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Writing

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

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Baptism

And He Gave Some To Be Parents

Standing in the narthex at the font, parents joyfully approach with their newborn child. The pastor asks the parents a series of questions that may include their renunciation of the devil and all his works, their faith in God the Father, Son, and Spirit as explained in the Apostles’ Creed,…

by Bill SmithFebruary 17, 2015
christ-presentation-in-temple
Luke

Anna of Asher

And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, with…

by Dave ShawFebruary 12, 2015
emmanuel-phaeton-1bwmfmvybi8-unsplash
Psalms

Psalm 30

Get the Psalm 30 Translation here Psalm 30 is a song for the dedication of "the house." Since it is by David, the house would seem to be his palace in Jerusalem. The psalm has an ABA structure, with the B structure being an exhortation to the saints, and the…

by James B. JordanFebruary 11, 2015
boat-rough-water
Same-Sex Marriage

Love Makes the World Go Round

I once asked a ferryboat captain if steering a ferry was any different than driving, say, a big semi truck. He looked at me like I had just asked whether a bowling ball fell when you dropped it. “It’s completely different,” he said. “On the river, you never stay pointing…

by Christian LeithartFebruary 10, 2015
romeo-juliet
Literature

Where A Man Belongs: Courtship Advice from Shakespeare

The key scene in Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing comes just after the first wedding scene when Claudio tosses Hero aside as a "rotten orange." He has been tricked into thinking that Hero is unfaithful, and that is an affront to his honor. He won't put her away quietly. He…

by Peter LeithartFebruary 7, 2015
cloister
History

What You Learned About the Middle Ages Was Wrong

Medieval Christianity is in the news. That’s exciting for me as I have a PhD in medieval theology and I teach Ancient and Medieval Church History at Covenant Seminary. Thus I have a little “skin in the game,” as the saying goes. Earlier this week our President made some comments…

by Timothy LeCroyFebruary 6, 2015

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Evangelical Alternative Medicine

C andy Gunther Brown's The Healing Gods is an effort to explain how Complementary and Alternative Medicine (CAM) “entered the American cultural mainstream,” and especially how it achieved “a niche among evangelical and other theologically conservative Christians, although much of CAM is religious but not distinctively Christian and lacks scientific…

March 3, 2017

Spiritual Healing

I n her editor's introduction to Global Pentecostal and Charismatic Healing , Candy Gunther Brown observes: “According to the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life’s Spirit and Power: A 10-Country Survey of Pentecostals (2006), more than a quarter—and in many countries two-thirds—of the world’s 2 billion Christians identify themselves…

March 3, 2017

Tolerant Calvinism

I n an essay on the Brandenburg Calvinist pastor John Bergius, Bodo Nischan observes that “ Unlike most Protestants and Catholics at the time, Bergius did not think that a ruler should impose his religion on his subjects. True faith, he argued, could never be forced on people,” and he…

March 3, 2017

What Might Have Been

R obert Carle suggests that “sensible refugee policy will balance two competing realities: first, it is a moral duty for a wealthy country like the United States to help displaced and suffering people; and second, not everyone who wants to immigrate to the United States can come to live here.”…

March 3, 2017

Sub Species Aeternitatis

J ohn Milbank writes, “ Since life passes and is only mediated through memory and desire, every concrete instance of life is always also something other than itself, part of a larger, dimly-imagined reality, disclosed only partially.” Thus, “a ceaseless passing and a ceaseless dying is the very condition of…

March 3, 2017

Universal v. Universal

“W estern history is not, John Milbank argues, an evolutionary progress away from religion and toward human freedom and control.” It should instead be seen as “the history of a tremendous revolt against either particularism or the cult of universalizable power, in the name of the transcendent Good.” This revolt…

March 3, 2017

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