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Writing

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

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Ephesians

“Be Holy for I am Holy”

Below is an excerpt from Mark Horne’s manuscript from his forthcoming commentary on Ephesians, specifically on Paul’s reference to Christians as “saints” (Ephesians 1:1). “Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, to the saints who are in Ephesus, and are faithful in Christ Jesus.” Paul greets…

by Mark HorneMarch 25, 2025
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Exodus

The Perishable in the Ark of the Covenant

There was nothing in the ark except the two tablets that Moses put there at Horeb, where the LORD made a covenant with the people of Israel, when they came out of Egypt (2 Chronicles 5:10). When Solomon finally brought the ark of the covenant to the finished temple in…

by Jonathan WhiteMarch 18, 2025
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Exodus

The Stages of a Man’s Life and the Second Table of the Law

In As You Like It , Shakespeare famously describes the seven ages of a man’s life. The division of man’s life into stages is not an invention by Shakespeare, nor merely a common medieval artifice, but an expression of the real journey taken in life. Shakespeare seems to divide up…

by Ryan HandermannMarch 13, 2025
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Christology

The Essence of God’s Image

Is there a chief characteristic which best illumines the image of God in Man? What is it exactly that makes Man as a lens through which to see God? Moses thoughtfully and deliberately escorts the reader to the characteristic showcased above all else: humility. Though much ink has been spilled…

by Ben LoveladyMarch 11, 2025
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Liturgy

Two Ways of Being Liturgical: A Baptist Response to the High Church Exodus

Note: This essay is adapted from a talk delivered at the Howell E. Jackson Committee conference on “Foundations of Baptist Education,” held at Union University, Oct. 4-5, 2024. It’s no secret that evangelicals are converting to High Church traditions, a term I will use to refer to Anglo-Catholicism, Roman Catholicism,…

by Ryan SinniMarch 4, 2025
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Icons

Don’t Convert: Icons and Images in the Early Church

In recent years, there has been a flurry of conversions from Protestant Christianity towards Eastern Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism, at least in part due to their supposed early church heritage relative to Protestantism. In the words of Rod Dreher, a former Methodist who converted to Eastern Orthodoxy, “Many evangelicals seek…

by John CarpenterFebruary 25, 2025

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Spirit As Fragrance

Cyril of Alexandria developed an intriguing conception of the Spirit as the “fragrance” of God. The Spirit is “a living and active fragrance from the substance of God, a fragrance that transmits to the creature that which comes from God and ensures participation in the substance which is above all…

March 4, 2004
Biblical Studies

Patristic Dispensationalism

Among the projects that Julian the Apostate took on was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This was intended to deflate Christian apologetics who pointed to the destruction of the temple as a sign of Judaism’s demise and Christianity’s ascendency, both divinely authorized. But there were also Christians who…

March 4, 2004
Literature

Walter Scott

Scott is the romantic’s romantic, and yet his novels display the struggle against romance that is common in early novel-writing ( Don Quixote ; Northanger Abbey ). Edward Waverley , the “hero” of the first of Scott’s novels, goes through various adventures with the Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince…

March 3, 2004
Economics

Culture and Development

Deepak Lal holds the James S. Coleman Professorship of International Development Studies at UCLA, and has produced a fascinating cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural study of the relation of culture and development, Unintended Consequences (Oxford, 1998). Many of his arguments are unpersuasive, but stimulating nonetheless. One of Lal’s main themes is to…

March 3, 2004
Literature

Deep Tragedy

As I’ve thought more about the issues of comedy and tragedy, it has become clear that Christianity not only brings “deep comedy,” but also produces a deepening of tragic sensibility. In one sense, Christianity is utterly opposed to tragedy and its outlook: the religious world of much tragedy with its…

March 3, 2004

Temple Worship in Ecclesiastes

In Ecclesiastes, Solomon repeatedly exhorts his readers to “eat, drink, and rejoice” as a response to the vaporousness of life” “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the…

March 3, 2004

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