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Writing

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

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Baptism

Analogies to Baptism

Every attempt to understand the Christian sacraments makes use of comparisons or analogies with other rituals, events, or customs. Calvin and those who followed him, for example, spoke of the sacraments as “seals,” and compared them to the “seal of approval” that an official impresses on a document. Thinking about…

by Peter LeithartMay 29, 1998
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Art

The Second Word V: On Images and Art, Part 1

Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out in his essay "Hitler and Israel, or On Prayer" (available for $2.00 from Biblical Horizons ) that it is God’s word "No!" that establishes in a culture the distinction between the Creator and the creature. The Bible repeatedly says "No!" to every human attempt to…

by James B. JordanMay 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

Gattaca

If you missed Gattaca at the movie theaters, you can probably check it out from your local video store now. And you should. This is one of those relatively rare thought-provoking movies that can stand being watched with brain in gear more than once. It is also poetic, sensitive, visually…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1998
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 4

Part 4: The Nephilim Factor Western Civilization partakes of what I call "the Nephilim Factor." The Enoch Factor means that the pagans get there first. This is both a blessing and a danger. As a blessing, it means that they work out techniques of dominion over the lower creation that…

by James B. JordanApril 4, 1998
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Biblical Horizons

A Visionary Liturgy, Part 2

The Worship Service Then the one speaking with me took me by the hair and lifted me into the air in the middle of the great room. And as I watched, I saw people entering the room to the sound of the great bells outside. Then entered from all four…

by James B. JordanMarch 4, 1998
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American Culture

The Case Against Western Civilization, Part 3

Part 3: Philosophy (continued) If we realize that human beings are the images of God, and that man hates God, then we realize that all non-Christian political philosophy is founded on a fundamental hatred of other human beings, a hatred manifest in contempt. Rome, like Enoch, was founded on the…

by James B. JordanFebruary 4, 1998

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Eucharistic meditation

Matthew 19: What therefore God has joined together, let no man put asunder. This is the marriage supper of the lamb. Here at this table, Jesus our Lord and Husband, our Lordly Husband, meets with us to communion with us, and gives Himself to us. At this table, we are…

September 16, 2007

Baptismal meditation

Ephesians 5:25: Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself up for her; that He might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water by the word. We’ve been talking this morning about the permanence of marriage and about divorce, and this…

September 16, 2007

Exhortation

Jesus deals with divorce and remarriage, but His central teaching about marriage is that “From the beginning it was not so.” His point is not mainly to narrow the escape route from marriage. He commands husbands and wives to live together in a way that prevents divorce from ever arising…

September 16, 2007

All is light

Strangely, Paul says in Ephesians 5:13 that “everything that becomes visible is light.” Whatever could that mean? Hamann thought he knew: “Imagery comprises the entire realm of human knowledge and happiness. The first explosion of creation, and the first impression of its historian; the first manifestation and the first enjoyment…

September 15, 2007
History

I must speak

Rosenstock-Huessy finds himself “hurt, swayed, shaken, elated, disillusioned, shocked, comforted,” and incapable of refraining from speech: “To write a book is no luxury. It is a means of survival.” Behind Rosenstock-Huessy stands Hamann, and behind Hamann is Elihu of the book of Job, whose words Hamann uses as the epigram…

September 15, 2007

Gnostic bodies again

Our obsessiveness about exercise and health seems supremely anti-gnostic. But the opposite is the case. Consider the imagery: “Buns of steel” and “Abs of iron” and “Cable-like biceps.” The bodybuilder aims to exercise himself to robothood. His goal to exercise until he’s elevated to a state beyond human. He wants…

September 15, 2007

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