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The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 3

The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Patriarchal Dominion

The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 6

Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Studies

Re-creation in the Ascension Offering

The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
Biblical Horizons

The Framework Hypothesis: A Gnostic Heresy

Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 2

The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998

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Evangelicals and Catholics in Europe

Christianity Today reported this week on a controversy among European Evangelicals about relations with the Roman Catholic Church. Thomas Schirrmacher and Thomas K. Johnson of the World Evangelical Alliance, responded with a defense of Evangelical collaboration and dialogue with Catholics . Schirrmacher and Johnson note the difference between the Reformation…

February 2, 2018

Orphan Philosophy

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy's *In the Cross of Reality,* the first volume of his *Sociology*: "Rene Descartes' mother died shortly after childbirth. . . . He never found relief from the formal strictness prevalent among grown men, with its presumption of standing by one's given world. Prematurely, this child had no choice…

February 2, 2018

Christian Ethics In Technological Age

It’s important to pay careful attention to the title of Brian Brock’s superb 2010 Christian Ethics in a Technological Age . The book isn't merely a theological/ethical analysis of technology, though it includes that. Brock’s aim is broader, as he explores the shape of Christian morality in contemporary, technological society,…

February 1, 2018

God of Days, God In Days

The following paragraphs are snipped from an article of mine on God and time in Genesis 1, published in the Criswell Theological Review. You can find more information about this issue of the journal here . It seems significant that Genesis describes this evening-and-morning pattern without reference to the category…

February 1, 2018

Hand of Yahweh

Theopolis student Jacob Hanby pointed out that Ezekiel uses the phrase "the hand of Yahweh" seven times. It appears at major junctures in the prophecy: Ezekiel 1:3 : The first verses of Ezekiel provide a double narrative opening (first person, then third person) to a prophecy that is largely taken…

January 31, 2018

Reaganism for Lefties

Mark Lilla's dissection of identity politics in The Once and Future Liberal is incisive. He doesn't spare the conservative movement or the Republican party in the least, but he at his sharpest in analyzing what he calls the "abdication" of liberalism and the Democratic party. Liberals, he argues, once had…

January 30, 2018

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