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Writing

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

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Biblical Horizons

Gordon Wenham on Ritual

In a brief article entitled, “The Theology of Old Testament Sacrifice," Gordon Wenham, expanding on a comment about ritual from anthropologist Monica Wilson, states: We resort to ritual when we want to express our deepest feelings. Consider the rituals used in greeting people in our society: a nod, a handshake,…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

A Postscript to the Meyers Thesis

Everyone here in Cambridge is talking about sacrifice. My supervisor, Dr. John Milbank, is working on a book on gift in which he is dealing with recent literature on sacrifice. The graduate seminar in Systematics during Michaelmas Term focused on the theme of sacrifice. The first presenter was Dr. Ian…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Baptism

Sacramental Efficacy

Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato , virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the hocus-pocus and "presto!" the sacraments confer grace.…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 26, 1995
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Exodus

Mansions in the Sky, The Meaning of the Tabernacle

When Israel came out of Egypt, she was a collection of tribes descended from the Tribe of Abraham. Tribalism drops out of history into the "world" by looking back to ancestors and by orienting to the spirits that govern the world. The world must not be manipulated, because to do…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Revelation

The Angels of Revelation

Angels are the mediators of the Old Creation, as Eugenio Corsini has rightly pointed out in his commentary, The Apocalypse. For this reason, argues Corsini, the book of Revelation must have to do with the final end of the Old Creation order, which he associates with the work of Jesus…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

Triune Revelation and Through New Eyes Volume 2

Our procedure in "Through New Eyes Volume 2" thus far has been to lay out the general overview of history and its meaning as the Bible presents it. My hope is to fill this out in four major sections, corresponding to the four ages and the four testaments in the…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995

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Naaman the convert

Naaman is the epitome of the natural man: Powerful, successful, and convinced that he can use his clout and wealth to purchase just about anything. He believes that Syria has the best rivers. He is also a leper, estranged from God and from God’s prophet. 2 Kings 5 is the…

June 24, 2005
Media

Power and Celebrity

In his 1999 book, How the News Makes Us Dumb , C. John Sommerville wisely notes the difference between power and celebrity. He notes that news is a product, determined by “what publishers think they can get us interested in and get us to pay for.” There’s no reason, then,…

June 22, 2005

More on Hart, The Beauty of the Infinite

Hart, Beauty of the Infinite Part 2, section I: Trinity Proposition 3: The Christian God shows the beauty of the infinite, and thus can be “traversed” by way of beauty. i. Desire’s Flight. God, Hart suggests is “all” but not a totality. That is, He is not a pantheistic all,…

June 22, 2005

Translation, 2 Kings 9

Now ‘Eliysha’ the prophet called to one from the sons of the prophets And he said to him, “Tie your loins And take a flask of this oil in your hand And go/walk to Ramot Gil’ad. And you enter there And you see there Yehu’ son of Jehoshafat son of…

June 21, 2005

Eucharistic meditation, June 19

2 Kings 4:42: “Now a man came from Baal-shalishah and brought the man of God bread of the firstfruits, twenty loaves of barley and fresh ears of grain in his sack.” One of the similarities between these two brief stories is that both are stories of gathering, bringing, and feeding.…

June 19, 2005

Exhortation, June 19

In our sermon text, an indebted widow appeals to Elisha for deliverance from creditors, and he responds by telling her to fill vessels with oil from a single jar. The supply of oil lasts as long as she has vessels to fill. She sells the oil and with the proceeds…

June 19, 2005

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