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Writing

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

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Deuteronomy

Allusive Torah

In the first part of this essay, I argued that the story of the covenant is what unifies and grounds the laws in the book of Deuteronomy. In the third section of this essay, as part of my argument that Deuteronomy 14:1-21 forms a distinct pericope, I claimed that these…

by Ralph Allan SmithJuly 22, 2013
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Economics

So You Wanna Be Rich?

Paul ends 1 Timothy with convicting warnings about the temptations of wealth and the danger of pursuing wealth. Godliness involves contentment and gratitude for the basics – food and clothing (1 Timothy 6:8). To reinforce the point, Paul reminds Timothy that we came into the world without anything, which is…

by Peter LeithartJuly 17, 2013
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Catholicism

The Festival and the Mass

Like Marx himself, the Marxist sociologist Henri Lefebvre was a firm believer in the dictum that “the criticism of religion is the premise of all criticism,” though he dissented from Marx’s prior claim that the criticism of religion is essentially complete. He includes a vicious, sarcastic, Marxist diatribe against the…

by Peter LeithartJuly 15, 2013
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Theopolis News

Biblical Horizons Summer Conference

This week, Trinity House fellows James Jordan, Jeff Meyers, Rich Bledsoe, and Peter Leithart will be lecturing in Niceville, Florida, at the Biblical Horizons Summer Conference. Fore more information, check the Biblical Horizons web site.

by Peter LeithartJuly 15, 2013
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Isaiah

Combustible God

Fire seems to be a motif in Isaiah 6. The chapter opens “in the year that king Uzziah died,” and we know that Uzziah died a leper because he tried to burn incense in the temple against the law of God. And in this context, in the year king Uzziah…

by Daniel StanleyJuly 10, 2013
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Biblical Studies

Rehabilitating the Quadriga

According to the medieval theory of the "Quadriga" or the "fourfold sense" of Scripture, each passage of Scripture has four dimensions of meaning. Protestants generally cast a suspicious eye on this "method" of reading. That's a mistake. It's a handy guide to the questions we should always ask as we…

by Peter LeithartJuly 8, 2013

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The Original Structuralist

Adam Kuper reviewed Emmanuelle Loyer's Claude Levi-Strauss in a 2016 issue of the TLS . A few noteworthy tidbits. It's intriguing that the great classifier of kin relations should come from a densely interconnected family: "Lévi-Strauss grew up in a densely intermarried family circle made up exclusively of cultivated Parisian…

November 17, 2017

Liturgy of Liberalism

Adrian Vermeule has a brilliant review of Ryszard Legutko's Demon in Democracy . He begins with Tocqueville's observation that the French Revolution "developed into a species of religion" but one without ritual. Legutko, and Vermeule following him, dissent: "The Revolution’s descendants not only possess a theology and eschatology, but a…

November 17, 2017

Secularizing Covenant

In an essay on covenant as a political concept , Daniel Elazar briefly traces the development of covenant, and its relation to natural law, from Philo to Spinoza. Reformed theorists like Althusius loom large, what with their recovery and expansion of the biblical conception of "covenant." Elazar writes, "The federal…

November 17, 2017

The Politicization of Everyday Life

How did everything get politicized - every choice of a favorite beer, every style decision, every nook and cranny of everyday life? Bruce Schulman blames it on Rolling Stone magazine. As he writes, "/the magazine embraced the countercultural ideal of authenticity — living life to the fullest, right now, within…

November 17, 2017

Albanian as Literary Language

Albanian isn't usually considered an important literary language, but Albanian novelist Ismail Kadare explained in an interview with the Paris Review how the language merges classical and modern forms of literary expression: "Albanian is simply an extraordinary means of expression—rich, malleable, adaptable. As I have said in my latest novel,…

November 17, 2017

This Little Babe

Infants and toddlers can’t dress, feed, or transport themselves. Yet in the paradoxical world of the Bible, their very weakness makes them strong. One Child, the Davidic one with the government on His shoulders, is strong enough to overthrow Satan. As a prep for Advent, sing this once a day,…

November 17, 2017

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