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Writing

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

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The Lady and Her Jewels: An Epiphany Meditation

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery (Revelation 12:1-2). Then Joshua spoke…

by Richard BledsoeJanuary 6, 2015
extreme-unction
Anointing

Fattening Our Suffering

In his post asking Ought we Anoint the Dying? Peter Leithart makes an excellent and important point about our suffering as members of Christ. However, he only parenthetically mentions that the verb in question in James 5 is not chrio but aleipho . By assuming that these words are interchangeable,…

by Robert MaddoxDecember 30, 2014
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James

Death as Frenemy

We spend a lot of time in the church talking about what it means to live like a Christian. But what does it mean to die like a Christian? If we are to follow Christ in life, what does it mean for us to follow him in death as well?…

by Rich LuskDecember 23, 2014
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Literature

Was Shakespeare A Christian?

How would one go about answering the question posed by my title? That depends on what the question means. Obviously, different definitions of the question would require different approaches to an answer. Right off hand, I can think of at least three possible — though not necessarily mutually exclusive —…

by Ralph Allan SmithDecember 23, 2014
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American Culture

Phobophobia

In recent weeks and months, we have seen events that are not the event. The drama around these events is not the events themselves, but the anxiety about the events, and then even the anxiety about the anxiety about the events. That is the real event. The events in Ferguson,…

by Richard BledsoeDecember 22, 2014
anointing-david
Anointing

Ought We Anoint the Dying?

Anointing the sick, including the dying, is one of the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The Reformers denied that the rite qualified as a sacrament. Formally, this was because anointing did not have a direct authorization from Jesus; more theologically, it was not one of the marks that…

by Peter LeithartDecember 18, 2014

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Cuttings from a Pentecost Homily

The Spirit is the Spirit of love. He is the love-gift that binds the Father and Son, and is the love of God poured into our hearts. By one Spirit we are all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, slaves or free, male or female. Each of us…

May 9, 2008
American Religion

American priestcraft

Was the American Revolution inspired by the Enlightenment? Or was it an evangelical Presbyterian rebellion? One way to get at that would be to examine the rhetoric concerning “priestcraft” in the American revolution. More than forty years ago, Carl Bridenbaugh pointed to the importance of debates about Anglicanism in the…

May 7, 2008
History

Early Bobos

Already in 1976, Daniel Bell noticed the cultural contradiction similar to what David Brooks has labeled the “Bobo” phenomenon: Americans aspire to be a “Puritan by day and a playboy by night.” I suppose the main difference between Bell’s cultural contradiction is that the Bobo wants to be a playboy…

May 5, 2008

Jesus on the sea

OK, let me try this again. Land is Israel, sea is Gentiles. A boat is a bit of land floating on the sea, and a boat with Jesus in it is a perfect picture of the little flock of disciples that constitutes Jesus’ first church. It’s a bit of Israel…

May 4, 2008

Eucharistic meditation, Sunday After Ascension

Matthew 13:11: to you [it is given] to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. In the early church, one of the most common terms for the sacraments was “mystery.” One (Theodore of Mopsuestia) wrote “Every mystery is a manifestation by signs and symbols of invisible and ineffable realities.”…

May 4, 2008

Mysteries of the Kingdom

“To you it has been given to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven,” Jesus tells His disciples (Matthew 13:11). What mysteries? A clue from the OT: The only place where the word “mystery” is used in the canonical books of the LXX is Daniel 2, where it is…

May 3, 2008

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