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Writing

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

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Technology

Simulation as Inoculation

Every advent of new media creates the justifiable reaction from some that the necessarily accompanied amputation may not be worth the extension made possible by the new tools. This is not unique to the Digital Age. Lamoignon Malesherbes, the French politician who was counsel for the defense of Louis XVI,…

by Garrett SoucyApril 2, 2024
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Eschatology

Reject Optimism

A response to Gage Crowder's " The Hole in our Hope ?" Already, the first pages of the Bible promise a bright future. The story starts with the creation of heaven and earth, where heaven is perfect, but the earth is in a state of formless emptiness. Yet, God takes…

by Bogumil JarmulakMarch 27, 2024
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Eschatology

The Hole in our Hope? A Rejoinder

A rejoinder to Bubu Jarmulak's essay, " Embrace Pessimism ." Whereas calumnious critiques are reflections of more on the critic than the work criticized, good critiques are always opportunities for reassessment and improvement if they are received as such . Since its renaissance, the biblical doctrine of postmillennialism—or “optimistic eschatology,”…

by Gage CrowderMarch 26, 2024
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Biblical Studies

Jesus Did Not Pray to Avoid the Cross at Gethsemane

Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…

by James R. RogersMarch 19, 2024
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Church Music

Holy Toledo: A Critique of Eclecticism

On May 21, 1604, the cathedral of Toledo in Spain held job interviews for the post of choirmaster, the head of music at the church. The position had been vacated when the previous occupant, Alonso Lobo, was poached by the nearby cathedral of Seville, and Toledo needed a replacement who…

by John AhernMarch 5, 2024
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Covenant

The Docetic Covenant and Phantom Church Membership

Imagine — counterfactually: on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus held up an empty hand and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for you. Drink of it.’ But there was no cup, no wine, nothing. If there’s no sign of the covenant, is there…

by John CarpenterFebruary 27, 2024

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Literature

Auden on tragedy

Auden distinguished Christian and pagan tragedy: “Greek tragedy is the tragedy of necessity, i.e., the felling aroused in the spectators is ‘What a pity it had to be this way’: Christian tragedy is the tragedy of possibility, ‘What a pity it was this way when it might have been otherwise.’”

February 27, 2007

Jewishness of John

Critics of John’s gospel commonly claim that it is closer to something from the Orphic mysteries than from Judaism. One wonders if these critics have ever read the gospel, which mentions the Jews over sixty times, shows Jesus attending all manner of Jewish feasts, focuses its attention on the conflicts…

February 27, 2007
Theology

Predestination and Logic

Rosenstock-Huessy does not especially like Calvin’s doctrine of double predestination, but at the same time he argues that the doctrine preserves necessary within Calvin’s theology. (This from an essay entitled “Generations of Faith,” in Volume 1 of his Collected Papers.) His discussion begins with the claim that “our school children…

February 26, 2007

Sermon Notes, Second Sunday of Lent

INTRODUCTION This week, we start a brief topical series on the family. This being Lent, we want to look at family life from the perspective of the cross. THE TEXT “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also…

February 26, 2007

Sermon Outline, Second Sunday of Lent

INTRODUCTION This week, we start a brief topical series on the family. This being Lent, we want to look at family life from the perspective of the cross. THE TEXT “Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, as also…

February 26, 2007

Eucharistic meditation, First Sunday of Lent

3 John 5-6: Beloved, you are acting faithfully in whatever you accomplish for the brethren, and especially when they are strangers; and they bear witness to your love before the church; and you will do well to send them on their way in a manner worthy of God. The conflict…

February 25, 2007

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