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Writing

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

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Psalms

Reimagining Psalm 23

The Bible depicts Man’s transformation from beas t to priest in and through Jesus Christ. Two sets of people have their garments designed by God in the Torah: Adam and Eve and priests (of which the High Priest’s garments garner most attention). The first garment is beastly, while the second…

by Ben LoveladyApril 19, 2023
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Church Government

The Rise and Dangers of Presbyterialism

I became the pastor of Westminster Bible Church in Bowling Green, Kentucky soon after completing my Ph.D. in church history. On paper, it was the ideal church for me. Even the name, I thought smacked of my preferences: the Westminster Confession with idealistic Biblicism. I didn’t know it had been,…

by John CarpenterApril 11, 2023
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Luke

An Easter Meditation

Why do we believe in the resurrection of Jesus? It itself, it is utterly unbelievable, as the two disciples on the road to Emmaus also concluded (Luke 24:19-24). But why is it so unbelievable? Are there not many stories of a dead man or woman coming back to life? Stories…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 9, 2023
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Hope

Political Hope in the Negative World (Part 2)

In the first installment of this two-part essay, we provided a rough outline of a thick theological account of Christian hope. We concluded with mention of important critiques of such traditional views on hope, that by orienting Christians to place their ultimate hope in God and the future consummation of…

by James WoodApril 5, 2023
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Hope

Political Hope in the Negative World (Part 1)

Dare we hope in the midst of “ negative world ”? The idea of the “negative world” has recently served as a helpful framework for many to come to terms with the fact that Western societies (particularly the United States) are aggressively turning against their Christian roots and moral values.…

by James WoodMarch 28, 2023
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Biblical Studies

Luke’s Gospel of Seven

In his prologue, Luke tells us that his gospel history is an “orderly account” (1:3). Although generally chronological, time is not the only or the main organizing principle for his history. To argue for Luke’s main theme would take up too much space, but instead I want to explore one…

by Ryan HandermannMarch 24, 2023

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Divine humanity

Hamann opens his Will and Testament of the Knight of the Rose-Cross with “If God is supposed to be the origin all effects in great things and small, or in heaven and in earth, then every numbered hair on our head is as divine as the behemoth, that chief of…

September 20, 2008
Biblical Studies

Intoxicating reading

Augustine on John 2: “Read all the prophetic books without perceiving Christ: what will you find so insipid and so silly? Understand Christ there, and what you are reading not only becomes savory but intoxicates.” Hamann quotes this in his Aesthetica in nuce : Intelliges ibi CHRISTUM, non solum sapit,…

September 20, 2008
History

Politics of style

MacMullen again, on the style of late Roman communications (written in purple ink): “It was extremely conscious, the late descendant of centuries of rhetorical art, marked by many poetical tricks: avoidance of hiatus or of inelegant words; metrical terminations of sentences and clauses; variation through an apparently limitless vocabulary of…

September 18, 2008
History

Most Holy Place

Ramsay MacMullen describes the proper approach to a late Roman emperor: “Few saw him, for few were admitted to his presence. Properly searched first for weapons, one passed through rows of guards and rows of ponderous pillars to some more specially solemn portal, opening to a hall fifty, a hundred,…

September 18, 2008
History

Reverse Revisionism

Leon Aron reviews Putin’s views on Russian history in a lengthy article in TNR (September 24). At a conference, for instance, Putin admitted that there have been “problematic pages in our history,” but goes on: “what state hasn’t? And we’ve had fewer of such pages than some other [states]. And…

September 17, 2008
Literature

Sanctimony and Resistance

Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll is based on the arguments between Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera concerning the way Czech intellectuals should pursue resistance to Soviet domination. One exchange in the play draws on a letter that Havel circulated asking Gustav Huzak to release Milan Hubl and others who were…

September 17, 2008

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