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Writing

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

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Music

The Case for Shorter Hymnals

I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are. Much shorter. 100 hymns at most, let’s say. I imagine that this will be a hard one to swallow for most of my readers, so I will attempt to bolster my argument as best I can. I can’t think of any…

by John AhernNovember 16, 2021
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Hermeneutics

King Joshua and the Christian

Joshua is never called a king in the Bible. Yet while lacking the title, Joshua possesses the trappings of biblical kingship to a degree that it seems warranted to consider him a royal figure. There are lots of reasons for thinking this. In a 1981 Journal of Biblical Literature article,…

by Daniel HoffmanNovember 9, 2021
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Language

The Liturgy of Language

God speaks. He is not silent. He has designed humanity for reception of such communication and also to speak on His behalf. This speaking is not simply happenstance. It is not just a curious quirk about humanity. It is intrinsic to who we are that we speak and shape the…

by Chase DavisNovember 2, 2021
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Practicing Repentance

One evening, years ago, home from college for Christmas break, I dreamt that I was playing the piano, passionately and well, in the church sanctuary beneath the parsonage in the renovated mansion in rural New Hampshire where my father was the minister. It was something of a lucid dream because…

by Garrett SoucyOctober 26, 2021
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Anxiety

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

I’m a big worrier. Always have been. Some of my earliest memories are of being anxious to the point of getting sick, sometimes for trivial reasons. My mind moves a million miles a minute, wondering what will happen in 5 minutes, or tomorrow, or next week, or in ten years.…

by MargaretAnn HesterOctober 21, 2021
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Biblical Studies

“But Lot’s Wife Behind Him”: Translating a Conjunction in the Sodom Story

“The sun had gone up on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD from heaven, and he devastated those cities and the whole valley and all those dwelling in the cities and the growth of…

by Josh JensenOctober 19, 2021

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Gnostic hermeneutics, 2

It’s a strange hermeneutical theory that doesn’t want to deal with words, but that’s the way many modern hermeneutical systems (beginning with Schleiermacher) work: The interpreter is trying to slip past the veil of language to the mind behind. Inky words on rag-and-wood-pulp pages are just too physical to communicate…

December 21, 2006

Gnostic hermeneutics

Lundin suggests that “At the core of Hirsch’s appeal is a promise dear to American culture - that we can return to the innocent origins and begin history anew . . . . Hirsch wants a ‘ruthlessly critical process of validation’ to establish the facts of original intent and thus…

December 21, 2006

Intention

Roger Lundin comments on the ironies of evangelical support for ED Hirsch and its frequent suspicion, if not outright condemnation, of Gadamer: “There are manifold ironies to the conservative embrace of Hirsch and spurning of Gadamer. At their heart is the fact that Hirsch’s theory of intention has its roots…

December 21, 2006

I and We

Auden said that “protestantism is correcte in affirming that the We are of society” is false unless each individual “can say I am .” At the same time, what he called catholicism is also correct that anyone who cannot “join with others in saying We does not know the meaning…

December 21, 2006

Pop Gratitude

That Amazon search confirmed my suspicion: Gratitude is a common topic of inspirational literature. You can get gratitude journals, gratitude calendars, gratitude guides, gratitude cards, gratitude with attitude books, probably gratitude mugs and teacups and bumperstickers and bracelets and decals and tattoos. What is almost completely absent is any serious…

December 20, 2006

Self-thanks

Searching Amazon, I find that one Christine A. Adams has written a small book on gratitude for a book series called “Elf Self-Help” (I’m not making this up). Perhaps someone can gently inform Ms Adams that the whole point of gratitude is that someone else has helped.

December 20, 2006

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