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

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Hermeneutics

Hermeneutical Polytheism

A couple of decades ago, when I was a young Reconstructionist (instead of a middle-aged post-Reconstructionist), I coined the phrase "political polytheism" to describe how modern evangelical Christians approach matters of social law and politics. Christians want the Bible for Church and family life, but turn to other gods for…

by James B. JordanJanuary 28, 1996
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Biblical Horizons

Concerning Contracts and Covenants

Gary North has from time to time taken note of some of the differences between contracts and covenants. For him, one of the most important is the oath-character of a covenant. Naturally, the English terms "contract" and "covenant" can be used with varying nuances by different writers, and their zone…

by James B. JordanJanuary 5, 1996
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Biblical Studies

Rethinking the Order of the Old Testament

The Book of Chronicles is the last book in the Hebrew Canon of the Old Testament. The word "canon" means "authoritative list" when used in connection with the Bible. What we call the Hebrew Canon consists of 24 books arranged in three major divisions: the Law, the Prophets, and the…

by James B. JordanDecember 28, 1995
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Biblical Studies

At The Center of the Book of Kings

by: Peter Leithart and James Jordan The Book of Kings is structured chiastically, or concentrically. To see this clearly, we start in the middle and work our way outward. 2 Kings 3–7 record the central events of the ministry of Elisha. Elisha makes his first appearance in 1 Kings 19:19-21,…

by Peter LeithartNovember 5, 1995
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Judges

Dynastic Aspirations in the Book of Judges

(The following is a supplement to my book, God’s War Against Humanism , a study of the book of Judges, available from Biblical Horizons for $20.00 – a photocopy of the original book, which is now out of print). The turning point in the book of Judges is 8:22-28. Here…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

Doing the Lord’s Supper

From time to time I am asked how I think the Lord’s Supper should be done. This essay is my response to that question. To start with, we should agree that the Lord’s Supper is the only ritual we are obligated to do in the New Covenant on a routine…

by James B. JordanNovember 5, 1995

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Philosophy

Structuralism’s nihilism

A discarded fragment from a larger paper. Structuralism arose from the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure. He distinguished between the langue, the system of a language, and the parole, the particular utterances of a language. There is a circular relationship between them, since no parole makes sense unless there…

March 4, 2006
Philosophy

Structuralism’s nihilism

A discarded fragment from a larger paper. Structuralism arose from the linguistic theories of Ferdinand de Saussure. He distinguished between the langue, the system of a language, and the parole, the particular utterances of a language. There is a circular relationship between them, since no parole makes sense unless there…

March 4, 2006
Philosophy

Descartes’ city

Margaret Jacobs summarizes what she describes as “one of the most powerful metaphors in the Discourse : Descartes repudiates the wisdom of the ages, comparing it to those ‘old cities’ build on the foundations of ancient and medieval ruins. With a vision one imagines as shaped by the ordered and…

March 3, 2006
Philosophy

Descartes’ city

Margaret Jacobs summarizes what she describes as “one of the most powerful metaphors in the Discourse : Descartes repudiates the wisdom of the ages, comparing it to those ‘old cities’ build on the foundations of ancient and medieval ruins. With a vision one imagines as shaped by the ordered and…

March 3, 2006
Philosophy

Descartes, Melville, and the Nihilism of Modernity

That’s quite a weighty title for a small thought. Melville’s Ahab says that the world is nothing but a pasteboard mask, and all the colors of the world, its variety of shapes and its beauties, are nothing but a harlot’s painting on a more essential blankness, a whiteness like the…

March 2, 2006
Philosophy

Descartes’ Hermeticism

Some paragraphs from an illuminating paper by Michael Allen Gillespie concerning Descartes’ links with Rosicrucians: “The Rosicrucians were essentially a Hermetic society that sought to understand the hidden order of nature in order to gain power over and through it. Agrippa, for example, wrote in 1655 that for ‘a magician…

March 2, 2006

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