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Writing

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

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Biblical Horizons

Gordon Wenham on Ritual

In a brief article entitled, “The Theology of Old Testament Sacrifice," Gordon Wenham, expanding on a comment about ritual from anthropologist Monica Wilson, states: We resort to ritual when we want to express our deepest feelings. Consider the rituals used in greeting people in our society: a nod, a handshake,…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

A Postscript to the Meyers Thesis

Everyone here in Cambridge is talking about sacrifice. My supervisor, Dr. John Milbank, is working on a book on gift in which he is dealing with recent literature on sacrifice. The graduate seminar in Systematics during Michaelmas Term focused on the theme of sacrifice. The first presenter was Dr. Ian…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 27, 1995
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Baptism

Sacramental Efficacy

Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato , virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the hocus-pocus and "presto!" the sacraments confer grace.…

by Peter LeithartJanuary 26, 1995
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Exodus

Mansions in the Sky, The Meaning of the Tabernacle

When Israel came out of Egypt, she was a collection of tribes descended from the Tribe of Abraham. Tribalism drops out of history into the "world" by looking back to ancestors and by orienting to the spirits that govern the world. The world must not be manipulated, because to do…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Revelation

The Angels of Revelation

Angels are the mediators of the Old Creation, as Eugenio Corsini has rightly pointed out in his commentary, The Apocalypse. For this reason, argues Corsini, the book of Revelation must have to do with the final end of the Old Creation order, which he associates with the work of Jesus…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995
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Biblical Horizons

Triune Revelation and Through New Eyes Volume 2

Our procedure in "Through New Eyes Volume 2" thus far has been to lay out the general overview of history and its meaning as the Bible presents it. My hope is to fill this out in four major sections, corresponding to the four ages and the four testaments in the…

by James B. JordanJanuary 7, 1995

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Baptizing in the wilderness

Israel is Egypt. For Israel to become Israel again, she had to go back out to the wilderness, where John ministers, and she’s going to have to cross the Jordan all over again. Wrath is coming on Israel/Egypt, and only those who repent and receive the baptism of repentance will…

June 24, 2007

With a camel skin on

Why does John the Baptist wear camel skin? Commentators often connect this with John’s role as Elijah, the “Baal of hair” or, as I like to say, the “Hair-baal.” That’s correct, but the specificity of “camel hair” seems to point to something else. Camels are unclean - they chew the…

June 24, 2007

Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Sunday in Trinity

Matthew 3:16-17: When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, This is My beloved Son,…

June 24, 2007

Exhortation, Fourth Sunday of Trinity

Over the next couple of years, Trinity will go through a significant transition, as I phase out of some responsibilities at Trinity to take on new responsibilities with the NSA graduate program. I will not be leaving Trinity, but over the next two years you’ll see a different face in…

June 24, 2007
Theology

PCA on the cross

According to Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy’s cross of reality, individuals are always stretched out on a cross, in four directions - to the past and to the future, to the inside and to the outside. Growth and maturity come when we endure the cross in faith that when we are torn to…

June 22, 2007
Theology

Catholicity

Among other things, the Federal Vision has been an effort to articulate a Reformed catholicity, and the fight in the PCA is in part a fight between catholicity and sectarianism. The massive vote at GA against the Federal Vision was, to put it gently, not a blow in favor of…

June 22, 2007

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