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Writing

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

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Music

The Case for Shorter Hymnals

I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are. Much shorter. 100 hymns at most, let’s say. I imagine that this will be a hard one to swallow for most of my readers, so I will attempt to bolster my argument as best I can. I can’t think of any…

by John AhernNovember 16, 2021
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Hermeneutics

King Joshua and the Christian

Joshua is never called a king in the Bible. Yet while lacking the title, Joshua possesses the trappings of biblical kingship to a degree that it seems warranted to consider him a royal figure. There are lots of reasons for thinking this. In a 1981 Journal of Biblical Literature article,…

by Daniel HoffmanNovember 9, 2021
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Language

The Liturgy of Language

God speaks. He is not silent. He has designed humanity for reception of such communication and also to speak on His behalf. This speaking is not simply happenstance. It is not just a curious quirk about humanity. It is intrinsic to who we are that we speak and shape the…

by Chase DavisNovember 2, 2021
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Practicing Repentance

One evening, years ago, home from college for Christmas break, I dreamt that I was playing the piano, passionately and well, in the church sanctuary beneath the parsonage in the renovated mansion in rural New Hampshire where my father was the minister. It was something of a lucid dream because…

by Garrett SoucyOctober 26, 2021
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Anxiety

Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled

I’m a big worrier. Always have been. Some of my earliest memories are of being anxious to the point of getting sick, sometimes for trivial reasons. My mind moves a million miles a minute, wondering what will happen in 5 minutes, or tomorrow, or next week, or in ten years.…

by MargaretAnn HesterOctober 21, 2021
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Biblical Studies

“But Lot’s Wife Behind Him”: Translating a Conjunction in the Sodom Story

“The sun had gone up on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD from heaven, and he devastated those cities and the whole valley and all those dwelling in the cities and the growth of…

by Josh JensenOctober 19, 2021

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Medieval Debates on Atonement

In a footnote to the aforementioned article, Muller briefly discusses the medieval debates about the atonement. He points out that the medieval doctors stressed the passive obedience almost to the exclusion of the active; the active obedience was merely preparatory, making Christ acceptable or meritorious as a sacrifice. So, the…

October 18, 2003

Rhyming History

I came across this from Mark Twain today: “History does not repeat itself but it does rhyme.”

October 18, 2003

Arminius’s Christology

I finally got my mitts on Richard Muller’s article on the Christology of Jacob Arminius (published in the Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiendenis , 1988). Here is a summary of some of the salient points. In the years leading up to Dordt, Arminius debated the Reformed theologians on both predestination and…

October 18, 2003

Arminius’s Christology

I finally got my mitts on Richard Muller’s article on the Christology of Jacob Arminius (published in the Nederlands Archief voor Kerkgeschiendenis , 1988). Here is a summary of some of the salient points. In the years leading up to Dordt, Arminius debated the Reformed theologians on both predestination and…

October 18, 2003
Art

The Visual

Early in his book, Sound and Symbol: Music and the External World , Victor Zuckerkandl is contrasting the phenomenology of sight and sound, and says this about the Greek emphasis on the visual: “It seems more than mere change that it was among a people so deeply anchored in the…

October 17, 2003
Literature

Ragnarok

In his brief story, “Ragnarok,” Borges tells a dream of an election taking place in the School of Philosophy and Letters that was interrupted by the coming of the gods. His description of the gods is wonderful: “A voice shouted ‘Here they come!’ and then ‘The Gods! The Gods!’ Four…

October 17, 2003

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