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Writing

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

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Culture

Consumerism, Oikos, and the Role of Women in the Church

Part 1 We do not understand the role of women in ministry because we do not understand the role of men in ministry. We do not understand the role of men in ministry because we do not understand the church. We do not understand the church because the consumer culture…

by John CarpenterJuly 11, 2023
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Biblical Theology

Genesis’ Beginning Story

1. One structure The Creation account (G1:1-2:4) conspicuously conveys meaning using the literary shape of the text. The narrative is told with formulaic patterns, repetitions, and parallelism. The Garden account is different. It is viewed as a separate text, with its own author, employing its own structure. This second account’s…

by Scott FairbanksJune 28, 2023
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Baptism

Crystalline Baptism

I was reading James Jordan’s Creation in Six Days while also preparing for Trinity Sunday in which the gospel reading is John 3:1-15. As providence would have it Jordan dropped an easter egg for me along the lines of baptism. In chapter 5 he points out, “ On the second…

by Matthew CoreyJune 20, 2023
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Baptism

Christians Should Baptize Their Children, but Not Because of Circumcision

It's true. There is no verse in the New Testament that commands or records an infant baptism. This poses a problem for some Christians. Those who only look for explicit commands, or those whose theology is limited to the New Testament, will conclude that infant baptism is not biblical and…

by Adam McIntoshJune 13, 2023
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Biblical Studies

Polarities

1. Goal This paper’s goal is to identify and describe a literary strategy employed by scripture, namely using two episodes that cover similar territory or themes using details drawn from opposite ends of a number of spectrums. Once described the reader may recognize numerous other instances of this strategy in…

by Scott FairbanksJune 7, 2023
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Deuteronomy

Kind Capital Punishment

Numbers 14 records the tragic story of Israel’s decision to rebel against Yahweh and Moses. Twelve spies had been sent into the land to bring back a report to Israel. All twelve spies agreed: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey”…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 31, 2023

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History

Barnum’s opera

Levine: “In 1853 Putnam’s Magazine had proposed that P. T. Barnum . . . be named the manager of New York’s Opera. ‘He understands what our public wants, and how to gratify that want. He has no foreign antecedents. He is not bullied by the remembrance that they manage so…

October 17, 2006
History

Barnum’s opera

Levine: “In 1853 Putnam’s Magazine had proposed that P. T. Barnum . . . be named the manager of New York’s Opera. ‘He understands what our public wants, and how to gratify that want. He has no foreign antecedents. He is not bullied by the remembrance that they manage so…

October 17, 2006
History

Popular opera

In his Highbrow/Lowbrow , Lawrence Levine writes that “it is hard to exaggerate the ubiquity of operatic music in nineteenth-century America. In 1861 a band played music from Rigoletto to accompany the inauguration of President Lincoln. In the midst of the Civil War a soldier in the Twenty-fourth Massachusetts Volunteer…

October 17, 2006

Musical and Poetic Rhythms

Victor Zuckerkandl points out that Western music since the 17th century has been measured music, that is, music in which beats are organized into groups, into measures. This innovation in musical organization creates a complex rhythmic situation. At one level, there is a recognizable beat running through a piece of…

October 17, 2006
Theology

Art and Necessity

Some quite random highlights from Milbank’s very rich essay review of Rowan Williams’s Art and Necessity , published in Modern Theology . 1) Milbank makes a numerb of illuminating points about Aquinas’s theory of knowledge, supporting some aspects of Maritain’s Thomism. Instead of addressing the strictly “epistemological” question of how…

October 16, 2006

Sermon outline

This overlaps considerably with previous posts. INTRODUCTION According to John’s description, the world is formed by various “lusts” or desires, and by “pride” and “boasting.” We can respond faithfully to the world only when we discern the desires that shape the world and the desires and boasting provoked by the…

October 16, 2006

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