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abortion
Abortion

Letters on Abortion, (Part 1)

What is below is fairly self-explanatory. This is an exchange I had with a local liberal clergyman on the subject of abortion. The circumstances of the debate are included in the text itself. I initially e-mailed this out to a list of clergy in our city after a local (and…

by Richard BledsoeNovember 17, 2015
wall-2
Ezra

The Perfumed Butler and the Wisdom of Civil Obedience

The seemingly humdrum parts of the Bible often hide overlooked wisdom. Take, for example, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Their stories aren't exactly the most gripping or memorable. They are far less concrete than, say, the story of the Exodus. No one in Ezra is stricken blind or devoured…

by Christian LeithartNovember 10, 2015
sparkler
Happiness

"Happy! Happy! Happy!" Authentic Happiness and Its Knock-Offs

For most of the past century, philosophical perspectives on life in the western world have been overtly grim and pessimistic. The optimism of the Enlightenment, generated by confidence in the scientific method and the potential of an increasingly civilized humanity to redress the evils of the world, was shattered by…

by Bill DeJongNovember 5, 2015
aaron-burden-1ebsmyrau-s-unsplash
Hermeneutics

How Does a Chiasm Mean?

Chiastic structures are found all over the Bible, and in recent decades commentators have become more adept at spotting them. But identifying these literary structures is only part of the challenge. There remains the challenge of understanding what they mean. Part of the answer is found in the recognition that…

by Steve JefferyNovember 3, 2015
last-supper
Eucharist

How To Change the World, (Part 2)

Part 1 can be found HERE . Clearly, more than just getting worship right is important in changing the world, but since worship is the central act of God’s people, performed on the first day of the week at the center of the world before the very face of God,…

by James B. JordanOctober 29, 2015
solomonsidolatry
Biblical Theology

Big Love: A History of Stolen Fruit

“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed.” ( Luke 11:27 ) Arguing for Christian morality in a secular society is difficult. A culture which accepts evolutionary dogma has no intellectual place — or inherent desire — for absolute morality, since it believes morality…

by Mike BullOctober 27, 2015

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Man Must Teach

Rosenstock-Huessy’s essay “Man Must Teach” begins as an analysis of Augustine’s dialogue with his son Adeodatus, the De Magistro , and then broadens out to a treatment of teaching as a paradigmatic social relation, as well as a treatment of the social construction of time. One of the key moves…

October 19, 2015

Tradition and the Theological Virtues

“There is a subtle intrigue going on between the generations,” writes Otto Kroesen in Planetary Responsibilities (120). “It is an intrigue of separating from, and inheriting, and convincing, and letting go of each other.” The recurring question is “whether only one generation can be the owner of the truth and…

October 19, 2015

Showing

The verb deiknuo , “show,” is used eight times in Revelation. Four of the uses are at the seams of the book, at the beginning of each new in-Spirit vision: 1. Jesus has been given to show John what must shortly take place (1:1). 2. When John sees a door…

October 19, 2015

Tradition and the Spirit

As long as the apostles were alive, writes Robert Jenson, churches could check their understanding of the gospel by asking the living apostles: “Is this the gospel?” Once they died, the church needed something to mediate the apostolic witness: “her self-identity as the church of the apostles would not be…

October 19, 2015

The Happening

Revelation begins (1:1, 19) with the announcement that God showed His bondservants what will soon “happen” or “become” ( ginomai ). It ends on the same note (22:6). What is it that happens? Judging from the scattered twenty-six uses of the verb ginomai , the happening that God unveils is…

October 16, 2015

Circles from the Sky

When the seventh bowl is poured out on the air, the world collapses. The throne of God comes to earth, flashing and thundering and shaking the earth until everything that cannot stand collapses. Cities fall, islands run away, mountains disappear. And hailstones weighing a talent ( talantiaia ) fall to…

October 16, 2015

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