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

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Biblical Horizons

An Older Essay on the Gospel Order

I thought it might be good to put this up here, since it is 14 years old, and itself reflects earlier discussion. From this you can see that we at BH have been considering this notion for quite some time. Clearly, the last word has not been said. — James…

by James B. JordanFebruary 14, 2008
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Biblical Horizons

Chiasms in James

Hopefully, my commentary on James will be out later this year. But here are a few chiasms for your consideration. I think the James 5 chiasm orginally came from Doug Jordan. The entire book of James is focused on how the pastors and leaders (“brothers”) of the church use their…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 14, 2008
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Job

Parables | (Part 2)

In my first post I noted that the parables of Jesus were not simply illustrative stories. They are really nothing like the kind of simple, homely illustrations that preachers often use to explain difficult concepts to their congregations. Just to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with illustrating one’s sermonic statements.…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 14, 2008
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Ephesians

The Praise Precedes the Indicative

Ephesians is often treated as a pure type example of the Pauline method that “the indicative preceds the imperative.” But what Paul does first is pray . Simply reading verse 3 and following involves readers in a prayer of thanksgiving to God–and much more so for those listening to the…

by Mark HorneFebruary 14, 2008
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Luke

"I Came Not to Call the Righteous, but Sinners"

Yesterday, I took part with my oldest son in a church-sponsored city outreach project (not because I’m especially prone to such behavior but because my son has a Boy Scout requirement that this would help him meet). Before we were sent out on our various jobs, the leader gave a…

by Mark HorneFebruary 11, 2008
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Biblical Studies

The Sequence of the Four Gospels

There is a scene in Prince Caspian , the second in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia that helps explain why it is we have four Gospels, that is four accounts of the Good News of Jesus Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the account of Lucy’s longed-for experience…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 9, 2008

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Shopping

The Winter 2004 issue of The Wilson Quarterly has several intriguing articles on shopping and the institution of the shopping mall. The articles cover the rise of the shopping, consumer culture; the strategies behind the arrangement of various departments of a mall store; and moral concerns with materialism and hedonism.…

March 10, 2004
Theology

Christianity and the Religions

A review of a new history of modernity in the TLS raises a number of intriguing questions. The author of the volume claims that the age of nations is over, and that history writing has to catch up. History writing is still too much stuck in the rapidly vanishing world…

March 9, 2004
Literature

Milton’s Satan

A student points out a weakness in Stanley Fish ‘s reader-response treatment of Milton’s Satan, the notion that Milton deliberately makes Satan attractive and powerful not because Milton is of the devil’s party but because he is trying to run the reader through the same experience of temptation that Adam…

March 9, 2004
Literature

Milton’s Satan

A student points out a weakness in Stanley Fish ‘s reader-response treatment of Milton’s Satan, the notion that Milton deliberately makes Satan attractive and powerful not because Milton is of the devil’s party but because he is trying to run the reader through the same experience of temptation that Adam…

March 9, 2004
Literature

Short Story: The Accidental Ecumenist

I. Sir Reginald Piddleby-Squeak was in a pickle. The pickle he was in was no ordinary pickle, but a pickle of the most unusual size and sourness, a pickle from which he had no prospects of being rapidly extracted. He expected at any moment that he would begin turning green…

March 6, 2004
Literature

Essay: Introduction to Julius Caesar

Introduction Elizabethans viewed Rome through two historical lenses. On the one hand, Rome was for Elizabethans the great civilization of antiquity. They knew less of Greece than we do, and almost nothing of ancient Egypt or Babylon, much less China. When they traced their cultural genealogy, they traced it back…

March 6, 2004

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