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Writing

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

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Culture

Birmingham Life and Culture Series

There’s something about joy that is infectious. And occasionally, we all have the opportunity to be in someone’s presence who is so happily engaged in their work, so joyous in their pursuits, that we want to learn from them. We want to know where that joy comes from and attain…

by Brian MoatsOctober 23, 2015
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How to Worship

How To Change the World, (Part 1)

Jesus has told us that He intends all nations to be discipled. Nations. Not just individuals. All nations as theocracies. That being the case, the Church exists for the life of the world. Being baptized is not only a matter of becoming part of a new family, it is also…

by James B. JordanOctober 22, 2015
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Literature

Adam, Saul, Macbeth

Harold Bloom’s essay on Macbeth includes the kind of penetrating insights that make Bloom the great Shakespearean scholar that he is, but it also includes his typical and intense anti-Christian bias. “If Lear was pre-Christian, then Macbeth is weirdly post-Christian. There are, as we have seen, Christian intimations that haunt…

by Ralph Allan SmithOctober 20, 2015
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Revelation

Inverted Atonement

Revelation 16 is a day of atonement text. The tabernacle of the testimony has been opened (15:5). The angels who receive the bowls are clothed in linen (15:6), the clothing of the high priest when he goes into the sanctuary on the day of atonement (Leviticus 16:4). The temple is…

by Peter LeithartOctober 15, 2015
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Biblical Studies

Music and Hermeneutics

From time to time, when I’ve lectured on how to read the Bible, I’ve used art-music as one example thereof. When we listen to a simple folk song, we hear the same melody over and over again, but this is not how composers write "high" music. Let me amplify. A…

by James B. JordanOctober 13, 2015
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Biblical Studies

In the Fish: The Church as Tomb

"For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the sea-monster, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth" (Matthew 12:40). Some reflections on Jonah’s Big Fish have led to the following essay. Let me…

by James B. JordanOctober 8, 2015

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Books

Prometheus Bound

Looking at Aeschylus’s Prometheus Bound for an article, I came across this statement: Speaking of the senselessness of men before Prometheus gave them sense, he describes men as “seeing, they saw amiss, and hearing heard not.” The similarity to Jesus’ description of His reasons for telling parables is pretty striking,…

September 17, 2003
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Luke

A Man Under Authority (Luke 7)

Why does the centurion in Luke 7 say that he is a man “under” (Greek, hupo ) authority? It seems more reasonable for him to say that he is a man having authority. And what does he mean when he says “I also (Greek, kai ) am a man under…

September 17, 2003
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Politics

Br’er Rabbit

The Weekly Standard has been playing Br’er Rabbit with the Democrats, publishing several hand-wringing articles worrying over threat posed by Howard Dean to the Bush reelection. “Please, Oh, Please, NOT Howard DEAN! ANYBODY, anybody but Howard DEAN!” The entrance of Wesley Clark into the mix changes the dynamics of the…

September 17, 2003
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Theology

Back to Supra/infra

Back to supra/infra: On reflection, I think the main issue in my rethinking of this has been my hostility to any nature-grace scheme, which seems to be encouraged by the infra position. In the infra framework, creation exists (in the decree of God) as creation, without being considered as the…

September 17, 2003
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Luke

“Sinners” in Luke 6

In Jesus’ sermon in Luke 6, he contrasts the behavior of His disciples with that of “sinners” in a series of three points. Sinners love those who love themselves, but Jesus’ disciples must love enemies. Sinners do good only to those who do good to them, but Jesus’ disciples must…

September 17, 2003
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Ecclesiology

More Notes on The Stranger

( Click here to see previous notes.) Here are the rest of the notes from that upcoming lecture: 2. p 2: “Over the past century, however, the center of gravity in the Christian world has shifted inexorably southward, to Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Already today, the largest Christian communities…

September 17, 2003

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