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Writing

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

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Ezra

Ezra: The Aaronic Rest-Giver

If you’re a preacher looking for good commentaries on Ezra, you’ll struggle. Certainly to find ones that wrestle in good detail with the text. And certainly ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. There’s a good bit more for Nehemiah, which is odd, as the two are…

by Rhys LavertyJune 8, 2021
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1 John

1 John in Community

Quick thought experiment: try to pretend you’ve never read 1 John before. Read 1:1-6. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Now, on to v. 7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with ______….” What word would you expect in that blank, based…

by Tim NicholsJune 1, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Spending Time with Noah: Reflections on Prepositions in the Flood Narrative

In my work as a Bible translator, I was recently checking our translation team’s draft of Genesis 8:8, which says of Noah (translating the Hebrew quite literally): And he sent out the dove from with him to see: had the waters lessened from upon the face of the ground? Part…

by Josh JensenMay 25, 2021
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Philosophy

Steven Weinberg Destroyed My Faith

Just in case a reader may not know Weinberg, he is a theoretical physicist and the winner of the Nobel prize in physics in 1979, as well as countless other prizes for his research. He is also a prolific, lucid, and captivating writer. If you want to read something on…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 18, 2021
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Colossians

Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:15-20 is a famous passage in Paul’s epistles because it is a succinct and powerful poem. It appears even to have been a hymn. Given the uniquely Pauline language — “reconciliation” is a term used only by Paul — it should not seem odd to attribute the poem/hymn to…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 11, 2021
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Movies

Terror of Knowing Myself

Stalker (1979) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky based on Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It shows a day from the life of a stalker, a man who enters the so-called "Zone", an Alien landing site, where he leads people to a room that grants people’s innermost desires, which…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 4, 2021

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Preflood Generation (Luke 17:27)

Jesus describes the activities of the unsuspecting preflood generation by listing four activities (Lk 17:27): eating and drinking marrying and giving in marriage. He then describes the activities of the unsuspecting residents of Sodom by listing six activities (Lk 17:28): eating and drinking buying and selling planting and building. Several…

January 26, 2004
Media

James Welch

There’s an intriguing review of the work of James Welch in the January 26 Weekly Standard . Welch, who died last year, was a Montana-based poet and novelist, known as an “Indian poet” and “Indian novelist” for his focus on the lives and history of American Indians. The interest of…

January 26, 2004

Exhortation, January 25

Exhortation for January 25: Jesus concluded the parable of the “unjust steward” by saying, “He who is faithful in a very little thing is faithful also in much; and he who is unrighteous in a very little thing is unrighteous also in much.” Though Jesus’ words have a particular application…

January 25, 2004

Eucharistic Meditation, January 25

Eucharistic meditation for January 25: Acts 2:41-47 In the book of Acts, we see the early church carrying out Jesus’ instructions regarding the proper use of wealth. After the Spirit was poured out on Pentecost, and 3000 were saved, the disciples begin to sell their possessions in order to share…

January 25, 2004

Baptismal Meditation, January 25

Baptismal meditation for January 25: Matthew 18:1-6 This passage in Matthew is parallel to the first part of Matthew 17 in our sermon text. As I mentioned in the sermon, Jesus’ reference to “little ones” in Luke 17 is not referring to little children, but to lowly people like Lazarus.…

January 25, 2004

Civilization and Orifices

Becoming civilized is a matter of gaining control over the body, and this bodily control is largely centered, as Mary Douglas recognized, on orifices. Infants have no control over their sphincters: They can’t hold urine or faeces, they fart and burp at inappropriate moments, they regurgitate milk and don’t care…

January 25, 2004

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