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Writing

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

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Grace

Never Be Dismayed

I'm afraid of messing up. Not just of messing up in general, but of messing this up—the big This that is the story that is my life, the story that God is attempting to tell with me as His material. The question casts its shadow over all my decisions. Can…

by Leta SundetOctober 6, 2015
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Revelation

Greater Phinehas

Jesus’ letter to Pergamum mentions Balaam and Balak (Revelation 2:14), and that is a signal that the whole message is running along the lines of Numbers 22-25. The death of the high priest is a sacrificial moment in the life of Israel. According to the rules of the cities of…

by Peter LeithartOctober 1, 2015
marriage
Marriage

The Glory of Self-Giving: A Wedding Homily

As you come to be joined in marriage today, I want to take a moment to focus on one important dimension of what it means to be married as Christians: that is as those who know Jesus and are being made into His likeness. This is a glorious day, full…

by Joshua AppelSeptember 29, 2015
jesus-centurion
Authority

Authority and Faith

When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, saying, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” Jesus saith unto him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest…

by Lindsey TollefsonSeptember 24, 2015
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Genesis

The Two Shall Become One Flesh: A Wedding Homily

Philosophers have measured mountains, Fathom'd the depths of seas, of states, and kings, Walk'd with a staff to heaven, and traced fountains But there are two vast, spacious things, The which to measure it doth more behove: Yet few there are that sound them; Sin and Love. The Agonie –…

by Joshua AppelSeptember 22, 2015
john-baptist-pointing
Luke

Of Sandals and Heroes

The third chapter of Luke famously opens with a list of mighty men, seven mighty men, potential heroes of the Mediterranean world. Beginning with Tiberius Caesar and Pontius Pilate, passing on to Herod the Tetrarch and his brothers, and ending with two High Priests, Luke says that the word of…

by Toby SumpterSeptember 17, 2015

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Widowed Israel

After David sins with Bathsheba, the prophet Nathan comes to him with a “case” involving a rich man preying on his poor neighbor. It’s David’s own life, but he doesn’t recognize it, and his words of condemnation get turned against him: “You are the man” (2 Samuel 12). When Absalom…

October 7, 2014

Prohibited Speech

Wyatt Mason’s wide-ranging NYT interview with Marilynne Robinson is full of interest for Robinson’s fans. In one of the most incisive portions of the interview, Robinson answers Mason’s question, “What do you think people should be talking about more?” Her consciousness streams in reply: “‘One of the things that bothers…

October 7, 2014

Back to the Feudal

At Bloomberg , Glen Carey observes that “The Middle East may be sliding toward a warlord era, with nation-states increasingly struggling to control all their territory and millions living under the rule of emergent local chiefs and movements.” He quotes Chatham House fellow Nadim Shehadi’s claim that “It is almost…

October 6, 2014

Poetic Beasts

Kathleen Rooney says that poets write animal poetry for two reasons: “one is because animals provide a metaphorical window into the human world from a surprising vantage. Another is because of their very inhumanness and potential sublimity. A successful animal poem makes use of both, weighing those two impulses against…

October 6, 2014
Atonement

Necessity of Atonement

Questions about the “necessity” of atonement are usually framed in terms of the character of God and the nature of sinful humanity. Given these two factors, could God have followed any other path than the cross? Augustine and Aquinas said Yes, Anselm said No. But God and sinful humanity aren’t…

October 6, 2014
Atonement

Disruptive Gospel

Some excerpts from Ivor Davidson’s fine introduction to God of Salvation . Davidson stresses the intrusive character of the gospel’s God. The story is “profoundly startling, disruptive of natural hypotheses about the conceivable relationship of divinity and finitude, shattering to instinctive assumptions that creaturely life must be immune from personal…

October 6, 2014

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