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Biblical Horizons

Schizophrenia?

> Dave, > Jason > > I am surprised this is so hard for me to communicate effectively. Prosecuting Leithart while inwardly struggling with my questions was easy, because the issue was NEVER “Whose views are correct?” In a Reformed denomination we all operate under the supposition that our doctrinal…

by Richard BledsoeJune 8, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

The Onesiphorus Nonsense

Discussions on the catholicity of the church have led one RC advocate to write to me that according to 2 Timothy 1:16-18, Paul is clearly and unmistakably praying for a dead person. He points to a couple of Protestant writers who had agreed with this, though they are in a…

by James B. JordanJune 7, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Schaff on Praying to Saints

The great True Catholic historian, Philip Schaff, points out as regards the beginning of prayers to the saints in the post-Nicene Church: Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church (Volume III, Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity A.D. 311-390, P. 409-427). In the first three centuries the veneration of the martyrs in…

by James B. JordanMay 31, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

One, Holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church

The Nicene Creed states that the Holy Spirit “spoke through the prophets in (or into) one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” Contrary to usual translations, neither the Greek nor the Latin originals say “ I believe in one holy, catholic, and apostolic church.” As written, the thought of the authors…

by James B. JordanMay 25, 2012
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Biblical Horizons

Family Disintegrated Worship

One of the latest sectarian movements to arise around the fringes of the Christian religion is something called “family integrated churches.” What this seems to mean, depending on the advocate, is that youth groups are bad, age-segregated Sunday Schools are bad, families need to sit together in church, and even…

by James B. JordanFebruary 2, 2012
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 8

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 8. Comments on The Covenantal Gospel by Cornelis van der Waal This is an excellent book, and every Bible student should read and master it. Cornelis van der Waal was…

by James B. JordanSeptember 22, 2011

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Philosophy

Courtly love

A web summary of Lacan’s negative account of desire says, “In constructing our fantasy-version of reality, we establish coordinates for our desire; we situate both ourselves and our object of desire, as well as the relation between. As Slavoj Zizek puts it, ’ through fantasy, we learn how to desire’…

October 14, 2009

Desire

“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me,” says the bride in the Song of Songs (7:10). “Desire” is the same word used in Genesis 3:16 and 4:7, both of which describe a desire for authority, domination, rule, a threatening desire.  The bridegroom of the Song reverses the…

October 14, 2009

Up from deism

We’re all deists.  The design of the universe shows that a Great Intelligent Something is responsible for it. No, says Athanasius.  The design of the universe is the impress of eternal wisdom on the creation.  The cunning of creation doesn’t manifest “God,” but eternal creative Wisdom, the eternal Word, whose…

October 13, 2009

How we say what we say

Thomas writes that “to signify something by words or merely by the construction of images . . . yields nothing but the literal sense” and “poetic images refer to something other than themselves only so as to signify them; and so a signification of that sort goes no way beyond…

October 13, 2009

Typology and Allegory

Denys Turner notes that the Song of Songs presented challenges to the “minority” of medieval theologians who argued for a more rigorous grounding of spiritual in literal senses.  For these, the text speaks literally, referring to specific events; and these events, as Thomas says, providentially typify future events. To qualify…

October 13, 2009

Image and Likeness

The distinction of image and likeness has been a common one in the history of theology, East and West, and in the West at least it overlaps with the nature/grace dualism.  Image for Bonventure “denotes a kind of ‘shape,’ that is, a quantitative feature of quality or a qualitative feature…

October 13, 2009

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