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Writing

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

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Coronavirus

Does Corona Compassion Kill?

The corona virus hit Western society like a Biblical plague — almost. Biblical plagues were actually much more devastating. Still, as Peter Leithart describes the present situation, it is a judgment from God, because the disease itself together with our political solutions brought about a social situation that fits Deuteronomy’s…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 26, 2020
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Theology

Is Theology Useless?

“The achievements of theologians don’t do anything, don’t affect anything, don’t mean anything. What makes anyone think that ‘theology’ is a subject at all?” - Richard Dawkins One cannot be a Christian college president or seminary trustee (your essayist is both) without wondering if Richard Dawkins’s notorious take-down of theology…

by Alexander WhitakerMay 19, 2020
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How to Worship

How Should Churches Respond to One Another?

Nearly every church that I am aware of has adopted differing practices since the recent virus scare began. Some churches continued to meet during the state lock downs, and other churches left their building empty, meeting online through various video conference technologies. Some churches have gone back to life as…

by Jonah BarnesMay 12, 2020
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Fear

Fear

Fear is an inseparable companion of human life. We are afraid of illness and death, poverty and cataclysms, rejection and betrayal, failure and shame. We are afraid of the unknown, so in a sense we are afraid of the future and life itself. Unless we live in the illusory belief…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 5, 2020
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Heresy

The Blessing of “Heresies”

In the title above, I put the word “heresies” in quotation marks because I would prefer that the word “heresy” be confined to erroneous beliefs about the Trinity and the Person of Christ, rather than be used broadly to describe any view that might be considered an error. 1 At…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 30, 2020
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Fear

On Coping (or not) with a Crisis

I’ve been trying to work out why I’m feeling existentially disconnected from CoV-19-related fears. I’m taking it seriously, but it’s not registering in any deeply personal way. Partly it’s that my routines are largely undisrupted. But as I reflect on people’s reactions I think there’s more, because a lot of…

by Matthew MasonApril 28, 2020

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Eucharist Lecture #2

THE TRIPLE BODY OF CHRIST As Henri de Lubac pointed out, the history of Eucharistic theology and practice is largely a history of the changing relations among the threefold body of Christ. The threefold body is: the natural physical body of Jesus; the Eucharistic bread which is the body of…

October 27, 2004

Eucharist Lecture #1

The notes that follow in this and the following two posts are for lectures to be delivered in Brockton, Massachusetts this weekend. HE CAME EATING AND DRINKING If we want to discuss the Lord?s Supper adequately, we cannot disconnect it from concerns of ecclesiology and eschatology. In the Old Testament,…

October 27, 2004
Literature

The Cliches of David Lodge

James Wood is never more entertaining than when he intensely dislikes a book, and he intensely dislikes David Lodge’s widely reviewed, Author, Author , a fictionalized biography of Henry James. After savaging the opening paragraph of Lodge’s novel, he goes on to list some of Lodge’s cliches: “We encounter Henry…

October 26, 2004
Philosophy

Narrative Selves?

Galen Strawson, philosophy editor of TLS , challenges the current widespread idea that human lives either are or should be narrative. He distinguishes between the “Psychological Narrative” thesis, which claims that “ordinary human beings experience their lives” in a narrative fashion, and the “Ethical Narrativity Thesis,” which claims that we…

October 26, 2004

Justification and “Life Situation”

Can God change a person?s ?legal standing?Ewithout changing his ?life situation?E It would seem not: 1) The life condition of someone who is not justified is a situation of being ?under the curse?Eor ?under the reign of Death and Sin.?E This situation is punishment from God for sin, Adam?s and…

October 26, 2004

Justification and “Life Situation”

Can God change a person?s ?legal standing?Ewithout changing his ?life situation?E It would seem not: 1) The life condition of someone who is not justified is a situation of being ?under the curse?Eor ?under the reign of Death and Sin.?E This situation is punishment from God for sin, Adam?s and…

October 26, 2004

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