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Writing

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

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Easter

An Easter Meditation

The resurrection stories in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are among the strangest stories in all of the literature of the world, even among the strangest stories in the Bible. That is true of each Gospel’s accounts individually, but even more of the collection as a whole. On the one…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 20, 2025
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Technology

Ministering to Mooks on the Age of the Internet of Beefs

As a pastor, I’m interested in discipleship. Christians are called to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Discipleship has everything to do with the disciplines we walk by in our lives. Things like Bible reading, prayer, and fasting are hallmarks of standard Christian discipleship. The basic thrust is that…

by Michael HansenApril 15, 2025
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Chiasm

Immobility or Infinity: Chiastic Trajectories in Psalm 1

Psalm 1 is justly famous among biblical texts. It opens the Psalter, it’s a paean to the life-giving power of the Law, and it beautifully describes righteous life as a stable, fruitful tree. It subtly weaves the contrasting threads of wickedness and righteousness into a succinct summary of biblical wisdom:…

by Joseph RheaApril 8, 2025
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Hebrews

Eight Lessons on the Psalms from the Book of Hebrews

No book is more quoted in Hebrews than the Psalter: there are quotations and allusions to psalms on virtually every page. And many of the quotations are not passing references but closely considered and repeatedly cited as the author of Hebrews develops his central arguments. Much of Hebrews is exposition…

by Alastair RobertsApril 1, 2025
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Theology

The God Problem

Howard Bloom is a beautiful hypocrite. The author of books in as different subjects as Mohammed, scientific theory, and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s, he professes to be a “stone cold atheist.” Yet in spite of that profession, Bloom obviously writes as a Jew; that is, he writes with…

by Ralph Allan SmithMarch 27, 2025
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Art

The Comedic World of Flannery O’Connor

There may be some debate about who deserves the title “the King of American literature,” but, at least to my mind, there should be no debate over who deserves to be “the Queen” – let’s give the crown to Flannery O’Connor. She is, however, a very unlikely queen. Unlikely, not…

by Steve WilkinsMarch 25, 2025

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Sermon outline

INTRODUCTION The world is divided into two great families. On the one hand, there are those who are “called children of God” (3:1), while on the other hand are the “children of the devil” (3:10). The main distinguishing mark is conduct: Children of the devil practice sin, while children of…

November 6, 2006

Civilizing Worship

The good folks at First Things have posted an article of mine on their web site. You can see it at http://www.firstthings.com.

November 6, 2006

Eucharistic meditation

1 John 2:20: You have an anointing from the Holy One. As I said in the sermon, John uses the word “anointing” to refer to the Spirit. We are led into truth, and enabled to persevere in the truth, because the Spirit has been poured out. But John uses this…

November 5, 2006

Exhortation

“You have no need for anyone to teach you,” John writes, since “His anointing teaches you about all things.” Whatever this means, it certainly doesn’t mean that Christians don’t need any teachers. That would make John’s statement contradictory, since he’s teaching his readers they don’t need teachers. Besides, the New…

November 5, 2006

Coming soon?

It is almost universally believed among evangelicals that Jesus is coming soon. This conviction is obvious among those who think that Jacques Chirac or Vladimir Putin might be the Antichrist. But even evangelicals saner eschatologies cling to the belief that Jesus could be returning any day. In his excellent commentary…

November 5, 2006
History

Foucault’s eschatology

Berman offers this very sharp summary of Foucault’s work, whom he says is “about the only writer of the past decade who has had anything substantial to say about modernity” (Berman is writing in 1982). Then: “what he has to say is an endless, excruciating series of variations on the…

November 5, 2006

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