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

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Catholicism

Outgrowing Protestant Adolescence

The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…

by Richard BledsoeMay 5, 2014
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Leviticus

Two Shall Become One Flesh, (Part 3): Realizing Recovering

Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…

by Ryan HandermannApril 30, 2014
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Leviticus

Two Shall Become One Flesh, (Part 2): The Day of Recoverings

The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…

by Ryan HandermannApril 29, 2014
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Leviticus

Two Shall Become One Flesh, I: Atonement and Eschatology

Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…

by Ryan HandermannApril 23, 2014
Revelation

Seven Spirits, Seven Sisters

​Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…

by Peter LeithartApril 21, 2014
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Biblical Theology

Jacob and the Stone

When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…

by Peter LeithartApril 16, 2014

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Science

Bacon’s Program

Antonio Perez-Ramos argues in his contribution to the Cambridge Companion to Bacon that while Bacon’s method has been severely criticized, Bacon’s program of human improvement through scientific and technological progress has not been, until the early part of the 20th century (he references Hans Jonas, Adorno and Horkheimer as skeptics…

August 24, 2006
Science

Bacon’s Program

Antonio Perez-Ramos argues in his contribution to the Cambridge Companion to Bacon that while Bacon’s method has been severely criticized, Bacon’s program of human improvement through scientific and technological progress has not been, until the early part of the 20th century (he references Hans Jonas, Adorno and Horkheimer as skeptics…

August 24, 2006
History

Pre-Socratics

Bacon says in a number of places that Western history is like a stream that carries everything light and airy on the surface (like Plato and Aristotle) while submerging all the heavy stuff (Hermes and the Pre-Socratics). Intriguing that one of the “fathers of modernity” should make this Heideggerian kind…

August 23, 2006
History

Be the Bee

Aphorism 95 from Part I of Bacon’s New Organon says: “Those who have handled sciences have been either men of experiment or men of dogmas. The men of experiment are like the ant, they only collect and use; the reasoners resemble spiders, who make cobwebs out of their own substance.…

August 23, 2006

Boyish Greeks

Stephen McKnight points out in his recent The Religious Foundations of Francis Bacon’s Thought (University of Missouri, 2006) that Bacon dismissed classical Greek thought in favor of a knowledge both more ancient and more recent: “Bacon introduces another memorable image when he likens classical philosophy to an adolescent boy: both…

August 23, 2006

Fiction and creation

Reflecting on Rosendale’s treatment of sacramental kingship in Henry V, it occurs to me that a sacramental theology that highlights the effective fictionality of the sacramental signs is more consistent with the doctrine of creation than the notion that sacramental signs have some inherent virtue of their own or the…

August 21, 2006

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