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Writing

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

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Exodus

A Brief Response to Rev. Richard Bacon’s Opposition to Paedocommunion

1. Introduction Reverend Richard Bacon is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Rowlett, Texas. He has written a tract entitled " What Mean Ye By This Service? Paedocommunion in Light of Passover, " printed by Presbyterian Heritage Publications (P.O. Box 180922, Dallas, TX 75218). I am writing this brief…

by Mark HorneMay 29, 1997
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How to Worship

Formal Corporate Prayer

A Defense of the Use of Coordinated, Congregational Prayer in Public Worship My goal in this series of articles is to equip the members of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church to worship God intelligently on Sunday and also to help visitors understand the biblical and theological rationale for our form of…

by Jeff MeyersMay 20, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

Twelve Fundamental Avenues of Revelation, Part 3

Several implications flow from this first group of considerations. First (D1), nature and natural objects reveal God to the eye of faith. The study of nature is the study of the design of the Spirit, and from it we learn how God designs things, and how we as His images…

by James B. JordanApril 30, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

John Sailhamer Weighs In, Part 1

Does the chronology in the Bible begin with the creation of Adam or with the creation of the universe? That is the question we are exploring this year. In January and February we took up the "Framework Hypothesis" as advocated by its most scholarly and powerful exponent, Dr. Meredith G.…

by James B. JordanApril 30, 1997
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Hermeneutics

Toward a Chiastic Understanding of the Gospel According to Matthew, Part 1

In preparing an essay on Matthew 24-25 for our subscription essayletter Studies in the Revelation , I have found it necessary to consider the structure of Matthew’s gospel as a whole. The following are the fruits of my research, such as they are. This essay is not intended as the…

by James B. JordanApril 29, 1997
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Creeds

In Whom Do You Trust?

An Explanation of and Apology for the Use of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds in Worship With the rest of the country I anxiously watched the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, but there is one image that I will always remember. It is not the firefight…

by Jeff MeyersApril 20, 1997

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Putting right

At least since the Reformation, the choices on the meaning of justification have been two: Either justification is a declaration of right standing or it’s a making-righteous (as in Bonaventure’s claim that the grace of justification purifies, illuminates, and perfects the soul). But are these the only alternatives? McGrath says…

April 20, 2006

Entry language

NT Wright’s denial that justification is “entry language” is usually taken as a criticism of evangelical Protestant treatments of justification. But his denial cuts deeper: From the high middle ages, Roman Catholic theologians taught that justification was a motus from sin to grace. From Wright’s viewpoint, the Reformers agreed with…

April 20, 2006
Philosophy

Notes on Derrida, Gift of Death

Some of the summaries below were previously posted on my site, and are reproduced to help my students. 1) Derrida begins the book with a discussion of Jan Patocka’s treatment of the distinction between “enthusiasm” or the “demonic” and “responsibility.” The former “confuses the limits among the animal, the human,…

April 19, 2006

Divine Energies and Orthodox Soteriology

In his new Being with God , Aristotle Papanikolaou points to differences between Vladimir Lossky and John Zizioulas on the issue of divine energies. For Lossky, the doctrine of divine energies is designed to “protect the real character of communion with God” in theosis while also insisting that union with…

April 19, 2006

Schmemann on Eucharist

Thanks to my student Brent McLean for the following quotation from Schmemann’s Journals: “I reflect, while writing my Eucharist, about Communion, on the strange, mysterious alienation from it in the Church (on Mt. Athos - they didn’t regularly take Communion; in our churches, those who seek frequent Communion are held…

April 19, 2006
History

Passion

Stephen Jaeger’s wonderful Ennobling Love (1999) sets up some bizarre juxtapositions. On the one hand, here is Anselm of Bec writing to two novices about the join the monastic community: “My eyes eagerly long to see your face, most beloved; my arms stretch out to your embraces. My lips long…

April 18, 2006

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