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Writing

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

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Creation

Why Genesis Matters

Creationism is debated widely in the US, especially when it comes to teaching creation as an alternative theory of origins in public schools. Every few months, there’s another poll showing that many Americans still believe Ussher’s claim that the world was created around 4000 BC, which always elicits a contemptuous…

by Peter LeithartAugust 20, 2014
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Books

Canary in the Coal Shaft

Walker Percy died in 1990, but his six published novels and his collections of essays are more relevant than when he wrote them. Percy was an American Dostoevsky, and that was no accident. “The European novels,” he says in a 1974 interview, “are more philosophical, more novels of ideas.” Dostoevsky,…

by Peter LeithartAugust 18, 2014
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Children

Parenting in the Spirit

The Spirit is God’s agent for renewing the creation, for restoring bonds between nations, for knitting together people into the body of Christ. The Spirit is the renewer of the world, and the bond of all relations. That means that if you want your family to be knit together, if…

by Peter LeithartAugust 13, 2014
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Revelation

Hunter Into Prey

In their basic physical sense , the verbs translated as "persecute" in the Bible mean “chase” or “pursue,” and that fits the context quite naturally. As Pharaoh “pursued” (LXX, dioko ; Heb. radaph ) Israel into the wilderness, for example, so the dragon chases the woman back to her place…

by Peter LeithartAugust 11, 2014
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Books

Edwards Our Contemporary

Seng-Kong Tan’s Fullness Received and Returned is a densely argued, thoroughly researched, contextually sensitive study of participation in the soteriology of Jonathan Edwards. Along the way, Tan deals with many of the central themes in Edwards’s theology. As with many recent studies of Edwards, Tan’s monograph demonstrates both Edwards’s creativity…

by Peter LeithartAugust 6, 2014
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Art

Portrait of the Artist as Aesthetic Martyr

The title of James Joyce’s first novel, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man indicates that it is a bildungsroman , a story of formation that describes the formative experiences of a poet who aspires to artistic greatness. The education described is Joyce’s own. The novel recounts the failing…

by Peter LeithartAugust 4, 2014

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Saussure and sound

Tallis is Not Saussure about post-structuralism, but that’s partly because he things posts distort the original structuralism of Saussure. Even if Saussure is correct that there no ideas before language links a sound with a concept, that doesn’t mean that there is no differentiation in the world that wasn’t put…

June 4, 2008

Interpretation and absent texts

Raymond Tallis ( Not Saussure ) is no friend of post-structuralism, but he recognizes that absent texts shape the reading of present ones: “What seems to be offered to us when we confront a particular work is at least partly determined by the silent presence of other works belonging to…

June 4, 2008
History

Darrow’s defense

Also from Robinson’s essay: Clarence Darrow defended two young men charged with the murder of the child. One he defended by saying he got his ideas from Nietzsche: “Is there any blame attached because somebody took Nietzsche’s philosophy seriously and fashioned his life upon it? . . . Your honor,…

June 3, 2008
History

Bryan from the left

In a wonderful opening essay on Darwinism in her book, The Death of Adam , Marilynne Robinson (of Gilead fame) offers a few paragraphs on the Scopes trial: “It requires a little effort . . . to remember that [Bryan’s] attack on Darwinism came from the left , from the…

June 3, 2008
Biblical Studies

Blogging Toward Sunday

Another of my lectionary meditations at the Christian Century web site: http://www.theolog.org/blog/2008/06/blogging-toward.html.

June 3, 2008

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION Herod Antipas, the third Herod to appear in Matthew (cf. 2:1-18, 22), is as murderous as the others. He rules a kingdom of death, while Jesus brings life and healing ( 14:13 -15, 34-36). THE TEXT “At that time Herod the tetrarch heard the report about Jesus and said…

June 2, 2008

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