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Sacramental Theology

The Gospel According to the Sacraments, (Part 1)

My first title for this series of posts was “Evangelical Sacramental Ecumenism” – not exactly a clickbait title. But those three words, evangelical, sacramental, and ecumenical, say a lot: The centrality of the gospel; a focus on baptism, bread, and wine; and the quest for visible unity among diverse churches.…

by Michael SpalioneDecember 12, 2017
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Baptism

Baptism and Contextualization, (Part 1)

I can imagine someone reading the title of this essay and saying to himself, "I have two questions. First, what in the world is “contextualization”?" Second, even before hearing the answer to the first question, he may wonder, "what does baptism have to do with such an awkward and vague…

by Ralph Allan SmithDecember 7, 2017
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Deuteronomy

Law of the Rebellious Son

Deuteronomy 21:18-21 My colleague Ralph Smith has recently written on this passage, here . I entirely agree with Ralph's thrust, which is typological, that the passage is ultimately aimed at the entire nation of Israel itself as the rebellious son. But what I am thinking is from another perspective, perhaps…

by Richard BledsoeDecember 5, 2017
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Baptism

Like A Dove (Part 2)

In the previous article in this series, I drew attention to the threefold meaning of the Spirit of God descending as a dove on Jesus at His baptism. On a related note, I also argued that 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Titus 3:3-7 were parallel passages that addressed the same issues…

by Ralph Allan SmithNovember 30, 2017
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Politics

What’s in a Flag?

The National Anthem protest is misguided. So too the conservative backlash. The Church’s response has been disappointing. I address each in turn. The greatest triumph of the American Civil Rights Movement was its seizing of the moral high ground in American politics. It did so by insisting only on those…

by A. K. ShaukuNovember 28, 2017
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Baptism

Like a Dove

Peter Leithart’s book, The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism , argues that baptism is parallel to and the fulfillment of the old covenant rite of priestly ordination. But this is not something explicitly stated in the New Testament. Why, then, should we believe it? Leithart shows in…

by Ralph Allan SmithNovember 23, 2017

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Philosophy

Heidegger and the gift

Marion works from both Husserl and Heidegger, and we’ll focus on the latter, as he is slightly easier to grasp. (I am summarizing Robyn Horner’s discussion.) Heidegger begins from Husserl, but seeks to go beyond him. Husserl’s phenomenology was an effort, Heidegger says, to “let that which shows itself be…

November 28, 2007

Sermon Notes, First Advent

INTRODUCTION Isaiah is the great prophet of the incarnation, but Isaiah is a bit too large to cover during the four weeks of Advent. Micah, though, prophesied at the same time as Isaiah (Micah 1:1; Isaiah 1:1), and the prophecies overlap (Micah 4:1-3; Isaiah 2:1-4) and Micah includes a major…

November 26, 2007

Eucharistic meditation

Psalm 128:5-6: The LORD bless you out of Zion, and may you see the good of Jerusalem all the days of your life. Yes, may you see your children’s children. Peace be upon Israel. We saw in the sermon this morning that the man who fears Yahweh can hope for…

November 25, 2007
Theology

Exhortation

As soon as Adam sins, his marriage is disrupted, as he becomes Eve’s accuser instead of her guardian. In the next generation, sibling rivalry escalates to the first murder. The family is a fallen institution. It cannot redeem. It needs to be redeemed. The story continues throughout the Old Testament.…

November 25, 2007
Literature

Meta-Theater

During one scene of King Lear, Edgar, disguised as Mad Tom, leads his father, Gloucester to the cliffs of Dover, where his father intends to throw himself down to his death. Only Edgar doesn’t go to Dover. He tells his father that he has reached Dover, and Gloucester ceremoniously throws…

November 24, 2007
History

Stoic and Christian

For the Stoics, as for most ancient philosophers who reflected on signs, signs were examined as part of a theory of inference. A sign was a symptom, and the medical usage is often overt in examples; or a sign is a premise of an argument, from which something unknown can…

November 24, 2007

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