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Writing

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

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Apostle Paul

Paul in Prison: Ephesus or Rome?

In the books of 1 and 2 Corinthians, Paul refers to hardships in his ministry in Asia, specifically Ephesus (1 Corinthians 4:9-13; 15:32; 2 Corinthians 1:8; 4:8-12; 6:4-5; 11:23-25). However, the multiple imprisonments Paul mentions are not fully reflected in Luke’s account of Paul’s ministry — Luke only records a…

by Ralph Allan SmithFebruary 15, 2022
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Epistemology

Vertical Living

After all these months pondering integration, I have come to the point of believing that the dynamic of integration just is the real at its heart. Everything that is real or comes to be real is a dynamo of integrative coherence. I also believe it is true that the real…

by Esther Lightcap MeekFebruary 1, 2022
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Books

Tom Holland and the Liberating Power of Christianity

Have you heard of Tom Holland? Not the young Tom Holland of Spiderman fame. No doubt you’ve heard of him. I’m referring to the middle age Oxford-trained historian who recently wrote Dominion: The Making of the Western Mind . (Both Hollands are British, so you’ll be forgiven for confusing them.)…

by Gerald HiestandJanuary 25, 2022
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Biblical Horizons

"Do This!"

This article was originally published in 1990. (The essay that follows concerns a rather touchy subject: how the Lord’s Supper is to be done. I am not writing to insult or offend, but to challenge. To that end I have not "held back" but have "gone ahead" and said what…

by James B. JordanJanuary 19, 2022
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American Culture

The Dominion Trap

This article was originally published in 1990. In Genesis One, God told Adam and Eve to "be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens, and over every living thing that moves on…

by James B. JordanJanuary 13, 2022
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Biblical Studies

Will Few Be Saved?

On several occasions the gospels record Jesus teaching that only a few will be saved (Matthew 7:14, Matthew 22:14, and Luke 13:23). Careful readers of Scripture should begin to wrestle with how these passages found in the gospels fit together with other passages that teach that many will be saved…

by Manny LucasJanuary 11, 2022

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Predestination and the Presence of God

Matthew Levering’s Predestination is, like everything he writes, clear, thorough, judicious, rich, biblically and historically informed. He starts with the church fathers and takes the story to the present worries (from David Hart among others) that predestination endangers the innocence of God. Levering recognizes the limits of patristic treatments of…

January 23, 2015

Theodicy and Chaste Women

In Book 1 of the City of God , Augustine responds to critics who pointed out that Christians and pagans, good and bad people, suffered equally in the destruction of Rome. As he summarizes the argument at the beginning of Book 2, he wrote to “relieve the anxieties which disturb…

January 23, 2015

Revolutions in Taste

Massimo Montanari claims in his Medieval Tastes that medieval tastes and customs regarding food were changed by two revolutions. One involves the discovery of new foods from the new world. Think, for instance, of “the impact of the tomato on Mediterranean cooking or the potato on the continental diet, not…

January 22, 2015

Ancients on the Ancients

Christopher B. Hays’s Hidden Riches is a well-organized, comprehensive compilation of Ancient Near Eastern sources - creation stories, flood stories, legal documents. It is a “bibliocentric” collection, attempting to draw out similarities and differences between biblical and other ANE documents. Hays begins the book with an overview of the comparative…

January 22, 2015

Theopolis Class Registration

The Book of Revelation has fascinated Christians for two millennia, but it is more discussed than understood. In the Easter Term intensive course at Theopolis, James Jordan and I will present a coherent overview of the book that emphasizes its historical setting in the first century, explains its Bible-saturated imagery…

January 22, 2015

The Prodigal and the Cross

The Prodigal Son parable (Luke 15) has been a favorite of liberal theologians for a couple of centuries. It seems to be a parable designed for liberal sensibilities: An indulgent, accepting Father; forgiveness extended without a cross; a surly older brother who might represent the “conservative” face of religion who…

January 22, 2015

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