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Creation

Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Part 4)

In my previous two posts, I looked at aspects of Psalms 93, 95, 96 and 98 that declare Yahweh, the divine King, to be the world’s own Creator. In my next post, I plan to argue that the creation theology of the sub-section constituted by Psalms 93-100 contributes to the…

by Stephen LongApril 23, 2015
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Otherness

Sexual Difference, Liberal and Christian

Ethika Politika has published a fascinating interview within which the French Catholic philosopher Fabrice Hadjadj discusses his recent work on the subject of sexuality. While there are many points where our lines of reasoning as Protestants will sharply diverge from Hadjadj’s, there is also much that is deeply perceptive in…

by Alastair RobertsApril 21, 2015
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Literature

Macbeth and the Fall of Adam

For anyone in Shakespeare’s audience who knew the real story of Macbeth, his play must have been surprising. Shakespeare changed so many important details of the historical Macbeth’s life that had Raphael Holinshed, the main author of the most popular history of the British Isles in Shakespeare’s day — Holinshed…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2015
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Creation

Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Part 3)

I started looking at a sequence of psalms on divine Kingship (Psalms 93-100) in my last post, part of a series looking at the Old Testament’s witness to Yahweh’s exercise of absolute mastery over his cosmos. I am not trying to “prove” a doctrine of creation ex nihilo directly from…

by Stephen LongApril 14, 2015
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Anxiety

(Un)Holy Fear

Most of the time I believe that dread is wise, anxiety righteous, fear a holy thing. It sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. There are days when fear seems to be not only a rational response to my circumstances, but a moral duty. After all, being a grown-up means responsibility.…

by Leta SundetApril 11, 2015
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Psalms

Psalm 36 Commentary

Get the Psalm 36 Translation here Psalm 36 begins with several translation problems. First, the first word in the actual psalm, as it is found in the English text, is the word "oracle." This word also begins the second verse in the medieval Massoretic Hebrew text, which is our basic…

by James B. JordanApril 10, 2015

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Theology

Metaphysical Ascesis

Sacra doctrina, for Aquinas, involves the stripping of idols. So says Fergus Kerr: “Step by step, once we learn to read the text in this way, one idolatrous temptation after another is stripped away. The apophatic theology is designed to liberate us of the pictures of God that only too…

May 27, 2004
Theology

Derrida and Apophaticism

Denys Turner considers tradition and faith in the January 2004 issue of the IJST , but the more obvious subject is Derrida and the tradition of negative theology, particularly as expressed in Pseudo-Denys (no relation) and Eckhart. Turner deftly disposes of Derrida’s dictum that ” tout autre est tout autre…

May 26, 2004
Theology

Christ as Art

Robert Jenson continues his series of essays on Christ as Culture in the January 2004 issue of IJST , arguing that “Christ is Art.” Here are a few of the highlights: 1) Jenson defines art as experimentation with possible worlds. One of his examples is Mondrian: “Mondrian and his allies,…

May 26, 2004

Coetzee on the Classics

J. M. Coetzee, the South African novelist who won the Nobel Prize for literature last year, offers an intriguing exchange concerning the classics and faith in his novel, Elizabeth Costello (I can’t read that without thinking “Elvis.”) Costello is a highly successful novelist now in her sixties who hits the…

May 25, 2004
Theology

Beauty

It would seem that non-Trinitarian ontologies cannot secure a notion of beauty, and this seems to be the case because of the tragic ontologies that dominate non-Christian thought. 1) Beauty is fittingness, a matter of harmonics. Thus, beauty requires that there be plurality. Need at least two for things to…

May 25, 2004

Exhortation, Ascension Sunday, 2004

Thursday was Ascension Day. It is celebrated to mark Jesus’ ascent to heaven that occurred forty days after His death and resurrection at the time of Passover. Though Ascension Day is rarely emphasized in the church calendar, it is essential to the whole of Jesus?Elife and ministry and to the…

May 23, 2004

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