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Writing

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Art

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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Reformational Catholicism

Reformational Catholicism Now

Should Protestants have excluded Catholics from the Lord’s table? James B. Jordan thinks not , and also tells some tales from the front of Reformational Catholicism.

May 7, 2014

Breaking Logjams

Doctrinal differences between Catholics and Protestants look permanent and intractable. It looks as if one or the other must simply win the struggle. But doctrinal impasses aren’t resolved by a death-battle between current options. They’re resolved by fresh formulations that synthesize existing concerns, break new ground, solve some difficulties and…

May 7, 2014

Lovers’ Spat

Christopher Caldwell offers this concise analysis of the fateful conversation between Clippers’ owner Donald Sterling and V. Stiviano: It is “pathetic intimate quarrel between Mr Sterling and a 31-year-old woman, V Stiviano. Something is upsetting Mr Sterling very much, but it is not black people – at least not primarily.…

May 6, 2014
Justice

Making Paul Religious

Paul, writes Theodore Jennings in Outlaw Justice , “is concerned with the most basic issues of political thinking, law and justice” (3). Translations, though, often obscure this interest, minimizing the political dimensions of Paul’s vocabulary and arguments by turning his letters into “religious” teaching, teaching concerned primarily with the salvation…

May 6, 2014

Playing Safe

The challenge of the Middle East peace process is the problem of the disparity of power. Andrew Bacevich writes , “Between Israelis and Palestinians, the disparity of power looms large and not by accident. Even before founding their state, Zionists were intent on acquiring a surplus of power. By means…

May 6, 2014

Social Construction

Reader David Gornoski writes: I had a lot of fun with the social construct theory professors. I say, Yes, Language does construct reality. “In the beginning was the Word.” God spoke and now we exist. And yes, reality is socially constructed. A society in one being, the Trinity created it.…

May 6, 2014

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