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Writing

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

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Biblical Horizons

Gordon Wenham on Ritual

In a brief article entitled, “The Theology of Old Testament Sacrifice," Gordon Wenham, expanding on a comment about ritual from anthropologist Monica Wilson, states: We resort to ritual when we want to express our deepest feelings. Consider the rituals used in greeting people in our society: a nod, a handshake,…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

A Postscript to the Meyers Thesis

Everyone here in Cambridge is talking about sacrifice. My supervisor, Dr. John Milbank, is working on a book on gift in which he is dealing with recent literature on sacrifice. The graduate seminar in Systematics during Michaelmas Term focused on the theme of sacrifice. The first presenter was Dr. Ian…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Baptism

Sacramental Efficacy

Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato , virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the hocus-pocus and "presto!" the sacraments confer grace.…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 26, 1995
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Exodus

Mansions in the Sky, The Meaning of the Tabernacle

When Israel came out of Egypt, she was a collection of tribes descended from the Tribe of Abraham. Tribalism drops out of history into the "world" by looking back to ancestors and by orienting to the spirits that govern the world. The world must not be manipulated, because to do…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Revelation

The Angels of Revelation

Angels are the mediators of the Old Creation, as Eugenio Corsini has rightly pointed out in his commentary, The Apocalypse. For this reason, argues Corsini, the book of Revelation must have to do with the final end of the Old Creation order, which he associates with the work of Jesus…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

Triune Revelation and Through New Eyes Volume 2

Our procedure in "Through New Eyes Volume 2" thus far has been to lay out the general overview of history and its meaning as the Bible presents it. My hope is to fill this out in four major sections, corresponding to the four ages and the four testaments in the…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995

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Lacan in the Stars

Aron Dunlap ( Lacan and Religion ) summarizes Lacan’s theory of the imaginary, the symbolic, and the real: “The imaginary is the world that we share with the other residents of the animal kingdom. The symbolic is the space of the properly human world of language, law and order. Lacan…

July 23, 2014

Among the Sex Workers

Tom Bissell’s New Republic profile of William T. Vollmann, journalist, author of legendarily gargantuan novels, painter of nudes and vaginas, is supportive, not to say fawning (though, on second thought, yes, to say fawning). For readers, it will be disquieting. Bissell writes, “When I asked about his infamous fascination with…

July 23, 2014

Framing Isaiah

In a 1 993 JSOT article, Anthony Tomasino examines the beginning (1:1-2:4) and end (63-66) of the canonical book of Isaiah, arguing that the two sections share not only vocabulary and themes but also have a common structure. He points, for example, to the references to “heaven and earth” that…

July 22, 2014

Perichoresis and Patripassianism

Donald Macleod’s Christ Crucified is largely a defense of a traditional Protestant understanding of penal substitutionary atonement. As is typical for Macleod, though, there are surprises along the way. This for instance: While “the unity of the divine Trinity remains unbroken throughout the passion,” it’s still the case that “the…

July 22, 2014

Covenant Atonement

Michael J. Gorman expresses some surprise in his The Death of the Messiah and the Birth of the New Covenant that there hasn’t been a developed “covenant” model of the atonement. We have substitutionary, sacrificial, Christus Victor, moral influence, and so on, but no model that uses the biblical category…

July 22, 2014
Architecture

Living Buildings

Few human creations seem as permanent as buildings. Roman structures are still standing in Europe, and cathedrals have been around for centuries. But we know better. For every erect ancient building, there are dozens of ruins. The boast of Ozymandius is ironic indeed. What might we learn about architecture by…

July 22, 2014

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