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Nevin Lectures

Fourth Annual Nevin Lectures: Robert Kolb

Why Do Siblings Feud? Presuppositions, Principles, and Practice in Reformed-Lutheran Relationships Robert Kolb, International Research Emeritus Professor for Institute for Mission Studies, Concordia Seminary, St Louis, Missouri. Lecture Topics 1) Law and Gospel: Answering the Question Posed 2) The Lord's Supper: Christ's Presence and Promise 3) Worship and Created Things:…

by Brian MoatsDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Exodus to Eden

From Genesis 3, West-to-East movement is always movement away from God’s presence and His house (cf. Genesis 3:24). Adam and Eve were cast out of the Garden to the east, and when Cain was later cast out he was sent to the land east of Eden. The men of Babel,…

by Peter LeithartDecember 30, 2016
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Advent

Immanuel's Table

In his account of Jesus' birth, Matthew cites a prophecy assuring Judah of her victory over Israel and Aram. Immanuel is also a sign of the Lord’s judgment. When God comes near, He comes to bless and to curse, to save and to condemn, for deliverance and for judgment. The…

by Peter LeithartDecember 29, 2016
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Abortion

Holy Innocents

For many in the modern era, Christianity has been seen as an apolitical religion. Christianity is a private, spiritual religion. It's a convenient myth for modern people. After the Reformation, Europe entered a period of protracted and often vicious conflict that left large portions of Western Europe devastated. Many concluded…

by Peter LeithartDecember 28, 2016
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Advent

Christmas Light, Christmas Love

The Christmas gospel announces the coming of day. Those in darkness see a great light, as the Sun rises with healing in His wings. The light has come into the world that lightens every man, to give light to those who sit in darkness and in the shadow of death.…

by Peter LeithartDecember 27, 2016
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Advent

Word Made Food

How do we know God loved the world? John tells us that He demonstrates His love in sending His Son. To paraphrase Paul, God has demonstrated His love for us in that while we were still sinners Christ was born for us. He sent His Son to take on human…

by Peter LeithartDecember 26, 2016

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The Olympic Pains

David C. Young points out in his A Brief History of the Olympic Games that “The term Olympic Games is . . . a bad mistranslation of Greek Olympiakoi agones .” The problem is that agones gets converted into ludus , ludi , ludicrum , ie, diversions and games. “The…

July 31, 2012

Beauty’s power

Schindler ( Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God , p. 301) suggests that “creaturely power begins in wonder and gratitude before the inherent beauty of the Other.” Wonder is not a passive contemplation, he’s saying, but the source of our initiative, power, and creativity: “The power of…

July 25, 2012

Marian ontology

Schindler ( Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God , 298-301) points to Mary as a model of created existence: “Mary reveals the original and abiding asymmetry in the creature’s relation to God” ( fiat ).” That is, all creatures receive the gift of existence from God. Second,…

July 25, 2012
Philosophy

Being in Gratitude

In a long footnote in his brilliant Ordering Love: Liberal Societies and the Memory of God (p. 257) , David Schindler gives this lengthy quotation from W. Norris Clarke’s Explorations in Metaphysics: Being-God-Person : He refers to the “profound dimension of receptivity, hence relativity, in all of us, even preceding…

July 25, 2012

Shame

Drawing from John Paul II’s Man and Woman He Created Them: A Theology Of The Body (pp. 246-50). Shame means hiding, withdrawal from visibility, withdrawal from communion (Genesis 3:7). God created us with bodies so we can share ourselves with one another - with touch, with speech, with mutual regard.…

July 25, 2012

Become as children

In a 1996 Communio article, Joseph Ratzinger argues that the child in the womb is the basic model of human existence: “For what is at stake here? The being of another person is so closely interwoven with the being of this person, the mother, that for the present it can…

July 24, 2012

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