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

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Hermeneutics

Hermeneutical Polytheism

A couple of decades ago, when I was a young Reconstructionist (instead of a middle-aged post-Reconstructionist), I coined the phrase "political polytheism" to describe how modern evangelical Christians approach matters of social law and politics. Christians want the Bible for Church and family life, but turn to other gods for…

by James B. JordanJanuary 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Concerning Contracts and Covenants

Gary North has from time to time taken note of some of the differences between contracts and covenants. For him, one of the most important is the oath-character of a covenant. Naturally, the English terms "contract" and "covenant" can be used with varying nuances by different writers, and their zone…

by James B. JordanJanuary 5, 1996
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Biblical Studies

Rethinking the Order of the Old Testament

The Book of Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. The word "canon" means "authoritative list" when used in connection with the Bible. What we call the Hebrew Canon consists of 24 books arranged in three major divisions: the Law, the Prophets, and the…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1995
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Biblical Studies

At The Center of the Book of Kings

by: Peter Leithart and James Jordan The Book of Kings is structured chiastically, or concentrically. To see this clearly, we start in the middle and work our way outward. 2 Kings 3–7 record the central events of the ministry of Elisha. Elisha makes his first appearance in 1 Kings 19:19-21,…

by Peter LeithartNovember 5, 1995
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Judges

Dynastic Aspirations in the Book of Judges

(The following is a supplement to my book, God’s War Against Humanism , a study of the book of Judges, available from Biblical Horizons for $20.00 – a photocopy of the original book, which is now out of print). The turning point in the book of Judges is 8:22-28. Here…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

Doing the Lord’s Supper

From time to time I am asked how I think the Lord’s Supper should be done. This essay is my response to that question. To start with, we should agree that the Lord’s Supper is the only ritual we are obligated to do in the New Covenant on a routine…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1995

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Modernity's Wager

A dam Seligman compares Modernity's Wager to Pascal's: Pascal’s wager of the seventeenth century, of reason for faith, was replaced in the eighteenth century by a wager over the terms of sacrality. Modern culture and politics, I argue, staked its all on the ability to construct an authoritative locus of…

December 16, 2016

Tale of Two Monsters

T imothy Beal ( Religion and Its Monsters ) analyzes Fritz Lang's film Metropolis (1926) as a tale of two monsters. First is “unhindered industry . . . as a cult of human sacrifice to the industrial machine.” The city's “power house” is a “giant, steam-spewing industrial machine . .…

December 16, 2016

Medieval Figures

I n his recent study of figural exegesis, Time and the Word , Ephraim Radner traces the “fate of figural reading.” The Middle Ages form a crucial stage in that history. Drawing on the work of Friedrich Ohly, Radner argues that the “medieval typology was part of a long-standing outlook…

December 16, 2016

Lessons from Alabama

F ellow Alabamian Quin Hillyer says that Trump should pay attention to what's happening in Alabama if he wants to help American workers. Forbes.com rated Mobile America's top mid-sized city for manufacturing growth in 2015, and the growth has come from foreign companies: With 4,200 employees, Austal Shipyards is the…

December 16, 2016

Berkeley's Book of Nature

C ostica Bradatan wants us to attend to The Other Bishop Berkeley . The Berkeley that is most often studied is the one who addresses issues of interest to contemporary philosophy. Bradatan looks instead at Berkeley's sources and the uses he makes of them. From this angle, it becomes apparent…

December 16, 2016

Novel-Reading and Enlightenment

A llison Coudert ( Religion, Magic, and Science in Early Modern Europe and America ) speaks of an “anthropological revolution” taking place in the eighteenth century, as Europeans became optimistic about the future prospects of human evolution and improvement. This was partly the result of assaults on the doctrine of…

December 16, 2016

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