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

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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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Politics

Hart’s Secular Faith

For those interested in Reformed political thought, Bill Chellis of De Regno Christi has organized an online discussion of Darryl Hart’s recent book, A Secular Faith . You can find the discussion at a new address: http://deregnochristi.org/2007/03/19/throwing-down-the-gauntlet.

March 21, 2007
Politics

Hart’s Secular Faith

For those interested in Reformed political thought, Bill Chellis of De Regno Christi has organized an online discussion of Darryl Hart’s recent book, A Secular Faith . You can find the discussion at a new address: http://deregnochristi.org/2007/03/19/throwing-down-the-gauntlet.

March 21, 2007

Eucharistic polity

Muir again: “In [medieval] England taking communion was called ‘taking one’s rights,’ which meant asserting one’s membership in the community, and to suffer excommunication . . . would have meant exclusion from both the universal community of believers and the local community of citizens . . . . Although the…

March 19, 2007

True humanity

In the second edition of his book on ritual in the early modern period (Cambridge 2005), Edward Muir describes the 14th and 15th century obsession with “Christ’s carnality”: “As Leo Steinberg has shown, in fifteenth-century Italy thoroughly Christian artists made visual allusions to Christ’s phallus, showing that the god-man had…

March 19, 2007
Uncategorized

Sermon notes, Fifth Sunday of Lent

INTRODUCTION Last week, we looked at parents’ responsibility to guard the “inside” of the family from dangerous influences from “outside.” But the family also has a positive relation to the world outside. A healthy family is open in proper ways toward the outside, and is supposed to affect the world…

March 19, 2007

Eucharistic meditation, Fourth Sunday of Lent

Psalm 128: How blessed is everyone who fears the LORD, who walks in His ways. When you shall eat of the fruit of your hands, you will be happy and it will be well with you. Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine within your house, your children like…

March 18, 2007

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