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Writing

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

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David, Goliath, and the Body of Moses, Part 1

In the Bible, all the world is a stage, but like the Tabernacle, that stage moves around a lot. David’s defeat of Goliath can only be fully understood as liturgy fulfilled in history. Liturgy, as a sacrifice of praise, is the step-by-step process of resolving a conflict. It relinquishes all…

by Mike BullAugust 22, 2019
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Aristotle

On Friendship

Aristotle isn’t fundamentally wrong about friendship, nor is the long tradition that follows him. But you might not gather that by reading some of the more pointed critics of the classical conception of friendship. I think, however, that the classical view is not only viable but taken up and fulfilled…

by Jack FranicevichAugust 20, 2019
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Epistemology

Integration: Putting the Pieces Together

#13 in Theopolis Papers, Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World It is time for me to “cast off” integration, the way a knitter removes a completed scarf from the needles. I want to bring my quest concerning integration to a decent closure, though my happy quest for reality continues. With…

by Esther Lightcap MeekAugust 13, 2019
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Revelation

Nebuchadnezzar’s Unfinished Symphony

Below are some notes on a particular sub-theme of Daniel 3, namely the downfall of Babylon’s liturgy. First up, a few words on our text’s literary construction. One of the most conspicuous features of Dan. 3 is its author’s love of lists . Personnel are listed (vs. 2, 3, 27),…

by James BejonAugust 6, 2019
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Prayer

Praying for God's Good Name

Few things in Scripture, few things in the Christian life, are more familiar than the Lord’s Prayer. Sunday after Sunday, we pray these words together with our brothers and sisters. At home, alone or with our families, we pray this prayer daily, as Jesus taught us (Luke 11:2: “When you…

by John BarachJuly 30, 2019
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Culture

The Head, the Heart, and the “Gay Christian” Movement

At the 2019 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, the denominational delegates considered a number of official overtures (requests for action from the regional parts of the denomination) relating to issues of gender and sexuality. The PCA is conservative. As evidence of this, the assembly passed a resolution…

by Jonathan BarlowJuly 23, 2019

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Calvinist Spirits

W hatever their later American heirs thought of alcoholic beverages, the Reformers were lovers of beer and wine. For Luther, that goes without saying. Gisela Kreglinger shows ( Spirituality of Wine ) that Calvin’s views were the same as Luther’s. “We have never been forbidden to laugh, or to be…

November 18, 2016

Death of White Christian America?

Is Trump's election the death rattle of white Christian America? Philip Jenkins doesn't think so . It's true that, if trends continue, the US will be a minority-majority nation by mid-century, with no single ethnic group having more than half the population. Mid-century America will be a more diverse place…

November 18, 2016

Apocalypse and Reference

A part from dispensationalists, few commentators on Revelation try to match the characters and events of the book to particular people and historical incidents. In the view of many commentators, that would be a violation of the character of apocalyptic literature. Marshall Reddish dismisses popular views of the Battle of…

November 17, 2016

Proto-Temple Theology

David wants to build Yahweh a house, Nathan the prophet encourages him. Then Yahweh appears to Nathan to correct him and give directions to David. The nighttime oracle is actually two oracles (noted by William Johnstone, 1 & 2 Chronicles ). Each has the basic structure of a covenant formula:…

November 17, 2016

Atonement on the Ground

N T Wright complains about the marginalization of the Gospels in atonement theology. He doesn’t think it’s an accident. Rather, it’s “the direct, long-term result of the way in which ‘atonement’ has been seen as a transaction taking place, as it were, in midair, with results that likewise are only…

November 16, 2016

Rahner’s Wordless Trinity

I n his freshly published Triune God , Fred Sanders emphasizes that God’s self-revelation is a communicative act, and that the communication doesn’t come only in act but also in speech: “Revelatory words are not epiphenomenal to revelatory acts. Rather they are equiprimordial and unavoidable. The missions of the Son…

November 15, 2016

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