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

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Biblical Horizons

Writing and Thinking

During one of my AAPC lectures I read a portion of Richard Mitchell’s provocative little book The Underground Grammarian . Here’s the portion I read: The mind is a rudderless wanderer blown here or there by any puff of breeze. If I mention watermelons, you must think of watermelons; if…

by Jeff MeyersJanuary 14, 2008
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Biblical Studies

Psalms 23-29: Analysis

This is the donation thank-you essay for January 2008. Our studies in the Psalms go out month by month in response to donations. I’m putting this one up here as an example, and also because the version I actually mailed out contained several egregious arithmetical errors! So, here is the…

by James B. JordanJanuary 6, 2008
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Parts 1-7

Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of “traditional” or “canon” learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…

by James B. JordanDecember 5, 2007
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Theologia

On Forgiving Oneself: Nine Reasons Why It Can Be Appropriate

While “forgiving oneself” is widely accepted in the secular world as a legitimate and needful thing to do, Christians are rightly suspicious. After all, God is the one who forgives. When we sin against other people, we need to seek their forgiveness, not our own. Nevertheless after looking at Vine’s…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2007
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Biblical Studies

Every Word Matters to the Story

This was originally published as HIStory in the column, “A Pastor’s Perspective” in Ligonier Ministrie’s Tabletalk Magazine . I am not sure of the date but it was probably published in 1999 or 2000. Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible…

by Mark HorneJune 6, 2007
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Church Government

The Pastorate and the Presbytery

A Brief Explanation of What a Presbytery Is & Why Pastors in Presbyterian Denominations are Members of Them A belief in the primacy of the local congregation of the Church, I think, reflects the gut feeling of most North American Evangelicals. As a result, the form of Church government universally…

by Mark HorneJune 5, 2007

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Sources of Moral Confusion

I listened to a torturous discussion last week in which Terry Gross and Northwestern's Laura Kipnis discussed Kipnis's Chronicle of Higher Education article challenging university prohibitions of romance between faculty members and students. What's the big deal? Kipnis wanted to know. In her day, sex with professors was a normal…

June 22, 2015

Confessional Cover

In his contribution to Denominatonalism , editor Russell Richey argues that mid-19th century disputes over slavery and other political questions (a series of “ultraisms,” as he puts it) did not so much create as expose “the fault line in purposive association, namely, that . . . denominations and voluntary societies…

June 22, 2015

Why Literature Matters

G lenn C. Arbery is a literature professor, and he knows his limits. Literature professors can't bestow importance on great literature, writes Arbery ( Why Literature Matters ). What they are qualified to do, he says, is to bestow honor, “because meaningful praise has to come from those who know…

June 22, 2015

Ecclesiology of Union, Ecclesiology of Mission

“Modern civilization, aghast at the results of a conflict between societies which had acknowledged no higher ideal than the pride of an ignorant nationalism, looks forward fearfully and almost helplessly to a yet mightier conflagration of the hates and passions it has nurtured. Remembering the holocaust which ethical stupidity has…

June 19, 2015

From Cold War to War on Terror

When the Cold War ended with the Berlin Wall being dismantled and the Soviet Union breaking up, the West breathed a sigh of relief. Prematurely, as it turns out. Islamicism rose hard on the heels of Communism's fall. And, according to George Friedman , the fall and the rise are…

June 19, 2015

Proverbial Abomination

In Torah, “abomination” ( to'evah ) fits into the lexicon of holiness, purity, defilement. It often describes an act that transgresses created boundaries and confuses created categories (homosexual sex, Leviticus 18:22 and 20:13; a man wearing woman's clothing, Deuteronomy 22:15). Specifically, sexual sin (Leviticus 18:26-30), idolatry (Deuteronomy 7:25-26; 12:31) and…

June 19, 2015

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