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Writing

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

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American Culture

Arts & Play, Part 2

Gambling The Bible nowhere condemns gambling, and so we need to be careful in our assessment of it. Let me begin by making a strong case against gambling. Then I will surprise most readers by pointing out that gambling may not always be sinful. The reader should bear in mind…

by James B. JordanNovember 22, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard

Tim Powers, The Stress of Her Regard (Ace Books, 1991). Reviewed by Jeffrey Meyers. Tim Power’s latest novel is now available in paperback. The story is set in early nineteenth century England and Italy, in the world of the poets John Keats, Percy Shelley, and Lord Byron. Michael Crawford, a…

by Jeff MeyersNovember 5, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

What About Boycotting?

A close supporter of Biblical Horizons asks whether it is proper and wise to get involved in all the boycotts that Christians are being asked to observe today. She raises the point that Paul’s advice about eating meat sacrificed to idols seems relevant to the discussion. I think she is…

by James B. JordanOctober 22, 1991
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Biblical Chronology

Chronologies and Kings, Part 4: Solomon’s Disastrous Geopolitics

Solomon began to build the Temple of the Lord in the fourth year of his reign, which was 480 years after Israel came out of Egypt, the year A.M. 2993 (1 Kings 6:1). Seven years later, in the year A.M. 3000, the Temple building was finished (1 Kings 6:38). The…

by James B. JordanOctober 22, 1991
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Baptism

What Is a Sacrament? Some Problems of Definition

Several months back, a candidate for ordination was being examined for entrance into the Presbytery of which I am a member. The candidate had a good deal of trouble with the exam on the sacraments, stumbling badly as he tried to define the "nature of the sacrament." Apparently in an…

by Peter LeithartOctober 14, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

The Mabelized Church

Exploring the influence of televangelism on American religion in his book, The Struggle for America’s Soul , Princeton sociologist Robert Wuthnow presents a typical, though hypothetical, case study: Mabel Miller. Mabel lives alone, thousands of miles from her family. She grew up in a Baptist Church, but now, approaching 65,…

by Peter LeithartOctober 13, 1991

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History

Painting and landscape

Following the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, young English noblemen began traveling the continent in what became known as the Grand Tour. Along the way, the came across Italian landscape painters, and went home dreaming of turning England into little Italy. Maggie Lane writes, “The desire was awakened to create…

August 17, 2007
History

Enclosure and landscape

Most of England’s enclosure acts were passed between 1760 and 1815, and the acts transformed the British landscape. Before enclosure, yeoman farmers lived in villages, and trudged each day to their scattered strips of land to work. Before enclosure, according to Maggie Lane, “one-third of the land enclosed in England…

August 17, 2007
Literature

Dickens, mythologist

Chesterton admits that Dickens’s characters neither affect nor are affected by time or circumstances. This is, he says, because Dickens was constructing myths rather than novels: “Dickens was a mythologist rather than a novelist; he was the last of the mythologists, and perhaps the greatest. He did not always manage…

August 17, 2007

Proverbs 19:5-9

PROVERBS 19:5, 9 In this, the Proverb reiterates the threats of the Torah, which warns against false witness and false oaths (Leviticus 19:12; Deuteronomy 17:6-7). These two verses are almost identical. Both begin with “A false witness will not go unpunished,” and in the second line both use the phrase…

August 17, 2007
History

From ascribed to attributed celebrity

Rojek again: He claims that the story of celebrity over the past two centuries has been a shift from ascribed (hereditary) to attributed celebrity. Though some achieved international fame in earlier times, “they were always under strong pressures to conform to the established procedures and conventions set by the Court.”…

August 17, 2007
History

Cool

In their book, Cool Rules , Dick Pountain and David Robins define cool as “a permanent state of private rebellion,” one which “conceals its rebellion behind an ironic impassivity.”

August 17, 2007

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