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Epistemology

A Cheer for the Mystics

Mystical theologians are often unguarded, extreme, un-nuanced, pressing to the edges of heresy, sometimes beyond. Still, the mystics are worthy of study. Why? Many reasons. Unlike some late medieval and post-Reformation dogmaticians, mystical theologians are often instinctively and richly Trinitarian. Historical-critical approaches to Scripture left mystical theologians virtually untouched; mystics…

by Peter LeithartSeptember 2, 2013
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Literature

Shadow and Substance in Shakespeare's Venice

Portia of Belmont is a “lady richly left,” as Bassanio says of her in the first Act of The Merchant of Venice . Plus, she’s beautiful and wise. Suitors clamber to Belmont in hope. Her father knew it would be so, and in his will set up a fairy-tale test…

by Peter LeithartAugust 28, 2013
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Liturgy

Liturgy Traps

[fve]http://vimeo.com/72195198[/fve]

by James B. JordanAugust 26, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Victory Food

In the nature of the case, “the” Christian meditation on Deuteronomy 14:1-21 cannot be written. Meditation offers too many possibilities, opens too many doors. There is not one and only one correct set of associations for a Christian to consider when thinking of Deuteronomy 14:1-21. We could, for example, consider…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 21, 2013
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Romans

David's Sin and Israel's Salvation, Part I

Having retold the story of the cumulative sin of Israel leading to the great atonement on the cross, Paul then reemphasizes that, just as both Jew and Gentiles were locked into sin and judgment, now they are both justified by faith: Then what becomes of our boasting? It is excluded.…

by Mark HorneAugust 20, 2013
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Deuteronomy

You are what you eat

Deuteronomy 14 is full of allusions to events of Israel’s history and other portions of Scripture. What would an Israelite learn by mediation on these allusions? The answer, I believe, is at least fourfold. Faith, Worship, War For the ancient Israelite first hearing Moses’ sermon, or perhaps hearing it read…

by Ralph Allan SmithAugust 15, 2013

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God With Us

Levering also cleverly argues, drawing again from Aquinas, that a “metaphysical” account of God’s being and knowledge accomplishes the aims of “non-metaphysical” accounts, but better. Non-metaphysical theologies claim that classical theism has rendered God inert and static, distant and cold. But according to Aquinas God knows everything outside Himself in…

March 24, 2008

God’s self-ignorance

Matthew Levering ( Scripture and Metaphysics ) argues that God’s self-knowledge and His knowledge of creation stand and fall together. If His knowledge of the latter is limited, so is His knowledge of Himself: “Could God perfectly comprehend himself if he did not comprehend to what his power extends? In…

March 24, 2008

Go Cougs!

The folks over at First Things were kind enough to put my paroxysm of march madness on their group blog: http://www.firstthings.com/blog. Go Cougs!

March 24, 2008

Overthrown by craftsmen

The four horns of Zechariah’s second night vision (1:18) are likely horns of an altar, an altar of false worship that scatters Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem. Four craftsmen, horns of power in their own right, appear on the scene to thrown down the threatening horns. The word for “craftsman” is…

March 24, 2008

Grove in the sea

In the first of his night visions, Zechariah (1:8) sees myrtle trees “in the ravine” (NASB). Some commentators take the word translated as “bottom” or “ravine” as symbolic of the low and depressed condition of the Jewish community in Zechariah’s day. But the word is best translated not as “ravine,”…

March 24, 2008

Why?

Hillary Clinton claimed a few days ago in a speech at George Washington University that she remembered ” landing under sniper fire. There was supposed to be some kind of a greeting ceremony at the airport, but instead we just ran with our heads down to get into the vehicles…

March 24, 2008

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