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Writing

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

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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 3

The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…

by James B. JordanSeptember 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Patriarchal Dominion

The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 6

Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…

by James B. JordanAugust 4, 1998
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Biblical Studies

Re-creation in the Ascension Offering

The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
Biblical Horizons

The Framework Hypothesis: A Gnostic Heresy

Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 2

The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…

by James B. JordanJuly 4, 1998

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History

American Adam

John Hollander ( Figure of Echo ) thinks there’s more going on in the Gettysburg Address than “a monument of the antimonumental, of noble plain style”: “the implicit contrasts set up a powerful pair of tropes, and either lack of appropriate access to scripture or exegetical pudeur has passed them…

May 19, 2008
Literature

Grain of Wheat

The 1967 novel, A Grain of Wheat , by Ngugi wa Thiong’o tells the story of a village as Kenyan independence approaches. There is a love triangle involving Mumbi and the rivals for her love, the collaborator Karanja and the carpenter Gikonyo, who eventually marries her. There is the tortured…

May 19, 2008

Sermon outline, Second Sunday of Trinity

INTRODUCTION Jesus’ ministry is a significant discontinuity in Israel ’s history. But it is not entirely discontinuous with that history. In a series of parables, Jesus explains how He is not the cancellation but the climax of Israel ’s story. Like the Psalmist, he utters hidden things (Matthew 13:34 -35;…

May 19, 2008

Pentateuchal diversity

Jewish biblical scholar Jon Levenson notices the discrepancies between Exodus and Deuteronomy, specifically regarding the length of time for eating unleavened bread (Exodus 12:18; Deuteronomy 16:8). The Rabbis noticed them too. Instead of concluding that this is a signal of multiple sources, he follows the rabbis in suggesting that (in…

May 17, 2008
History

Uncharity and the secular

David Yeago writes “The modern secularity project was not a demonic upsurge of incomprehensible hostility to the faith; it was in large measure the attempt of decent minds to cope with the chaos public Christianity had wrought in the wake of the Reformation. The incapacity of Christians to live together…

May 17, 2008

Wedding Sermon

Marriage is impossible. Christian marriage is also impossible, only more so. Marriage is impossible because it demands that two people devote themselves to each other, no matter what, for the rest of their lives. Christian marriage demands more: Husbands are to be like Christ, wives like the church, and together…

May 17, 2008

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