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Writing

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

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Baptism

Analogies to Baptism

Every attempt to understand the Christian sacraments makes use of comparisons or analogies with other rituals, events, or customs. Calvin and those who followed him, for example, spoke of the sacraments as “seals,” and compared them to the “seal of approval” that an official impresses on a document. Thinking about…

by Peter LeithartMay 29, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 1

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out in his essay "Hitler and Israel, or On Prayer" (available for $2.00 from Biblical Horizons ) that it is God’s word "No!" that establishes in a culture the distinction between the Creator and the creature. The Bible repeatedly says "No!" to every human attempt to…

by James B. JordanMay 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Gattaca

If you missed Gattaca at the movie theaters, you can probably check it out from your local video store now. And you should. This is one of those relatively rare thought-provoking movies that can stand being watched with brain in gear more than once. It is also poetic, sensitive, visually…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1998
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 4

Part 4: The Nephilim Factor Western Civilization partakes of what I call "the Nephilim Factor." The Enoch Factor means that the pagans get there first. This is both a blessing and a danger. As a blessing, it means that they work out techniques of dominion over the lower creation that…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

A Visionary Liturgy, Part 2

The Worship Service Then the one speaking with me took me by the hair and lifted me into the air in the middle of the great room. And as I watched, I saw people entering the room to the sound of the great bells outside. Then entered from all four…

by James B. JordanMarch 4, 1998
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 3

Part 3: Philosophy (continued) If we realize that human beings are the images of God, and that man hates God, then we realize that all non-Christian political philosophy is founded on a fundamental hatred of other human beings, a hatred manifest in contempt. Rome, like Enoch, was founded on the…

by James B. JordanFebruary 4, 1998

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Eucharistic exhortation

Psalm 122:1: I rejoiced when they said to me, Let us go to the house of the Lord. Worship is a journey. Every Sunday, we literally leave home and go on a pilgrimage, for most of us a fairly short one, to this place, where we gather as the house…

August 24, 2008

Baptismal Meditation

Matthew 28:19-20: Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. And Lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. As Pastor Sumpter pointed out in this morning’s sermon,…

August 24, 2008
Theology

Exhotation

Freedom is a heady thing, and some of you students are experiencing the rush of adult freedom for the first time. Perhaps for the first time, you are making your own decisions about how to organize your life, what you are doing to do with your day, when your day…

August 24, 2008
Politics

Change We Can Believe In

Change was virtually the only campaign theme Obama has used. Then he picks Joe Biden as a running mate. Ron Fournier gets it right: ” The candidate of change went with the status quo.” And Fournier adds, ” The picks say something profound about Obama: For all his self-confidence, the…

August 23, 2008
History

Typology and Conspiracy

As a philosophy of history, typology highlights the unintended consequences of our actions, the unintended meanings of our words. Conspiracy theories have no room for unintended events. If something happened, someone somewhere planned it. Typology and conspiracy are competing theories of history.

August 23, 2008

Typology

Typology is a philosophy of history. It is also a theory of meaning. Typology is a historical theory of meaning, a theory of historical meaning. That Matthew can say “Out of Egypt I called My Son” is fulfilled in Jesus isn’t evidence that Matthew was a midrashist. It’s not merely…

August 22, 2008

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