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

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Biblical Horizons

Fun Reading

The name of Harry Turtledove is well known to readers of fantasy and science fiction. Turtledove is an historian, and most of what he writes is in the "alternative history" genre. A fine collection of short stories, available in paperback, is his Agent of Byzantium . These stories are set…

by James B. JordanAugust 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Concerning Unicorns

In answer to a question, the following about the unicorn, a supposed "New Age" symbol: The unicorn, or monoceros (one-horn), was known around the ancient world. Some scholars believe it may have been the one-horned goat that is still bred today. Others think it may have originated in tales of…

by James B. JordanAugust 28, 1996
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Esther

Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (VI)

3. A Brief Survey of Esther (continued from the previous issue) Haman told the king that "a certain people" were rebellious against him, and that Haman wanted to rid the king of their noxious presence. The king agreed, and the two sat down to a feast. This is the third…

by James B. JordanAugust 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Concerning Halloween

It has become routine in October for some Christian schools to send out letters warning parents about the evils of Halloween, and it has become equally routine for me to be asked questions about this matter. "Halloween" is simply a contraction for All Hallows’ Eve. The word "hallow" means "saint,"…

by James B. JordanAugust 28, 1996
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Esther

Esther: Historical & Chronological Comments (V)

2. The Setting of the Book of Esther (continued from previous issue) Astyages E. W. Faulstich presents his arguments in his book History, Harmony, The Exile & Return . 1 To understand it, we have to have some background. The Assyrians ruled the near east. Median king Cyaxeres decided to…

by James B. JordanJuly 28, 1996
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Revelation

Jephthah’s Daughter

In my commentary on Judges, I demonstrated that Jephthah in his Spirit-led vow intended to offer to Yahweh the first person who greeted him from the doors of his house after the battle. Since it was a custom for the young women to come out dancing to greet the returning…

by James B. JordanJune 28, 1996

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Reconciling Reason and Faith

In Truth and Tolerance , Benedict XVI argues that the Western world is in a crisis that can only be solved if "reason and religion . . . come together again, without merging into each other" (144). He insists this isn't a matter of protecting the interests of religion, Rather,…

October 20, 2017

Future and the Christian Era

Dead time, Rosenstock-Huessy says, is entirely a product of the past, a result of a cause. That conception of time works for physics, but it fails to account for the reality of human time, which always involves surprise and a break with the past. Through speech, we initiate new times,…

October 19, 2017
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God Is Love

According to the doctrine of the Trinity, the ultimate source of all things, the God in whom we live, move and have our being, is both one and plural, one God in three persons. This has enormous implications for how we think of the world. In ancient philosophy, the highest…

October 19, 2017

God, Time, Eternity

Rosenstock-Huessy believes that God has a unique relationship to time that no human being has, but he describes this unique relationship in ways that are unusual for the Christian tradition. Instead of saying that God is “timeless,” he says that God is “pure time.” This suggestion is based on the…

October 18, 2017

Calendars and Cultural Memory

Modernity’s reduction of time to clock-time is not socially or psychically healthy. As Rosenstock-Huessy puts it: "We need the intersecting of many rhythms of time. Our stomach and our consciousness respond to a 24-hour rhythm. Our faith and our hopes respond to centuries. Our noble passions like the love of…

October 17, 2017

Freedom To Unfreedom

Enlightenment secularism is committed to “freedom” as its overarching value. In an address on “Freedom and Truth” (published in The Essential Pope Benedict XVI ), Benedict XVI describes the Enlightenment as a “will to emancipation” (citing Kant’s sapere aude ). Kant’s plea for philosophical freedom has political dimensions. According to…

October 17, 2017

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