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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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Rise of the West

Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) notes that in 1750, India and China account for "three-quarters of the world’s manufactures." The East's dominance collapsed over the following centuries: "On the eve of the First World War their share had dropped to just 7.5 per cent. Economic historians called…

January 19, 2018
Liberalism

Liberalism's Soul

Way back in 1997, Peter Berkowitz published a review of David Walsh's The Growth of the Liberal Soul . It's a notable title, since one of the charges of post-liberals is that liberalism has no soul. But Walsh's thesis is worth revisiting now that there is widespread questioning of the…

January 19, 2018

Reign of Appearances

Mention the "public," and you're liable to be greeted with lamentation and hand-wringing. Citizenship isn't what it used to be. No one participates in public events any more. Once upon a time, we were active citizens. Now we bowl alone and we participate in public life only as passive spectators.…

January 18, 2018

Structure of Isaiah

The following summarizes the structural analysis of Isaiah found in David Dorsey's Literary Structyre of the Old Testament . Like most of the books of the Old Testament, Dorsey finds that Isaiah is organized in a sevenfold pattern: A.Condemnation, pleading, promise of future restoration, 1:1-12: B. Oracles to the nations,…

January 18, 2018

Immanuel

The king of Judah is panicked, and all Jerusalem with him (Isaiah 7). Judah has been invaded by the combined armies of Pekiah, King of Israel, and Rezin, King of Aram. They have come against Jerusalem and are besieging it, but they cannot conquer it. But they’ve spooked the whole…

January 17, 2018
Liberalism

Liberalism In Retreat

Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) can't quite believe he's saying what he's saying. It feels like heresy, treason. How can a convinced liberal bring himself to talk about liberalism's retreat or demise? "To a person whose life has coincided with the rise of democracy, the spread of…

January 16, 2018

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