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Writing

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

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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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Philosophy

Life and Political Life

Giorgio Agamben opens his 1995 Homo Sacer with a discussion of the origins of “biopolitics” (Foucault’s term). According to Foucault’s account, Aristotle’s politics instituted a basic distinction between life per se and the good life, which is “politically qualified life.” Life per se takes place in the household, and consists…

March 29, 2005

Abraham’s Exoduses

Or is it Exodi? In any case, everyone can see that Abram goes through an exodus in Genesis 12. But Jeffrey Geoghegan makes a compelling case for seeing a Passover-Exodus theme running through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. To wit: 1) The sin of Sodom and…

March 29, 2005

Abraham’s Exoduses

Or is it Exodi? In any case, everyone can see that Abram goes through an exodus in Genesis 12. But Jeffrey Geoghegan makes a compelling case for seeing a Passover-Exodus theme running through the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18-19. To wit: 1) The sin of Sodom and…

March 29, 2005

Translation, 1 Kings 21

And it was after these things A vineyard was to Navoth the Yizre?e?li, Which [was] in Yizre?e?l near the palace of Achav king of Shomron. And spoke Achav to Navoth saying ?Give to me your vineyard. And it will be to me for a garden of greens. For it [is]…

March 29, 2005

Eucharistic Meditation, Easter Sunday

?The anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God?E(Romans 8:19). Pastor Wilson has taught us today that the resurrection of Jesus has cosmic consequences. He was raised by the power the Spirit, and that same Spirit has now been poured out upon the…

March 27, 2005

Exhortation, Easter Sunday

?That Easter day with joy was bright; the sun show out with fairer light, when to their wondering eyes restored, the glad apostles saw their Lord.?E So wrote a Latin poet of the fourth century. Joy, however, is not the only emotional note in the gospel accounts of Easter. Alongside…

March 27, 2005

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