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

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Biblical Studies

A Daughter of Abraham

Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2019
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Autonomy

Rehabilitating Autonomy

It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…

by Mark HorneApril 9, 2019
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John

Jesus: Preacher of Paradox

Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 2, 2019
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Esther

The Book of Esther in Covenant History

It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…

by James B. JordanMarch 28, 2019
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How to Worship

A Positive View of Music

It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…

by John AhernMarch 26, 2019
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Biblical Theology

The Reopened Wounds of Jacob

In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 19, 2019

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Theology

Hauerwas on “Radical Democracy”

Stanley Hauerwas gave an interesting paper offering a Christian defense of “Radical Democracy.” He covered some of the work of John Howard Yoder, who on Hauerwas’ reading is by no means politically quietist, albeit he is a pacifist. The most interesting portion of the lecture, though, was Hauerwas’ summary of…

November 25, 2004
Theology

Hauerwas on “Radical Democracy”

Stanley Hauerwas gave an interesting paper offering a Christian defense of “Radical Democracy.” He covered some of the work of John Howard Yoder, who on Hauerwas’ reading is by no means politically quietist, albeit he is a pacifist. The most interesting portion of the lecture, though, was Hauerwas’ summary of…

November 25, 2004

Sermon Outline, First Sunday in Advent

INTRODUCTION Advent (the word means ?coming?E focuses our attention on the incarnation of the Son of God, but the incarnation of the Son of God not only tells us about the Son. The Son became incarnate so that He could reveal God to us, all of God, Father, Son and…

November 25, 2004

Placing the Name

Sandra Richter gave a very stimulating paper on the use of the phrase “place my name there” in Deuteronomy. Her main concern was to argue that the “place where my name dwells” in Dt 12 is fulfilled within Dt in chapter 27, with the ceremony of covenant-renewal at Mount Ebal.…

November 23, 2004
Biblical Studies

De Lubac and the Bible

There were a few interesting insights from the session on de Lubac and biblical interpretation at SBL this morning. Margaret Adam of Duke presented a comparative study of Frei and de Lubac, arguing that Frei’s notion of a “stretchy literal sense” does not do justice to the complexity of Scripture,…

November 21, 2004
Theology

RO, Augustine, and Borders

Hans Boersma offered an interesting critique of the notion of “borders” in Radical Orthodoxy and some of its fellow travelers, especially concerning their relationship to Augustine’s conception of the city of God. The two terms of his analysis were “ontology of peace” and “oppositional logic,” and he argued that these…

November 21, 2004

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