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

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Modernity

Protestantism and the Postmodern self

Postmodernism has, we are told, “decentered” the modern self, that unified, sovereign, isolated, godlike “thinking thing” discovered by Rene Descartes. The postmodern self is not single but multiple; not sovereign but controlled by external forces; not isolated but “embedded” in the world and in relation; not godlike, but human, all…

by Peter LeithartMay 6, 2013
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Matthew

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 8)

This is the eighth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 1, 2013
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Augustine

A Cusan Modernity?

The fifteenth-century German Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa led a busy and wide-ranging life. Educated in liberal arts and law at Heidelberg and Padua, Nicholas was a leading figure in the Conciliarist movement, and later served as a papal legate to both Constantinople and throughout Germany. As Bishop of Brixen, he…

by Peter LeithartApril 29, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 7)

This is the seventh in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother; thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a sojourner in his land. The children of the third generation that are born unto them shall enter…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 25, 2013
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Romans

What Advantage the Jew?

A sermon on Romans 3:1-8. 1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. A lot of people speculate here about what kind of advantage Paul is talking…

by Mark HorneApril 22, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 6)

This is the sixth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever: because they met you not with bread and…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 17, 2013

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Treason, Tyranny, Thanks

As early as Xenophon, ingratitude has seen as a cause of sedition, and during the middle ages the social and political context of feudalism strengthened this link. Xenophon wrote, “And they [the Persians] bring one another to trial also charged with an offense for which people hate one another most…

November 24, 2015

Creator and Creature

In a brief 2002 essay on “Creator and Creature,” reprinted in Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics , Robert Jenson admits that “we indeed need to move conceptually outside the biblical narrative as such,” but he argues that common ways of conceptualizing the Creator-creature distinction are self-contradictory, incoherent, or depart from the…

November 23, 2015

Chinese Future?

Is China poised to rule the world? Will its growing economic and political clout fundamentally transform the way the world whirls? Ho-fung Hung ( China Boom ) doesn't think so. On the contrary, China “has both helped to perpetuate the existing U.S.-centered global neoliberal order and reshaped the balance of…

November 23, 2015

Rousseau, Modernity, Music

The contributors to Rousseau and the Dilemmas of Modernity share a skepticism of accounts of “Rousseau the totalitarian” and “Rousseau the illiberal menace.” Positively, they share a conviction that Rousseau has great relevance to present day dilemmas. As editor Mark Hulliung says, “When it comes to whether we can attain…

November 23, 2015

When the World's Gone Crazy

Isaiah 19-20:6 is an oracle against Egypt. It's not good news for Egypt. Egypt will come under a savage king. The following verses evoke the plagues and the passage through the sea: waters dried up (v. 5), canals emit a stench as they did when the fish died in the…

November 20, 2015
Architecture

Pugin the Functionalist

Nikolaus Pevsner ( The Sources of Modern Architecture and Design ) quotes Augustus Welby Northmore Pugin, writing in 1841: “There should be no features about a building which are not necessary for convenience, construction, or propriety . . . The smallest detail should . . . serve a purpose, and…

November 20, 2015

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