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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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Lonely Made Visible

I n The New Yorker , Hanya Yanagihara situates photography among the arts: “if love belongs to the poet, and fear to the novelist, then loneliness belongs to the photographer. To be a photographer is to willingly enter the world of the lonely, because it is an artistic exercise in…

July 29, 2016

China's Christian Future

I f you haven't yet read Yu Jie First Things piece on “China's Christian Future,” do it now. It's a first-rate piece of political-religious analysis, a moving story of faithful witness, a powerful brief for the Christian future of the world's most populous country, which will, by 2030, be the…

July 29, 2016
Wealth

Renunciation and Delight

W ise words, as usual, from Gilbert Meilaender: “Christians can . . . adopt and recommend no single attitude toward possessions. When they attempt to understand their lives within the world of biblical narrative, they are caught in the double movement of enjoyment and renunciation, Neither half of the movement,…

July 29, 2016

Earth's Oceans

A fascinating article in the Economist asks, What would we see if we could see through the sea? A few highlights: On plankton: “The world’s stock of phytoplankton, tiny photosynthetic algae and bacteria. Its total mass is far less than that of the plants that provide photosynthesis on land, but…

July 29, 2016

Dickens Meets Dostoevsky

T he TLS recently republished a delightful piece of literary detective work by Eric Naiman, first published in 2013. In 2002, one Stephanie Harvey published a piece in the Dickensian describing an encounter between Dickens and Dostoevsky. It's a hoax. There is no real evidence for the meeting, but Naiman…

July 29, 2016

Are We Stupid about Smart?

“S mart” has become the encomium of contemporary culture, and the elevation of smart has real-world consequences. IQ is strongly correlated with financial success. David Freedman reports in the Atlantic , “many employers now ask applicants for SAT scores (whose correlation with IQ is well established); some companies screen out…

July 29, 2016

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