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Writing

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

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Biblical Theology

Look to the Birds

The Bible reader that is mindful of patterns, is aware of the creation markers of Noah's flood. The Earth is deformed and is made into a ball of water, which then is made new with new promises and obligations to the New Adam (Noah) and his offspring. One of the…

by Matthew CoreyOctober 12, 2021
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Art

The Ethical Nude

Exposing Nakedness “Picasso did not paint for the eyes but for the gut. He painted for the gut that the eyes might be opened.” I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. (Job 16:12) One only has to…

by Mike BullOctober 5, 2021
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Coronavirus

A Modest Proposal

For preventing the unvaccinated people in Mississippi from being a burden on their friends, teachers, or waiters, and for making them beneficial to the public. Dr. Jonathan Swift It is a melancholy object to those who walk through a great southern college town, or travel throughout Mississippi, when they see…

by Jonathan BarlowSeptember 28, 2021
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Coronavirus

The COVID Regime as Stoicheic Order

Throughout the world, governments are aggressively pushing COVID vaccines. Some have instituted mandates or vaccine passports. Many are losing patience with the unvaccinated, even proposing that they have forfeited the right to certain health services . The unvaccinated have become deplorables—the undeserving sick. This COVID regime has been bolstered by…

by James WoodSeptember 21, 2021
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Biblical Chronology

Groping Through the Gaps

Although nowadays gap theories are associated with dispensationalism, it was not always so. In the nineteenth century, scholars from a variety of backgrounds (Anglican, Reformed, and proto-fundamentalist) seem to have become fascinated by gaps. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, this piece will acquaint you…

by James B. JordanSeptember 14, 2021
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Biblical Studies

Snakes and Ladders

What kind of father gives his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a serpent when he asks for a fish? The answer is, the Heavenly Father! Jesus rarely stated the obvious, and this particular question in His Sermon on the Mount concerning the fatherhood of God is…

by Mike BullSeptember 7, 2021

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Boaz the Bridegroom

Boaz is the type of the bridegroom who marries Ruth in order to raise up a seed for the old and widowed Naomi. James Jordan says Ruth is a substitute bride, because the firstborn seed is her seed, and leads to the redeemer that comes into the world. Typologically: The…

February 27, 2008

Moral and Social

According to Oliver O’Donovan, Book 19 of City of God “is, at the very least, an essay to demonstrate that moral philosophy must be social philosophy.” The highest good for Augustine is the peace of the city of the blessed, and this is an inherently social reality. Since virtuous action…

February 26, 2008
History

Anti-Festive Sabbath

Reflecting on Simmons’s stimulating article on Malvolio: He points out that by the 1590s, Sabbatarianism had become what Christopher Hill characterized as a shibboleth of Puritanism. Yet, at the time of Shakespeare’s play, Puritanism had also become popularly associated with hostility to jollity and festivity. Make all necessary allowances for…

February 26, 2008
Literature

Malvolio the Puritan

Malvolio is expressly described as a “Puritan” in Twelfth Night , and the description is apt given Malvolio’s stern hostility to frivolous entertainments. Shakespeare is offering a parody of Puritan opposition to the theater. The satire is sharp: Puritans were opposed to the cross dressing inherent in Elizabethan theater (boys…

February 26, 2008

Daughter Ruth

Boaz calls Ruth “my daughter,” even when they are lying together at night with Boaz’s feet uncovered. The whole book is about the levirate institution, and refracts again and again off the story of Judah and Tamar in Genesis 38. Ruth is a new Tamar, who was “more righteous” than…

February 25, 2008

No Name

At the beginning of Ruth 4, Boaz takes a seat at the gate, the place of courts and judgments. The nearer kinsman happens by, and Boaz greets him. Lawson Younger points out that the common translation of his greeting, “friend,” doesn’t capture the Hebrew, which is a farrago, a nonsense…

February 25, 2008

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