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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

Gold, Silver, & Precious Stones

[This essay was originally published in 1988. Given the situation that our new national socialists are getting the world into, I thought it might be useful to reprint it here. – JBJordan] The Bible has quite a bit to say about gold, silver, and precious stones, and the Bible always…

by James B. JordanMay 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

The Pastoral Function

I wrote this elsewhere and was encouraged to put it here. It is a comment on what a pastor is. Today, this is not very well understood, and God’s people suffer because of it. There are four professions: medicine, education, law, and religion. Each of these, when done at a…

by James B. JordanMay 17, 2009
Biblical Horizons

The Virgin Tomb: The Womb of the New Birth

James Jordan recently pointed out in private conversation how appropriate it is, in John’s Gospel, that Nicodemus is present both to ask Jesus about being born again, and to see Jesus re-enter the womb of the mother. Nicodemus rhetorically asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?…

by Mark HorneMay 8, 2009
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Romans

Romans 7

This is a problematic and much discussed passage. I’ve been discussing it in another forum, and have decided to move it here and present some very preliminary observations about it. One large question is this: Who is the speaker here and what is his situation? Traditionally, the speaker is seen…

by James B. JordanApril 19, 2009
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Biblical Horizons

Good New Sci-Fi

1. The current issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction includes a good fantasy novella by John C. Wright, who since his conversion has been writing Christianly. This is a fine fantasy with nods to C. S. Lewis and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and probably Gene Wolfe as well.…

by James B. JordanApril 15, 2009
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American Culture

The Name of Jesus

“It is an experience of our days that the spoken name of Jesus alone exercises an unforeseen power; and the effort which it cost to speak this name is perhaps connected to some faint apprehension of the power which is inherent within it. Wherever the name of Jesus Christ is…

by Richard BledsoeMarch 20, 2009

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Reagan Unbound

Ken Adelman had an inside track for understanding Reagan at Reykjavik , the apparently failed but ultimately epoch-making negotiations about nuclear arms between Reagan and Gorbachev in Iceland. According to the NYTBR review, Reagan “spooked Republican foreign policy hands with lofty talk of ‘the total elimination one day of nuclear…

August 7, 2014
Theology

Singular God

Walter Lowe’s contribution to the Blackwell Companion to Postmodern Theology is a brief not for particularity but for the postmodern recovery of singularity after the collapse of Enlightenment universalism. Lowe argues, “Nothing dictates that truth, elusive as it is, cannot possibly be revealed in, and linked to, a speci?c singularity;…

August 7, 2014

Moses, Creator

Exodus includes two descriptions of the furnishings of the tabernacle, one before the golden calf incident (25-31) and one after (35-40). Exodus 39:32-43 provides the conclusion to a section describing the construction of the tabernacle and furnishings, which is followed by the actual erection of the tabernacle in chapter 40.…

August 7, 2014

Great Sword

When the second creature calls out, a red horse emerges from the opened heaven, with a rider who receives the ability to remove peace, to set men against each other, using a “great sword” ( machaira megale , Revelation 6:4). Only a few “great swords” appear elsewhere in Scripture. Yahweh…

August 7, 2014

Divine Energies

In an appendix to Fullness Received and Returned (390), Seng-Kong Tan summarizes Paul Negrut’s arguments against the notion of divine energies developed by Gregory of Palamas. First, “while the energies are enhypostatic and only express but are not identical to the divine persons, it follows that ‘the latter is forced…

August 7, 2014

For Office Windows

Everyone knows, as Eric Jaffe puts it , that “Outside views are often badges of seniority or achievement in the work world—understandably, given that they’re in short supply.” A new study suggests that there’s more at stake, though: “an interdisciplinary team of architects and medical researchers . . . recently…

August 7, 2014

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