my essay "Like a Dove" that Genesis 8 is a recapitulation of Genesis 1. Let me explicate that assertion here. Of course, the world after the Flood is a new creation, so we may expect a recapitulation of the first creation. It…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 1996
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Daniel

Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (I)

The book of Esther is one of the most neglected of the books of the Bible. To be sure, sermons are preached on it, and commentaries have occasionally been written on it, but almost without exception Esther has been interpreted in isolation from the rest of Biblical history, chronology, and…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

A Letter on Geocentricity

Dear Mr. ______, . . . Here is how I look at the geocentricity question. Since I don’t recall what I wrote you before, I may be repeating some things. 1. The Bible does not teach it. Biblical passages used to support the idea are being misinterpreted. My original paper…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

What is God?

Answer 4 of the Westminster Shorter Catechism is often taken as a magnificent answer to the question, "What is God?" It reads: "God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth." Presbyterians are fond of praising this statement, preaching on it,…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1996
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Baptism

Like a Dove

The gospels tell us that at Jesus’ baptism, the Holy Spirit descended upon Him "in bodily form like a dove" (Luke 3:22 & parallels). Biblically sensitive commentators have associated this event with three Old Testament parallels: (1) the hovering of the Spirit over the creation in Genesis 1:2; (2) the…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1996
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John

Jesus at Belshazzar’s Feast: Being an Explanatory Disquisition on an Aspect of the Story of the Woman Taken in Adultery

This they said to test him, that they might have some charge to bring against him. Jesus bent down and wrote with his finger on the ground. (John 8:6) The story of the woman taken in adultery (John 7:53-8:11) has been part of the canonical Christian Bible from its earliest…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1996

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Greek Types

From the earliest times, Christians have offered typological interpretations of ancient myths. According to Marie Cabaud Meaney ( Simone Weil's Apologetic Use of Literature ), Weil revives this tradition in a new intellectual milieu: "Weil uses Christology as the hermeneutic key to these mythological texts at a time when people…

October 6, 2017
Empire

The Inevitability of Empire

"All political power," write John Milbank and Adrian Pabst ( Politics of Virtue , 332-3), "tends to become imperial." They see three reasons for this: "either to stabilise volatile 'backyards' (e.g. the United States in Central and Latin America; China in the South Chinese Sea; Turkey and Russia in the…

October 6, 2017
American Politics

Here Comes the Judge

Judge Roy Moore isn't cool. The recently chosen GOP candidate for the US Senate from Alabama flashes pistols at his rallies. He wears a cowboy hat and rode a horse to the polling booth on election day. He says nutty things, channeling wild, half-remembered rumors from the rightwing deep web.…

October 5, 2017

Diseases of Speech

One driving interest behind Rosenstock-Huessy's grammatical method is hissuggestion that speech the means for integrating the demands of the Cross of Reality, and for meeting the crises that arise at each pole of the Cross. Rosenstock-Huessy wants to rescue grammar from the grammarians, and restore grammar and language to their…

October 5, 2017

Grammatical Sociology

Speech arises, Rosenstock-Huessy claims, from shock. The beauty of the world, the “it” outside us, shocks us with amazement, and loosens our tongues. A command from another confronts us and forces us to say Yes or No in response. Suffering evokes the cry of the “I.” If we confront beauty,…

October 4, 2017

Israel In Rebellion

2 Chronicles 10 is a fall story. The Chronicler's long account of the reigns of David and Solomon (1 Chronicles 11-2 Chronicles 9) has portrayed an ideal. David and Solomon form a joint new-Adam, overseeing the Levites who stand to serve in the garden-temple, guarding Yahweh's bride, Israel. William Johnstone…

October 3, 2017

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