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

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Epistemology

A Cheer for the Mystics

Mystical theologians are often unguarded, extreme, un-nuanced, pressing to the edges of heresy, sometimes beyond. Still, the mystics are worthy of study. Why? Many reasons. Unlike some late medieval and post-Reformation dogmaticians, mystical theologians are often instinctively and richly Trinitarian. Historical-critical approaches to Scripture left mystical theologians virtually untouched; mystics…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 2, 2013
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Literature

Shadow and Substance in Shakespeare's Venice

Portia of Belmont is a “lady richly left,” as Bassanio says of her in the first Act of The Merchant of Venice . Plus, she’s beautiful and wise. Suitors clamber to Belmont in hope. Her father knew it would be so, and in his will set up a fairy-tale test…

by Peter LeithartAugust 28, 2013
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Liturgy

Liturgy Traps

[fve]http://vimeo.com/72195198[/fve]

by James B. JordanAugust 26, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Victory Food

In the nature of the case, “the” Christian meditation on Deuteronomy 14:1-21 cannot be written. Meditation offers too many possibilities, opens too many doors. There is not one and only one correct set of associations for a Christian to consider when thinking of Deuteronomy 14:1-21. We could, for example, consider…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 21, 2013
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Romans

David's Sin and Israel's Salvation, Part I

Having retold the story of the cumulative sin of Israel leading to the great atonement on the cross, Paul then reemphasizes that, just as both Jew and Gentiles were locked into sin and judgment, now they are both justified by faith: Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.…

by Mark HorneAugust 20, 2013
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Deuteronomy

You are what you eat

Deuteronomy 14 is full of allusions to events of Israel’s history and other portions of Scripture. What would an Israelite learn by mediation on these allusions? The answer, I believe, is at least fourfold. Faith, Worship, War For the ancient Israelite first hearing Moses’ sermon, or perhaps hearing it read…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 15, 2013

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History

Money, Magic, and Signs

David Hawkes reviews a book on Literature and Economics in the Age of Milton in the April 2 TLS , and has this to say about the early modern suspicion of attempting to “do things with words”: “The influx into Renaissance Europe of precious metals from America, and the consequent…

April 19, 2004
History

On Books

David McKitterick ‘s Print, Manuscript and the Search for Order, 1450-1830 describes the move from manuscript to book as a gradual process rather than a sudden revolution. According to the reviewer in the TLS , McKitterick points out that books and manuscripts were not separated in library catalogues or apparently…

April 19, 2004
History

Goddesses in the Middle Ages

Robert Lerner reviews Barbara Newman ‘s God and the Goddesses: Vision, Poetry, and Belief in the Middle Ages in the March 19 issue if the TLS . Newman’s book analyzes the female deities and allegorical figures of medieval literature and belief, including Nature, Lady Love, Holy Wisdom, and Mary. As…

April 19, 2004

Luther on Justification

Robert Jenson has a brief but very challenging comment on Luther’s views on justification in the Fall 2003 issue of the Westminster Theological Journal (which, incidentally, under the editorship of Peter Enns is promising to be a lively forum of debate). Responding to Carl Trueman ‘s critique of the new…

April 19, 2004
Economics

Hayek

Francis Fukuyama reviews Bruce Caldwell ‘s new biography of Hayek in the Spring 2004 issue of The Wilson Quarterly . According to Caldwell, Hayek’s argument against a managed economy was basically an epistemological one: “There are limits to rationality, and what any individual knows tends to be local in nature.…

April 19, 2004
Media

McLuhan and Teilhard

Tom Wolfe has a fascinating sketch of the life and work of Marshall McLuhan in the Spring 2004 issue of The Wilson Quarterly . McLuhan converted to Catholicism during his studies, and Wolfe suggests that McLuhan’s greatest inspiration was a hidden one, Teilhard de Chardin . Wolfe writes, “Regardless of…

April 19, 2004

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