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

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Ezra

Ezra: The Aaronic Rest-Giver

If you’re a preacher looking for good commentaries on Ezra, you’ll struggle. Certainly to find ones that wrestle in good detail with the text. And certainly ones that don’t cost you an arm and a leg. There’s a good bit more for Nehemiah, which is odd, as the two are…

by Rhys LavertyJune 8, 2021
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1 John

1 John in Community

Quick thought experiment: try to pretend you’ve never read 1 John before. Read 1:1-6. Go ahead; I’ll wait. Now, on to v. 7: “But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with ______….” What word would you expect in that blank, based…

by Tim NicholsJune 1, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Spending Time with Noah: Reflections on Prepositions in the Flood Narrative

In my work as a Bible translator, I was recently checking our translation team’s draft of Genesis 8:8, which says of Noah (translating the Hebrew quite literally): And he sent out the dove from with him to see: had the waters lessened from upon the face of the ground? Part…

by Josh JensenMay 25, 2021
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Philosophy

Steven Weinberg Destroyed My Faith

Just in case a reader may not know Weinberg, he is a theoretical physicist and the winner of the Nobel prize in physics in 1979, as well as countless other prizes for his research. He is also a prolific, lucid, and captivating writer. If you want to read something on…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 18, 2021
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Colossians

Reconciliation in Colossians 1:20

Colossians 1:15-20 is a famous passage in Paul’s epistles because it is a succinct and powerful poem. It appears even to have been a hymn. Given the uniquely Pauline language — “reconciliation” is a term used only by Paul — it should not seem odd to attribute the poem/hymn to…

by Ralph Allan SmithMay 11, 2021
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Movies

Terror of Knowing Myself

Stalker (1979) is a film by Andrei Tarkovsky based on Roadside Picnic by the Strugatsky brothers. It shows a day from the life of a stalker, a man who enters the so-called "Zone", an Alien landing site, where he leads people to a room that grants people’s innermost desires, which…

by Bogumil JarmulakMay 4, 2021

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LanguagePhilosophy

Sensation and Language

David Field and I entertained, or frightened, the students at our recent Easter Term course by spending a few minutes debating a passage from Aldous Huxley. Since I have a blog, and David doesn't, I'll take the opportunity to settle scores once and for all. The offending passage was this…

March 27, 2020
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Exodus

Walls of the Tent

Exodus 26:1-14 moves from inside out, from the tabernacle curtain itself (vv. 1-6) to the goats' hair covering that lays over the tabernacle (vv. 7-13) to the goats and dugong leather that constitute the outermost coverings (v. 14). Then the chapter changes course and moves outside-in: First the boards that…

March 23, 2020
memento-mori

Uncertainty

My daughter, MargaretAnn, posted these Lenten meditations on the coronavirus on Instagram today. uncertainty is a frightening thing. before i left campus unexpectedly to come home, my boss sat me down and reminded me that this is the perfect time to grow. it’s when things are difficult and unsettling and…

March 20, 2020
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MedicineModernity

God of Plagues

L.M. Sacasas ponders why the coronavirus spooks us. He says it's the pandemic's uncertainty and unpredictability, which destroys our illusions of control. We categorize it as an "accident" because we don't have other categories to wrestle with the unknown. It's a peculiarly modern mental tic. " To call something an…

March 18, 2020
tabernacle
Exodus

It's Curtains!

Exodus 26:1-14 describes four sets of coverings for the tabernacle: 1. The interior curtain, called the “tabernacle” (26:1-6). 2. A covering of goats’ hair to drape over the tabernacle (26:7-13). 3. A covering of rams’ leather, dyed red (26:14a). 4. An exterior covering of dugong or porpoise skin (26:14b). The…

March 16, 2020
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Exodus

Tabernacled Among Us

Superficially, the sequence of instructions in Exodus 25-27 moves from the furnishings of the interior of the tent (ark, table, menorah) to the tent fabrics, boards, and bars, before moving out to the courtyard to describe the bronze altar (Exodus 27:1-8) and the court hangings (Exodus 27:9-19). At that level,…

March 9, 2020

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