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

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Biblical Chronology

Meredith G. Kline Strikes Back, Part 2

In our first essay we looked at Kline’s flawed exegesis of Genesis 2:5 as it relates to Day 3 of creation. Now we turn to Kline’s new argument against a chronological reading of Genesis 1, as found, again, in "Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony," Perspectives on Science and…

by James B. JordanMarch 29, 1997
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Hermeneutics

Bathsheba: The Real Story

One of the advantages of paying very close attention to the details in the Bible, especially chronological and genealogical details, is that they can shed light on situations that don’t seem to make much sense apart from them. One such situation is that of Bathsheba. It appears that Bathsheba willingly…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 1997
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Church Calendar

Is the Church Year Biblical? | A Parking Lot Parable

Once upon a time, Jeff Meyers and Tony Rollins–old friends who had not seen each other for a few years–met in the parking lot of a neighborhood church. They were dropping off their pre-school children at the church for Mother’s Day Out. They were such conscientious and helpful fathers. As…

by Jeff MeyersMarch 20, 1997
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Daniel

The Allegory of Susanna

Years ago, when I was at the briefly-existing Geneva Divinity School, I taught a course in the Apocrypha. One thing that struck me at that time is that two of the stories are almost certainly religious allegories (as well as moral tales): Judith and Susanna. Since "Susanna" means "Lily," this…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

A Blossom of Yahweh’s Field

Peter’s essay inspires me to write up some similar thoughts about the flower of the field. Rightly does Peter associate the almond with Yahweh’s garden, because the Garden of Eden is symbolically positioned as parallel to the Holy Place of the Tabernacle and Temple. To wit: Since Aaron’s rod blossomed…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

Meredith G. Kline Strikes Back, Part 1

We have had occasion to discuss the views of Meredith G. Kline previously in these newsletters, and now it is time to do so again. Kline teaches at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and also at the Westminster Theological Seminaries (Philadelphia and San Diego). He is the author of some interesting insights…

by James B. JordanFebruary 28, 1997

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Eucharist and Poetics

Study of the sacramental in early modern English poetry has become a cottage industry in literary scholarship. Kimberley Johnson isn't satisfied with the direction this scholarship has taken, and in her Made Flesh , she offers a corrective. Much of the scholarship has focused on sacramental, especially Eucharistic, doctrine as…

January 19, 2018

Politics of the Belly

What is sacrifice for? Many ancient cultures thought that animal offers fed the gods. The situation is more ambiguous for ancient Greeks. As Charles Stocking points out in his Politics of Sacrifice in Early Greek Myth and Poetry , the only explicit evidence for the notion that sacrifice is food…

January 19, 2018

China, Geography and History

In a TLS review of several recent books on China , Gavin Jacobson highlights the role of geography and history in the formation of contemporary Chinese politics. Geography first: "China is enclosed within 14,000 miles of land borders and a 9,000-mile sea edge. Twenty countries lie next to it, including…

January 19, 2018

Psychology and Economics

In an essay in the Economic Journal (117 [2007] 146-73), Robert Sugden and Luigino Bruni describe how "psychology was removed from economics, and how it might be brought back." The development of behavior economics provides a starting point for them to examine the "Pareto turn," the work of Vilfredo Pareto…

January 19, 2018
Science

Quantum Poetics

In a long and stimulating piece in the New Atlantis , Samuel Matlack explores the role of metaphor in contemporary physics, especially with regard to the challenges of translating the mathematical formulae of theory into popular writing. Have we, he asks, transcended the need for poetry in our explanations of…

January 19, 2018
Persecution

Persecution

In a discussion of a First Things article about Christian colleges by Carl Trueman, Rod Dreher writes : Sometimes I hear Christians saying things along the lines of, 'Bring it on! The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church!' etc. These are the kind of romantics who…

January 19, 2018

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