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Writing

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

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Books

Let us Fix the World: An Admonition from the Strugatsky Brothers

That there is something wrong with the world is obvious. It does not take much time or brilliance to notice it. Once we get the feeling that we could imagine a better world, we are tempted to fix it or, if we cannot, to escape it. For both the world-fixers…

by Bogumil JarmulakApril 6, 2021
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Prayer

The Lord’s Prayer Exposited

“Our Father in heaven,” what is man that we should be called your sons and daughters, beloved children of God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, Yahweh of Hosts, the Ancient of Days. You are not a father preoccupied with work or engrossed in your smartphone; you are a present…

by Drew KnowlesMarch 30, 2021
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Pastoral Ministry

Pastoral Reflections on Purity Laws

The Son of God took on human flesh and entered into the sin and suffering of our world. His life and teaching and suffering from His conception to His suffering on the cross teaches us a lot about how the good news enters into the world. Recently, I was teaching…

by Nathan ZekveldMarch 23, 2021
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Hermeneutics

The Ass and the Messiah

There is an unspoken rule about typology that permeates Evangelical thinking. It goes something like this: “If the New Testament authors don’t use an Old Testament character as a type, we don’t either.” There is a soundness in this reasoning, at least in a preliminary sense. There is no better…

by Garrett SoucyMarch 16, 2021
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Church Calendar

The Sound of Silence

In The world of Silence, Max Picard writes, “There does not seem to be any space left where there could possibly have been anything but noise. We take it for granted much as we take the air itself for granted. Everything begins and ends with noise.” Is it fair to…

by Jacob SkogenMarch 9, 2021
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Hermeneutics

The Absent Presence of God: The Storied Theology of Esther for the Modern Age

God is Not There God is not in the book of Esther. Do a word search and you will get 0 results. Also try Lord, Yahweh, Prayer, Temple, or Sacrifice. Even names with God’s name in them, like Elijah, Jeremiah, or Daniel are missing. The fool says in his heart,…

by Ryan HandermannMarch 4, 2021

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Economics and Work

Modernity, especially as theorized in modern economics, treats work as "instrumental to the acquisition of goods" (Stephen Marglin, The Dismal Science , 44). Modernity "closes off thinking of hard work as something other than drudgery" (43). As a counterpoint, Marglin calls attention to work in Amish communities: "In physical terms,…

March 23, 2018

Greater Father?

"The Father is greater than I," says Jesus (John 14:28). Eunomius uses this to prove the ontological interiority of the Son. Basil of Caesarea rejects that reading, of course. But his way of rejecting it is worth attending to. He doesn't claim that Jesus is talking about His inferiority as…

March 23, 2018

Secularization Theory As Contestant

Ian Hunter argues that "secularization" as "transition from divine reverencing to rational autonomy" didn't happen during the centuries after Reformation. Confessional Christianity didn't disappear but was more deeply entrenched during that time. "Secular" referred not to the imposition or incursion of rational atheism but to the formation of purely political…

March 22, 2018

Simplicity’s Not So Simple

Is God simple? Christian theologians from the Cappadocians to Aquinas and beyond said Yes. But we need to probe this consensus: Did they mean the same thing by saying Yes? Andrew Radde-Gallwitz says No ( Basil of Caesarea, Gregory of Nyssa, and the Transformation of Divine Simplicity ). What is…

March 22, 2018

Confessionalization v. Secularization

In a debunking paper on "secularization" and the "secular," Ian Hunter argues that "nobody in early modernity spoke of secularization in terms of a transition from divine reverencing to rational autonomy, but also that there is no evidence of such a transition taking place there and, further, that there is…

March 21, 2018

Disdain for Lesser Talent

Richard Spady's eye-opening piece in First Things examines the consequences that follow when economics becomes an ideology, that is, when economics "will­fully projects its own first principles on its subject matter and actively seeks, perhaps unconsciously, material changes to bring social realities into conformity with these first principles." He offers…

March 20, 2018

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