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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

The Literary Structure of the Whole Bible

In this essay we will think about how the whole Bible is structured as one Word of God. To begin with, there is only one Bible, not two. While we divide the Bible into Old and New Testaments, that division has no more meaning than divisions into chapters and verse,…

by James B. JordanMay 16, 2019
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Catholicity

Catholicity and Integrity

How should one badly bruised and inadequate church relate to another? (I am not addressing the blessed possessors of absolutely perfect churches, naturally.) I believe there are three things to bear in mind. First, we must be open to the values in other Christian traditions - even Roman Catholic and…

by James B. JordanMay 14, 2019
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Chiasm

Fertile Meaning

The third and sixth day have a second creative act. Note the chiastic arrangement of the material in these special acts and the parallelism between them, see the figure below. The author arranges the description of each day as a chiasm. Each line in the chiasm is mated with a…

by Scott FairbanksMay 9, 2019
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Biblical Theology

Nakedness and Clothing

Now the two of them were naked, the man and his woman, and they did not sense shame (Genesis 2:25) The nakedness of Adam and Eve requires several comments. First of all, against those who think that nakedness is what God intended for humanity as a permanent estate, we have…

by James B. JordanMay 7, 2019
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Epistemology

Restoring the “Other” in Mother

I’ve been reflecting on the meaning of integration, and our longing for integration in a fragmented world. I’ve been connecting my own covenant epistemology further with the thought of scientist-philosopher Michael Polanyi, artist Makoto Fujimura, and Classical Christian metaphysician D.C. Schindler. In my last post , and now in this…

by Esther Lightcap MeekApril 30, 2019
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Hermeneutics

Go Tell that Vixen!

Luke 13:31-33 is one of the strangest passages in the Gospel of Luke. It begins with a time note that sounds emphatic “At that very hour.” Then, we are told of Pharisees bringing a message that Herod wants to kill Jesus! In His answer, Jesus speaks of a three day…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 23, 2019

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Politics

Consumer-based reform

David Goldhill’s article on health care reform in the current issue of the Atlantic bears the provocative title, “How American Health Care Killed My Father.” It opens with the story of his father, who died at 83 from an infection he picked up at a hospital, as he says “one…

August 27, 2009

Productive God, II

Barnes again: “For Gregory the transcendence of God includes the capacity to produce; indeed, Gregory’s conception of this capacity as a dunamis means not only that this capacity exists as a natural capacity in God, but because this capacity is the dunamis of the divine nature, GOd’s kind of existence…

August 26, 2009

Productive God

Michel Rene Barnes ( The Power of God: Dunamis in Gregory of Nyssa’s Trinitarian Theology ) claims that the fourth century Trinitarian debates are not just a debate about relations but a debate about “productivity,” and thus about “power.” The question that divides Eunomius and Gregory of Nyssa, he says,…

August 26, 2009
History

End of Aristocracy

In a TLS (August 14) review of William Doyle’s recent Aristocracy and Its Enemies in the Age of Revolution , David Armitage made some intriguing comments about the sea change in the fortunes of aristocracy that took place in the 18th century. For the French, he points out, nobility was…

August 26, 2009

Vestiges of Spirit

Paul draws a direct analogy between the relation of the human spirit to the human being and the relation of the Holy Spirit to God. Our spirits know the thoughts that are in us, and so the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God (1 Corinthians 2:10-11). Not only…

August 25, 2009

Vestigiae trinitatis

Is the vestigia tradition valid? Does the NT give us any warrant to think that there will be Trinitarian imprints on the creation? The answer is Yes. 1 Corinthians 12 describes the diversities of gifts from the one Spirit, the same Lord, and the same God (vv. 4-6). Gordon Fee…

August 25, 2009

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