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Writing

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

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Apologetics

Christianity: Who Needs It?

Evangelistic Message to the Uninformed: 1 Timothy 3.14-16 Even though this is written as a sermon for delivery, and even though it was preached in a homiletics class, I decided I can’t post it as a sermon because it was not truly preached at a place where nonchristians wanted to…

by Mark HorneMay 7, 2024
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Acts

Jesus’ Post-Resurrection Appearances

If we only read the Gospels of Mark and Luke, we might get the impression that Jesus’ ascension was on resurrection Sunday. Matthew speaks of going to Galilee but he does not put things into a clear time frame. John shows us that Jesus appeared to the disciples eight days…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 1, 2024
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Biblical Studies

The Bible and Western Literature

The most cursory glance at the history of Western literature reveals that it has been deeply influenced by the Bible. Some of the greatest classics of Western literature draw their plots, characters, and ideas largely from Scripture; Dante’s Divine Comedy and Milton’s Paradise Lost are two of the most notable…

by Peter LeithartApril 24, 2024
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Biblical Theology

Inglorious Bastards

Few themes emerge as profoundly and persistently in the streams of biblical narrative as the conflict between light and darkness, and the juxtaposition of humanity with monstrosity. These themes not only weave through the fabric of Scripture, emerging in stories from Genesis to Revelation, but also stitch together the human…

by Kyle LammottApril 17, 2024
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Luke

Mary Magdalene: Sister, Sinner, Saint

In John Wenham’s work, Easter Enigma , he devotes an entire chapter to Mary Magdalene, which is rephrased and summarized here. 1 One of the interesting things that Wenham said was that Mary Magdalene was the second “most favored woman in the Bible.” 2 He adds, “Yet apart from a…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 9, 2024
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Daily Mutual Encouragement

God made man to live in a larger relational context, and even in high rebellion, man cannot escape his created nature. Instead, that nature takes revenge on rebellious man. Autonomous and alone, the self craves absolution but recognizes no authority that might give it; it thirsts for glory but rejects…

by Tim NicholsApril 4, 2024

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The Living and the Dead

W hen New Haven's New Burying Ground was set up in the 1790s, it marked a revolution in cemetery planning. It was outside of town, neatly organized into family plots and class clusters. Yale President Timothy Dwight thought it unique in the world, and gave a rationale for its design:…

August 5, 2016

Addicted to Autonomy

I n his book on Hands , Darian Leader notes the “paradox at the heart of the modern notions of agency and choice.” We strive for autonomy and self-determination, but this “obligation to be free and to make our own choices is framed within a network of imperatives that come…

August 5, 2016

Marketing Crafts

C ontemporary technologies threaten to suck us into virtual reality, and in response many have turned to real reality, to hand-crafts that link us to this worldly stuff. As Darian Leader ( Hands , 13-13) puts it, “We are encouraged to counter our apparent alienation in the excesses of the…

August 5, 2016
Baptism

Meeting Us Where We Are

I n his book on The Gospel Commission , Michael Horton includes several insightful pages on baptism. “Like circumcision,” he writes, “baptism is represented in the New testament as God's decision and claim on us. Although it obligates us to respond in faith and obedience, baptism is God's sign and…

August 5, 2016

Pro Rege et Patria

F ollowing Henri de Lubac's studies in medieval Eucharistic theology, Ernst Kantorowicz traces the development of a sacralized-secular politics in the later medieval period, as ecclesiological principles were applied to national politics. Lucas de Penna drew a direct line from the church as mystical body to the political body: “The…

August 5, 2016

Stephen Masty, RIP

I don't recall if I ever met Stephen Masty but I had heard his name for many years. My brother and brother-in-law were at school with him at Hillsdale College, but until I read his obituary in the Hillsdale alumni magazine recently I hadn't conceived of what a big life…

August 5, 2016

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