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Writing

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

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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Cyber Religion

Reviewing two new books about the internet at TLS , Michael Saler sketches the religious ideology of Silicon Valley: “The ‘Valley’ is not merely a byword for technological innovation and economic growth: it is the lush seedbed for a new ideology of the twenty-first century, one that fills the void…

May 22, 2013

Trinity House Registration

Registration for the very first Trinity House intensive class is now open. The course on How to Read the Bible will be taught by James Jordan and Peter Leithart at Trinity Presbyterian Church , Birmingham, Alabama, August 26-30. Registration ends on July 1. You can find more information about Trinity…

May 22, 2013

A word from God

I have my world, but before I or my world existed there was the world. This distinction between my world and not-mine is, O’Donovan says ( Self, World, and Time: Volume 1: Ethics as Theology: An Induction ), what we mean by “the world’s objective truth ” (10). The truth…

May 21, 2013

Wake up

In the newly published first volume of his Ethics as Theology, entitled Self, World, and Time: Volume 1: Ethics as Theology: An Induction , Oliver O’Donovan suggests that the moral life is not something we choose to enter but something we wake to: “Let us say, we awake to our…

May 21, 2013

Devilish stones

There are stones, and then there are stones, says Tyconius ( The Book of Rules ). In Ezekiel, the king of Tyre is surrounded by precious stones, but “these words pertain both to the devil and to man. For these twelves tones as well as gold and silver and all…

May 21, 2013

Daniel’s figure

In the The Book of Rules , Tyconius suggests that in his witness to Nebuchadnezzar, Daniel represents “the whole body of the church” since “Daniel confounded the king of Babylon as a figure.” Through the Spirit, Daniel “brought the proud king to his knees to confess the one God by…

May 21, 2013

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