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Writing

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

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Ezra

Ezra: The Aaronic Rest-Giver

If you’re a preacher looking for good commentaries on Ezra, you’ll struggle. Certainly to find ones that wrestle in good detail with the text. And certainly ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. There’s a good bit more for Nehemiah, which is odd, as the two are…

by Rhys LavertyJune 8, 2021
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1 John

1 John in Community

Quick thought experiment: try to pretend you’ve never read 1 John before. Read 1:1-6. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Now, on to v. 7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with ______….” What word would you expect in that blank, based…

by Tim NicholsJune 1, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Spending Time with Noah: Reflections on Prepositions in the Flood Narrative

In my work as a Bible translator, I was recently checking our translation team’s draft of Genesis 8:8, which says of Noah (translating the Hebrew quite literally): And he sent out the dove from with him to see: had the waters lessened from upon the face of the ground? Part…

by Josh JensenMay 25, 2021
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Philosophy

Steven Weinberg Destroyed My Faith

Just in case a reader may not know Weinberg, he is a theoretical physicist and the winner of the Nobel prize in physics in 1979, as well as countless other prizes for his research. He is also a prolific, lucid, and captivating writer. If you want to read something on…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 18, 2021
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Colossians

Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:15-20 is a famous passage in Paul’s epistles because it is a succinct and powerful poem. It appears even to have been a hymn. Given the uniquely Pauline language — “reconciliation” is a term used only by Paul — it should not seem odd to attribute the poem/hymn to…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 11, 2021
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Movies

Terror of Knowing Myself

Stalker (1979) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky based on Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It shows a day from the life of a stalker, a man who enters the so-called "Zone", an Alien landing site, where he leads people to a room that grants people’s innermost desires, which…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 4, 2021

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Jesus’ Table Practices

Joel Green points out that the TEXT of Luke actually displays the table practices of Jesus. In Luke 14, the scene is a meal in the home of a leading Pharisee, yet several people show up that we don’t expect to be at the home of a leading Pharisee: Jesus,…

January 11, 2004

Jesus’ Table Practices

Joel Green points out that the TEXT of Luke actually displays the table practices of Jesus. In Luke 14, the scene is a meal in the home of a leading Pharisee, yet several people show up that we don’t expect to be at the home of a leading Pharisee: Jesus,…

January 11, 2004
Theology

No Better Argument

In his splendid Beauty of the Infinite (about which more later), David Hart says something to the effect that “the church has no argument deeper or more basic than Jesus.” That is a remarkably concise way of undercutting a certain kind of theology, one that attempts to establish some kind…

January 10, 2004

Sermon Outline, January 11

Sermon outline, January 11: Table Talk, Luke 14:1-35 INTRODUCTION Meals were central to Jesus’ ministry. He comes “eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34). His meals are not just for refreshment, but are opportunities for teaching and one of Jesus’ key “methods” for forming a new Israel. The people He eats with,…

January 8, 2004
Theology

Miles on God

In the midst of saying some very odd and wacky things, Jack Miles does have some insights to offer in his God: A Biography . Most especially, there’s his notion that the unity of the Bible (he’s dealing with the OT) lies in the fact that it has a single…

January 8, 2004
Literature

Further Thoughts from Steiner

Further thoughts from Steiner, and also inspired by Steiner: 1) The dilemma of tragic drama in the modern world, he claims, was that the two main “ideologies” available (at the time of writing, 1961) are Marxism and Christianity, both of which are “anti-tragic.” 2) Steiner points out that Rousseau, with…

January 7, 2004

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