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Writing

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

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Coronavirus

Does Corona Compassion Kill?

The corona virus hit Western society like a Biblical plague — almost. Biblical plagues were actually much more devastating. Still, as Peter Leithart describes the present situation, it is a judgment from God, because the disease itself together with our political solutions brought about a social situation that fits Deuteronomy’s…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 26, 2020
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Theology

Is Theology Useless?

“The achievements of theologians don’t do anything, don’t affect anything, don’t mean anything. What makes anyone think that ‘theology’ is a subject at all?” - Richard Dawkins One cannot be a Christian college president or seminary trustee (your essayist is both) without wondering if Richard Dawkins’s notorious take-down of theology…

by Alexander WhitakerMay 19, 2020
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How to Worship

How Should Churches Respond to One Another?

Nearly every church that I am aware of has adopted differing practices since the recent virus scare began. Some churches continued to meet during the state lock downs, and other churches left their building empty, meeting online through various video conference technologies. Some churches have gone back to life as…

by Jonah BarnesMay 12, 2020
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Fear

Fear

Fear is an inseparable companion of human life. We are afraid of illness and death, poverty and cataclysms, rejection and betrayal, failure and shame. We are afraid of the unknown, so in a sense we are afraid of the future and life itself. Unless we live in the illusory belief…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 5, 2020
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Heresy

The Blessing of “Heresies”

In the title above, I put the word “heresies” in quotation marks because I would prefer that the word “heresy” be confined to erroneous beliefs about the Trinity and the Person of Christ, rather than be used broadly to describe any view that might be considered an error. 1 At…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 30, 2020
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Fear

On Coping (or not) with a Crisis

I’ve been trying to work out why I’m feeling existentially disconnected from CoV-19-related fears. I’m taking it seriously, but it’s not registering in any deeply personal way. Partly it’s that my routines are largely undisrupted. But as I reflect on people’s reactions I think there’s more, because a lot of…

by Matthew MasonApril 28, 2020

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Out of Egypt

In Histories II, Herodotus claims that Greeks borrowed the very name Dionysus from Egyptians, not to mention the phallic procession associated with that god: “it was Melampous who introduced the phallic procession, and from Melampous that the Greeks learnt the rites that they now perform. Melampous, in my view, was…

July 17, 2014

Son of Ammon

According to Egyptian mythology, Osiris was the son of Ra, who later became associated with Amon. In the New Kingdom, these melded together, producing a union of Amon-Ra with his son Osiris. According to Martin Bernal ( Black Athena , 1.115-6), Alexander the Great saw himself “as this syncretic divinity,…

July 17, 2014

Subversive Sleep

Jonathan Crary begins his 24/7 describing experiments to increase the time that soldiers can stay awake and alert. 24/7 has been around for a long time.So far, humans have resisted, simply by getting tired. Now we’re trying to create humans who can flourish, or at least survive, in the unnatural…

July 17, 2014

Where are Yahweh’s Eyes?

Isaiah 66 begins with an obvious allusion to this prayer. Yahweh claims to sit enthroned in heaven and use earth as His footstool (v. 1), and adds that, gargantuan as He is, He is uncontainable by any house that Israel might make for Him (v. 1). Solomon already knew this:…

July 17, 2014

Payday

Isaiah 66:6 would make a neat movie scene. First we hear a voice of tumult, a voice like the roaring of the sea or like the din of a gigantic party. It’s coming from the city, but the camera keeps moving to focus on the temple ( heykal , “palace,”…

July 17, 2014

Ezra/Nehemiah

James Hamilton’s lively new commentary on Exalting Christ in Ezra and Nehemiah is a volume in the Christ-Centered Exposition series. The series, written for pastors, is founded on the premise that the Bible “contains a unified story of redemptive history of which Jesus is the hero” (ix). Hamilton’s volume handles…

July 16, 2014

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