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Writing

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

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Art

Toward a Biblical Definition of Obscenity

My copy of Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (1976: not so new, really) defines obscene as (1) "disgusting to the senses; repulsive" and (2) "abhorrent to morality or virtue; specif: designed to incite lust or depravity." Definitions such as this serve a useful purpose only when there is agreement on what…

by Peter LeithartMay 30, 1991
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Biblical Studies

The Abomination of Desolation, Part 1

An Overview Here begins a series of studies in the Abomination of Desolation, or Desolating Sacrilege. This month and next I shall set out an overview of what I regard as the best interpretation of the phenomenon. Later essays will look at it in more detail. (The original form of…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Studies

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 12

29. There are three things that are stately in their march, Even four that are stately when they walk: 30. The lion is mighty among beasts And does not turn back before any, 31. The strutting cock, The male goat, And a king with his army around him. 32. If…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Studies

The Chronology of Ezra & Nehemiah, Part 4

We have seen that it is likely that the Artaxerxes of Ezra-Nehemiah is the same as Darius the Great. If this solution be correct, and I think it is, possibly there is another problem in Ezra that can be resolved by it. In Ezra 4:6 we are told that "in…

by James B. JordanMay 22, 1991
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Biblical Horizons

The Weight of Being

Czech novelist Milan Kundera, though hardly a household name in the English-speaking world, has achieved a certain notoriety in America in recent years, largely on the strength of the English translation and film version of his novel, The Unbearable Lightness of Being. 1 The Unbearable Lightness of Being — the…

by Peter LeithartMay 6, 1991
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Proverbs

Advice From a Sojourner, Part 11

24. Four things are small on the earth, But they are exceedingly wise; 25. The ants are not a strong folk, But they prepare their food in the summer; 26. The coneys are not a mighty folk, Yet they make their houses in the rocks; 27. The locusts have no…

by James B. JordanApril 22, 1991

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General Hermeneutics

What’s needed is not a general hermeneutics developed from some philosophy of language or metaphysics. Rather, what’s needed is a general hermeneutics developed from the premise that NT readings of the OT do not represent some bizarre exception to the normal way of reading but provide a model for all…

January 9, 2006

Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday After Epiphany

Ecclesiastes 3:14: I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. We saw in the sermon this morning that God has designed the world so…

January 8, 2006

God does everything fitting

God is the lead partner in the dance of life; we’re called to follow Him gracefully. But we don’t know whether it’s a waltz or the Charleston, and we don’t know what the next step will be. God is singing the melody that we are supposed to harmonize; but we…

January 8, 2006

Exhortation, First Sunday after Epiphany

God’s people are a missionary people, and this is not true only of the New Testament church. God called Abraham to bless the Gentiles through him, and one of Israel’s recurring sins was her failure to carry out this mission. Israel was supposed evoke praise from the Gentiles, but instead…

January 8, 2006

Justification by blame

Trollope makes a neat Girardian point in Barchester Towers: “Wise people, when they are in the wrong, always put themselves in the right by finding fault with the people against whom they have sinned.”

January 7, 2006
Philosophy

PostmodernismS

In Missional Church (1998; edited by Darrell Guder), Craig Van Gelder offers a helpful summary of the various meanings of postmodernism: 1) Economic: For Frederic Jameson and others, postmodernism is marked primarily by a shift to a globalized and consumer-oriented form of capitalism: “In the postmodern condition, all of life…

January 7, 2006

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