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

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Romans

Notes on Scary Stuff in Romans 9

What shall we say then? Is there injustice on God’s part? By no means! For he says to Moses, “I will have mercy on whom I have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.” So then it depends not on human will or exertion, but on…

by Mark HorneFebruary 5, 2015
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American Politics

Covenants of Exclusion

A hundred years ago, William Warley signed a contract to buy a house in Louisville, Kentucky from Charles Buchanan, a white man. Before closing the sale, Warley, who was black, learned that the lot was subject to a city ordinance barring blacks from occupying the premises if most of the…

by Brendan O'DonnellFebruary 3, 2015
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Literature

The Bard and the Book

I concluded the first essay on this topic by saying that I would introduce three books about Shakespeare and the Bible, but I decided to introduce four instead. The three books become four are: Naseeb Shaheen, Biblical References in Shakespeare’s Plays (London: Associated University Presses, 1999) ; Hannibal Hamlin, The…

by Ralph Allan SmithJanuary 29, 2015
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Augustine

Augustine on Pagan Virtue

My children attend a classical Christian school, situated in the independent “free church” evangelical tradition. Over the past few years they have been growing in their acquaintance with the world of Homer, Plato, Virgil, and Livy. They enjoy it, and I envy it. The school is a great school. My…

by Gerald HiestandJanuary 27, 2015
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Atonement

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…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 22, 2015
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Ascension

Underground Man, Ascended Man

“I want now to tell you, gentlemen, whether you care to hear it or not, why I could not even become an insect. I tell you solemnly, that I have many times tried to become an insect. But I was not equal even to that. I swear, gentlemen, that to…

by Richard BledsoeJanuary 20, 2015

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Theological Language

In a discussion of God's transcendence, Jeremy Begbie ( Redeeming Transcendence in the Arts ) observes that some accounts of transcendence leave the impression "that language is something by its very nature that God would long to escape, that something so finite and susceptible to corruption could have no integral…

March 9, 2018

Cappadocian Rupture

In his "Person" in Christian Tradition , Stephen Hipp notes that the "originality" of Cappadocian Trinitarian theology "lies in using the word hypostasis to designate the person in distinction from the substance. The distinction between hypostasis and ousia had not been instituted during apostolic times; the Greek Fathers are the…

March 9, 2018

One Will?

William Hasker ( Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God ) cites Carl Mosser's objection to social Trinitarianism's claim that the three Persons are "distinct centers of willing": "If the divine persons cannot differ because they necessarily act in concert with one another, then attributing distinct wills is superfluous. Attributing distinct wills…

March 9, 2018

When Left Meets Right

Shannon Hayes is a different kind of feminist, a feminist who has not only broken from the patriarchy but from she views as a global capitalist system that buttresses the patriarchy. She is a Radical Homemaker . She explains that “Radical Homemakers are men and women who have chosen to…

March 9, 2018

Simplicity and Divine Properties

William Mann has argued that when medievals identify God with His attributes, they identify Him with "property instances," specific individuals in a relationship of instantiation with the universals that they instantiate. Jeffrey Brower ("Making Sense of Divine Simplicity," Faith and Philosophy 25: 1 [2008]: 3-30) explains, "As Mann sees it,…

March 9, 2018

Model Nation

Robert Tombs ( The English and Their History ) observes that many intellectuals have pondered the character of nations for the past two centuries, asking "whether nations are ancient or modern phenomena; whether they have some organic existence as cultural, genetic or geographical entities; whether they are political and ideological…

March 9, 2018

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