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Writing

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

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American Culture

Gerazim and Ebal

Place names become fraught with meaning by association with people and events. The name “Wittenberg” calls to mind Luther and the Reformation for Protestants and Catholics alike. Geneva has a wider range of associations, but the Reformation Wall, with its four main statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza,…

by Ralph Allan SmithFebruary 16, 2017
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Art

Tomboys and Totems

“…a mystery without a solution, a horror story without savagery, a nightmare in which all the watches stop at noonday…” The Bestial Gardens of Men Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (Luke 23:30) The following lines by Edgar Allan Poe,…

by Mike BullFebruary 14, 2017
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Biblical Studies

The Structure and Typology of the Bathsheba Incident

2 Samuel 11-12, which record David’s sin with Bathsheba and its aftermath, is structured chiastically: This arrangement highlights several things about the episode. It reinforces what is obvious from even a casual reading, that the transition in the story occurs with Nathan’s confrontation of David’s sin and David’s confession. Up…

by James B. JordanFebruary 8, 2017
bestiary
Anthropology

Anthropomorphism and Christian Humanism

Medieval bestiaries are packed with quaintly inaccurate information about animals, birds, and other created things. Foxes and snakes are devilish critters; stags, pelicans and elephants are Christlike in their various ways. Of course, the medievals picked this up from the Bible, where bestiary observations are fairly common. “Go to the…

by Peter LeithartFebruary 2, 2017
beer
Beer

The End of Beerocracy

What do Reformational Catholicism and craft beer have in common? The question seems to beg for a punchline. Better yet, it would be pretty good clickbait for an article on Katharina von Bora’s “spirited” contribution that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. Well, this is no joke and I am certainly…

by John CrawfordJanuary 31, 2017
calvin
Pastoral Ministry

Calvin and Pastoral Care

Suffering Defined Suffering happens. We witness it all around us and experience it in our lives. It often comes from forces beyond our control. Suffering is inscrutable; it strikes unexpectedly, on a bright summer day or a cold winter night. We lament and are bewildered by suffering. But we are…

by Uri BritoJanuary 26, 2017

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Philosophy

Augustine’s Decentered Self

Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality…

June 23, 2006
Philosophy

Augustine’s Decentered Self

Maguire again, this time describing Augustine’s idea of memory and self: “This dynamism of relation, manifest above all in the way that God’s love permits the love of creatures for God, and the love among creatures through God, is for Augustine the ‘ground’ of the self’s unity. That this relationality…

June 23, 2006

Blogs and the Reformation

In a characteristically thoughtful meditation on the strengths and weakness of blogs (on the Books and Culture site), Alan Jacobs includes these reflections from CS Lewis: “As I think about these architectural deficiencies [of blogs], and the deficiencies of my own character, I find myself meditating on a passage from…

June 23, 2006
History

Constructive knowledge

In his fascinating study, The Conversion of Imagination, Matthew Maguire offers notes that “imagination is not always best understood as an emancipatory faculty that moves separately from or against scientific rationality.” Rather, citing the work of Amos Funkenstein, Maguire suggests that “a variant of exalted imagination - that is, one…

June 23, 2006

St Charles and St John

“When the Church and Monarchy were restored on 19 May, 1660, Canterbury and York, being the two primacies of the Church of England, assembled their convocations and canonized King Charles, adding his name to the ecclesiastical calendar in the Book of Common Prayer. In the time of Queen Victoria this…

June 23, 2006

Sermon Outline, June 25

INTRODUCTION After Hilkiah finds the book of the law in the temple, Josiah embarks on a thorough reform of Judah’s worship. But his reformation extends beyond the borders of Judah; Josiah not only reverses the sins of the kinds of the South but the sin of Jeroboam the son of…

June 22, 2006

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