Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Let us now switch gears and move to a discussion of art, literature, architecture, and music. In English, we speak of "playing" games and also of "playing" musical instruments. There is a connection between the two, in that both involve some degree of pleasure and recreation. At the same time,…
Leviticus 20:22-26 22. And you shall guard all My decrees and all My laws and do them, so that the land will not vomit you out, where I am bringing you thither to live in it. 23. And you shall not walk in the decrees of the nation that I…
For a year or so we have been reading about date rape. It amazes me how many "conservative" commentators have taken the attitude that "boys will be boys," and that it is somehow the girl’s fault if she lets the boy go too far. I have to agree that we…
According to 1 Kings 16:29, Ahab came to the throne of Israel in the 38th year of Asa of Judah, which was the year A.M. 3087. He reigned 22 years, dying in the year 3108. Ahab married a princess of Tyre named Jezebel (Jeze-baal). Under Jezebel’s influence, Ahab turned away…
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Most Christians today, when they hear the phrase "abomination of desolation," think of some political figure who is to arrive on the scene some time in the future, and who will oppress God’s people. More careful exegetes have seen that the prophecies concerning "abomination…
Deuteronomy 17:6 tells us that a matter is to be regarded as established if it is testified by two or three witnesses. One of the most important characteristics of Biblical chronology is that it is very often supported by more than one witness. A case in point is the fact…
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In his book on the hermeticist Hegel, Magee gives this helpful sketch of the differences between gnosticism and hermeticism: “Gnosticism and Hermeticism both believe that a divine ‘spark’ is implanted in man, and that man can come to know God. However, Gnosticism involves an absolutely negative account of creation. It…
In a 2001 book (Cornell), Glenn Magee argues that Hegel must be understood as a hermetic thinker. Hegel claims to have moved beyond the ancient notion of philosophy as “pursuit of wisdom” to an absolute knowledge that is simply identical with wisdom. As Magee says, “Hegel’s claim to have attained…
In After Virtue , Alasdair MacIntyre provides a neat discussion of the virtue and selfhood in Greek antiquity. The unity of ARETE, virtue, “resides . . . in the concept of that which enables a man to discharge his role,” and refers to “excellence of any kind,” whether in a…
One Marc Cohen of the University of Washington, offers this account of the “logos” of Heraclitus in an online lecture outline: First, “There is an orderly, law-governed process of change in the universe. (Compare fragment 80 with Anaximander, who equates strife with injustice; for Heraclitus, strife is justice, and is…
Some selections from Diogenes Laertius’ “Life of Heraclitus, from his “Lives and Opinions of Eminent Philosophers: “He was above all men of a lofty and arrogant spirit, as is plain from his writings, in which he says, ‘Abundant learning does not form the mind; for if it did, it would…
Seigel devotes a fascinating section of his book ( Idea of the Self ) to a summary of Mandeville’s Fable of the Bees , in which Mandeville describes what Kant characterized as the “asocial sociability” of human nature. Social in the sense that even in a natural state, prior to…
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