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

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Biblical Horizons

Puritans v. Reformed Worship: (Part Two of a Book Chapter Review)

Continuing through The Worship of the English Puritans by Horton Davies: The author gives some of his own appraisals rather than immediately quoting Durel, even though that is how he began his chapter. In Davies’ opinion, while the Puritans would invoke their own interpretation of Scripture in order to condemn,…

by Mark HorneFebruary 9, 2008
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Ephesians

Luther Should Have Inserted “Alone” a Second Time in Romans

What follows are from a couple of posts on my blog. I hoped to do a series. If I do follow up, I will probably want to do it here on the BH blog rather than my own. Feedback welcome: It is no secret that some have been scathingly critical…

by Mark HorneFebruary 9, 2008
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Baptism

Jesus’ Baptism and ours

Jeremy Sexton wrote this in an earlier line of discussion: “Along those lines, I think what we most often miss in our theology of baptism (though Calvin didn’t miss this) is that Christian baptism — if it “is” anything that came before — is Jesus’ water baptism. In our baptism,…

by James B. JordanFebruary 8, 2008
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Numbers

Israel was not (all of) the Church

Jeff pointed out that baptism is not Christian circumcision . Looking at the comments, I think it might be helpful to point out that Israel was not the Church . In the new creation, the idea of an “unbaptized Christian” is either very temporary or an anomaly. Those who came…

by Mark HorneFebruary 6, 2008
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Parables

Parables, Part I

Once a upon a time, one Sunday morning, a pastor mounted his pulpit for the sermon and said the following: A troubled young man walked into a downtown high-rise building. As he approached the directory on the wall, he took out a small booklet and looked back and forth from…

by Jeff MeyersFebruary 5, 2008
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Exodus

What is a Prophet? (Friendship and Justification)

If you are, say, leading a Bible study in Genesis, you might notice that right after the covenant is renewed and circumcision is established (ch 17) that we see Abraham eating and drinking with God (ch 18). After that meal, God makes a point of saying the he should share…

by Mark HorneFebruary 3, 2008

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Divine humanity

Hamann opens his Will and Testament of the Knight of the Rose-Cross with “If God is supposed to be the origin all effects in great things and small, or in heaven and in earth, then every numbered hair on our head is as divine as the behemoth, that chief of…

September 20, 2008
Biblical Studies

Intoxicating reading

Augustine on John 2: “Read all the prophetic books without perceiving Christ: what will you find so insipid and so silly? Understand Christ there, and what you are reading not only becomes savory but intoxicates.” Hamann quotes this in his Aesthetica in nuce : Intelliges ibi CHRISTUM, non solum sapit,…

September 20, 2008
History

Politics of style

MacMullen again, on the style of late Roman communications (written in purple ink): “It was extremely conscious, the late descendant of centuries of rhetorical art, marked by many poetical tricks: avoidance of hiatus or of inelegant words; metrical terminations of sentences and clauses; variation through an apparently limitless vocabulary of…

September 18, 2008
History

Most Holy Place

Ramsay MacMullen describes the proper approach to a late Roman emperor: “Few saw him, for few were admitted to his presence. Properly searched first for weapons, one passed through rows of guards and rows of ponderous pillars to some more specially solemn portal, opening to a hall fifty, a hundred,…

September 18, 2008
History

Reverse Revisionism

Leon Aron reviews Putin’s views on Russian history in a lengthy article in TNR (September 24). At a conference, for instance, Putin admitted that there have been “problematic pages in our history,” but goes on: “what state hasn’t? And we’ve had fewer of such pages than some other [states]. And…

September 17, 2008
Literature

Sanctimony and Resistance

Tom Stoppard’s Rock ‘n’ Roll is based on the arguments between Vaclav Havel and Milan Kundera concerning the way Czech intellectuals should pursue resistance to Soviet domination. One exchange in the play draws on a letter that Havel circulated asking Gustav Huzak to release Milan Hubl and others who were…

September 17, 2008

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