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

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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 4

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 4. The Three Basic Phases of the Covenant We have introduced the three phases of the covenant, from childhood to adulthood to full maturity. Let us look more fully at…

by James B. JordanAugust 31, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 3

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 3. Covenant Maturation Let us now turn to the application of this One Eternal Covenant into history. We have been looking at Covenant Theology. Covenant Theology has to do with…

by James B. JordanAugust 29, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark #2: Holy, Holy, Holy

Hymn Bark is a series designed to purify our good hymns from errors, and purge some bad ones. Here is chapter 2: Not really much wrong with this hymn, though I wish musicians would teach the congregation how to sing it. Routinely the note at the end of line 3…

by James B. JordanAugust 26, 2011
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Biblical Horizons

Hymn Bark: The Lorica of Patrick

I begin here a series of criticisms of hymns commonly sung in Reformed and Presbyterian circles. I begin with the hymn “I bind myself,” commonly called “The Lorica. There is only one textual problem with the usual sung version of this, and that is the phrase “eternal rocks.” Obviously that…

by James B. JordanAugust 22, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 2

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 2. What is the Covenant? There are many and varied descriptions of what the Bible means by the word “covenant” (Hebrew: berith). We are tempted to write that there are…

by James B. JordanAugust 22, 2011
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Biblical Studies

Biblical Theology Basics: Part 1

This series of post were originally published at the Biblical Horizons blog. The entire paper can be downloaded HERE . 1. What is Meant by Biblical Theology “Theology” is language (logos) about God (theos). We can distinguish two broad kinds of theology: Biblical Theology and Ecclesiastical Theology. Biblical Theology concerns…

by James B. JordanAugust 20, 2011

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Luther and Medieval Piety

T he great question haunting late medieval piety was that of the inadequacy of human piety. As Berndt Hamm puts it ( Reformation of Faith ), the “harrowing question” was that of the “spiritual inadequacy” of Christians (88). The late medieval answer was to reduce the requirements necessary to meet…

April 14, 2017

Politics of the Picturesque

I n his Landscape, Liberty and Authority , Tim Fulford examines the paradox of William Gilpin's travel writings and tour-leading in the picturesque wilds of Wales, England, and Scotland. Gilpin was aware that “the picturesque might be socially dangerous,” so much so that he apologizes to the noble landowners whose…

April 14, 2017

Separation and Incorporation

I n his contribution to Signifying Identities , Fredrik Barth suggests that our notion of political, economic and social boundaries is an extension of the feeling that a tool extends the body: When you hold a knife or a spoon in your hand and use it as an implement, the…

April 14, 2017

Early Christian Disenchantment

G uy G. Stroumsa writes in The Making of the Abrahamic Religions in Late Antiquity that “For Weber, as is well known, the most striking ‘disenchantment of the world' in history occurred with the rise of the ‘inner-worldly' asceticism ( innerweltliche Askese ) of the Calvinist Reformation. And yet, it…

April 14, 2017

From Reform to Revolution?

M ichel de Certeau ( The Writing of History , 126-7) quotes Alphonse Dupront on the post-Reformation situation of the church: “a first piece of raw material, as obvious as capital for the modern mind, is the progressive promotion of heresy in confession and of confession in church. . .…

April 14, 2017

The Unity of Christian Europe

In a 1971 essay, H.G. Koenigsberger challenged the notion that the Reformation broke up a unified Europe. He criticizes historians and social scientists for assuming a norm of unity: “We have assumed that the theological and ecclesiastical unity of Catholic Christendom was its natural condition and that, in consequence, the…

April 13, 2017

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