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

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Epistemology

A Cheer for the Mystics

Mystical theologians are often unguarded, extreme, un-nuanced, pressing to the edges of heresy, sometimes beyond. Still, the mystics are worthy of study. Why? Many reasons. Unlike some late medieval and post-Reformation dogmaticians, mystical theologians are often instinctively and richly Trinitarian. Historical-critical approaches to Scripture left mystical theologians virtually untouched; mystics…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 2, 2013
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Literature

Shadow and Substance in Shakespeare's Venice

Portia of Belmont is a “lady richly left,” as Bassanio says of her in the first Act of The Merchant of Venice . Plus, she’s beautiful and wise. Suitors clamber to Belmont in hope. Her father knew it would be so, and in his will set up a fairy-tale test…

by Peter LeithartAugust 28, 2013
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Liturgy

Liturgy Traps

[fve]http://vimeo.com/72195198[/fve]

by James B. JordanAugust 26, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Victory Food

In the nature of the case, “the” Christian meditation on Deuteronomy 14:1-21 cannot be written. Meditation offers too many possibilities, opens too many doors. There is not one and only one correct set of associations for a Christian to consider when thinking of Deuteronomy 14:1-21. We could, for example, consider…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 21, 2013
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Romans

David's Sin and Israel's Salvation, Part I

Having retold the story of the cumulative sin of Israel leading to the great atonement on the cross, Paul then reemphasizes that, just as both Jew and Gentiles were locked into sin and judgment, now they are both justified by faith: Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.…

by Mark HorneAugust 20, 2013
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Deuteronomy

You are what you eat

Deuteronomy 14 is full of allusions to events of Israel’s history and other portions of Scripture. What would an Israelite learn by mediation on these allusions? The answer, I believe, is at least fourfold. Faith, Worship, War For the ancient Israelite first hearing Moses’ sermon, or perhaps hearing it read…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 15, 2013

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Covenant: Legal or Filial?

Is the covenant between God and His people more or less strictly legal, a contractual relationship of Lord to servant? Or does it describe an ordered relationship of filial love, a relationship of Father and Son? The parable of the “prodigal son” sheds some light. Brendan Byrne points out that…

February 21, 2005

Adam and the Tree of Knowledge

Would Adam have been admitted to eat from the tree of knowledge if he had kept the probation in the garden? Jim Jordan has argued from hints in Genesis 1-3 that the answer is Yes. Perhaps there’s also some further hint in Matthew 4:1-11. Jesus goes into the wilderness, and…

February 21, 2005

Eucharistic Meditation, February 20

?Then Elijah said to them, ?Seize the prophets of Baal; do not let one of them escape.?ESo they seized them; and Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon, and slew them there. Now Elijah said to Ahab, ?Go up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of a…

February 20, 2005

Exhortation, February 20

We are in the second week of the traditional season of Lent. Lent covers the forty days prior to Easter, and is a fast in preparation for the feast of the resurrection. In some of the earliest churches, baptismal candidates prepared during these forty days for their baptism at Easter.…

February 20, 2005

A Walk Through the Trinity Liturgy, 4

INTRODUCTION In Jesus?Eparables, the evangelistic invitation is often an invitation to a feast, a royal banquet (?the kingdom of heaven is like a king who gave a wedding feast . . . .?E. Christian liturgy is an enactment of that invitation and our response to it. In the call to…

February 19, 2005
Philosophy

Westphal on Onto-theology

Merold Westphal offers this helpful definition of “onto-theology” in an article found here : “The term is often used by assistant professors who have appointed themselves campus terrorists and, alas, by senior scholars who should be more careful, as a kind of sci-fi conceptual zapper. You aim it at any…

February 19, 2005

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