Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
WHAT IS THE OT PRECURSOR OF THE NT OFFICE OF PASTOR? HOW DOES THE FORMER ILLUMINATE THE LATTER? The first problem to address is: how do we know that there is an office of pastor in the New Testament? 1 Perhaps the way the question is put may permit me…
[This essay was originally published in December, 1981, in The Biblical Educator , a publication of the Institute for Christian Economics, and again with slight revisions in Contra Mundum 7 (Spring, 1993). It is reprinted here as a supplement to my book Creation in Six Days .] In 1979, Dr.…
Anyone seeking to reverse the meaning of this promise needs to come to grips not only with the phrase "God was with the lad" later on, but also with Hagar’s response in 16:13. She worships Yahweh, putting her trust in Him and obeying Him. In fact, Hagar is at the…
Ishmael is the narrator of Melville’s fantasy-romance Moby Dick. Melville takes up the traditional view of Ishmael as a wayward son of Abraham, driven out solely because of the Divine "caprice" of election, an angry man with his hand raised against all other men. He is a fitting "anti-hero," or…
There were five cities at the center of the Canaanite culture in the circle of the Jordan, a place like the Garden of Eden, like the land of Egypt, before it became the Dead Sea at the destruction of the cities (Genesis 13:10). Genesis 14:2 tells us their names: Sodom,…
Meditations by James B. Jordan Genesis 19, the destruction of Sodom and the rescue of Lot, is part two of a story that begins in Genesis 18. These two chapters happen in one 24-hour period: noon and evening in Mamre, and midnight and daybreak in Sodom. God and two angels…
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A couple of years ago, Kyle Nicholas summed up "The Progress and Future of Radical Orthodoxy ," now entering its early adulthood. Though the movement has waned, he argues for "its continuing relevance." "Amidst scathing critiques from every corner," he points out, "Radical Orthodoxy has continued to bear fruit on…
In his Material Eucharist (30), David Grumett summarizes the "Homily on the Grain" from the Syrian poet Cyrillonas: "Alluding to the incarnation and to Christ's two natures,. he describes the grain falling into the earth and its kernel encased within a dual outer husk. This echoes the image that Jesus…
Leviticus is divided into thirty-seven speeches, each introduced by "Yahweh spoke to Moses" (see Warning, Literary Artistry in Leviticus ). The 19th speech - the central one - is Leviticus 16, instruction for the "day of coverings." From this, one can derive a simple chiastic outline of the book (I've…
IV. Cross of Reality Christianity’s history is the story of the cross’s penetration into human experience and society. New epochs are formed when the cross begins to mark a new “sphere of our minds or bodies” ( CF , p.165). In the new era that Rosenstock-Huessy saw coming, the cross…
Joseph Bottum offers a Girardian analysis of the current craze for knocking down monuments ( Weekly Standard ). Along the way, he explores the origins of the Confederate memorials, observing that "The list of removed statues and memorials seems mostly to prove what busy beavers the United Daughters of the…
III. The Cross and Civilization Jesus gives abundant life. As the Crucified and Risen Man, he also creates new possibilities for history, forms a new epoch of history, the Christian era, and forms the possibility of a new civilization. To understand fully what Rossenstock-Huessy means by this, we need to…
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