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

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Ephesians

“Be Holy for I am Holy”

Below is an excerpt from Mark Horne’s manuscript from his forthcoming commentary on Ephesians, specifically on Paul’s reference to Christians as “saints” (Ephesians 1:1). “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul greets…

by Mark HorneMarch 25, 2025
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Exodus

The Perishable in the Ark of the Covenant

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt (2 Chronicles 5:10). When Solomon finally brought the ark of the covenant to the finished temple in…

by Jonathan WhiteMarch 18, 2025
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Exodus

The Stages of a Man’s Life and the Second Table of the Law

In As You Like It , Shakespeare famously describes the seven ages of a man’s life. The division of man’s life into stages is not an invention by Shakespeare, nor merely a common medieval artifice, but an expression of the real journey taken in life. Shakespeare seems to divide up…

by Ryan HandermannMarch 13, 2025
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Christology

The Essence of God’s Image

Is there a chief characteristic which best illumines the image of God in Man? What is it exactly that makes Man as a lens through which to see God? Moses thoughtfully and deliberately escorts the reader to the characteristic showcased above all else: humility. Though much ink has been spilled…

by Ben LoveladyMarch 11, 2025
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Liturgy

Two Ways of Being Liturgical: A Baptist Response to the High Church Exodus

Note: This essay is adapted from a talk delivered at the Howell E. Jackson Committee conference on “Foundations of Baptist Education,” held at Union University, Oct. 4-5, 2024. It’s no secret that evangelicals are converting to High Church traditions, a term I will use to refer to Anglo-Catholicism, Roman Catholicism,…

by Ryan SinniMarch 4, 2025
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Icons

Don’t Convert: Icons and Images in the Early Church

In recent years, there has been a flurry of conversions from Protestant Christianity towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, at least in part due to their supposed early church heritage relative to Protestantism. In the words of Rod Dreher, a former Methodist who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, “Many evangelicals seek…

by John CarpenterFebruary 25, 2025

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Nation of Laws?

W illiam Stuntz's Collapse of American Criminal Justice is as relentless as a prosecutor's closing. His main charge is that American criminal justice has become a preserve of arbitrary discretionary power. Speed limits offer a simple opening example. Everyone knows that the posted speed limits are not the real speed…

June 24, 2015

Ten Horns v. One Whore

An angel unravels the mystery of Babylon the harlot and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns. Most of what the angel says has to do with the beast, first explaining the beast (v. 8), then its seven heads (vv. 9-11), then its horns (vv. 12-18). The horn…

June 23, 2015
Denominationalism

Culture War in the Churches

Battles between liberals/progressive and conservatives have broken out in many denominations, from Missouri Synod Lutherans to Southern Baptists, and they are still going on in the Episcopal and Presbyterian and other churches. Some have suggested that this internecine warfare is the cause of the decline of denominational identity, loyalty, and…

June 23, 2015

Open Heart

Paul opens his mouth wide ( anoigo ) to speak to the Corinthians (2 Corinthians 6:11), and his open mouth expresses the openness of his heart ( he kardia hemon peplatuntai ). He wants the Corinthians to respond by opening themselves up just as wide (v. 13), so that there…

June 23, 2015

Lacan v. Foucault

Joan Copjec's 1994 Read My Desire (recently reprinted by Verso) sets Lacan against the historicists, specifically against Foucault. But also, along the way, Lacan against the structuralists. It's dense going, as one might expect. Early on, Copjec isolates the trouble with Foucault. He “realizes the necessity of conceiving the mode…

June 23, 2015

Authority, Given and Received

The notion of conferred authority is strange. After all, if authority is conferred, it has to be conferred by someone with authority, presumably someone with more authority than the recipient of authority. Can a lesser authority confer greater authority? Medieval Popes thought not, and their coronation powers ritualized their superiority…

June 22, 2015

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