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Writing

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

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Biblical Studies

The Literary Structure of the Whole Bible

In this essay we will think about how the whole Bible is structured as one Word of God. To begin with, there is only one Bible, not two. While we divide the Bible into Old and New Testaments, that division has no more meaning than divisions into chapters and verse,…

by James B. JordanMay 16, 2019
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Catholicity

Catholicity and Integrity

How should one badly bruised and inadequate church relate to another? (I am not addressing the blessed possessors of absolutely perfect churches, naturally.) I believe there are three things to bear in mind. First, we must be open to the values in other Christian traditions - even Roman Catholic and…

by James B. JordanMay 14, 2019
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Chiasm

Fertile Meaning

The third and sixth day have a second creative act. Note the chiastic arrangement of the material in these special acts and the parallelism between them, see the figure below. The author arranges the description of each day as a chiasm. Each line in the chiasm is mated with a…

by Scott FairbanksMay 9, 2019
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Biblical Theology

Nakedness and Clothing

Now the two of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they did not sense shame (Genesis 2:25) The nakedness of Adam and Eve requires several comments. First of all, against those who think that nakedness is what God intended for humanity as a permanent estate, we have…

by James B. JordanMay 7, 2019
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Epistemology

Restoring the “Other” in Mother

I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of integration, and our longing for integration in a fragmented world. I’ve been connecting my own covenant epistemology further with the thought of scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi, artist Makoto Fujimura, and Classical Christian metaphysician D.C. Schindler. In my last post , and now in this…

by Esther Lightcap MeekApril 30, 2019
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Hermeneutics

Go Tell that Vixen!

Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 23, 2019

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Eucharistic exhortation

Psalm 122:1: I rejoiced when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. Worship is a journey. Every Sunday, we literally leave home and go on a pilgrimage, for most of us a fairly short one, to this place, where we gather as the house…

August 24, 2008

Baptismal Meditation

Matthew 28:19-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. As Pastor Sumpter pointed out in this morning’s sermon,…

August 24, 2008
Theology

Exhotation

Freedom is a heady thing, and some of you students are experiencing the rush of adult freedom for the first time. Perhaps for the first time, you are making your own decisions about how to organize your life, what you are doing to do with your day, when your day…

August 24, 2008
Politics

Change We Can Believe In

Change was virtually the only campaign theme Obama has used. Then he picks Joe Biden as a running mate. Ron Fournier gets it right: ” The candidate of change went with the status quo.” And Fournier adds, ” The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the…

August 23, 2008
History

Typology and Conspiracy

As a philosophy of history, typology highlights the unintended consequences of our actions, the unintended meanings of our words. Conspiracy theories have no room for unintended events. If something happened, someone somewhere planned it. Typology and conspiracy are competing theories of history.

August 23, 2008

Typology

Typology is a philosophy of history. It is also a theory of meaning. Typology is a historical theory of meaning, a theory of historical meaning. That Matthew can say “Out of Egypt I called My Son” is fulfilled in Jesus isn’t evidence that Matthew was a midrashist. It’s not merely…

August 22, 2008

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