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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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Biblical Studies

Sermon Outline, April 25

Here’s another sermon outline, again shamelessly borrowing material from Jim Jordan ‘s From Bread to Wine . Priestly Service, 1 Kings 4:1-20 INTRODUCTION Priests are servants in a royal household. They live to serve their master, and they are regulated by detailed rules and regulations. The priestly stage of life…

April 21, 2004
Philosophy

Derrida’s Platonism

No doubt I’ve said this before, but perhaps not so clearly: 1) Derrida makes the point that all language is fundamentally metaphorical, and that even what appears as pure dialectic is rhetoric all the way down. 2) Derrida says that because of this communication and meaning are indeterminate, deferred, etc.…

April 20, 2004
Philosophy

Derrida’s Platonism

No doubt I’ve said this before, but perhaps not so clearly: 1) Derrida makes the point that all language is fundamentally metaphorical, and that even what appears as pure dialectic is rhetoric all the way down. 2) Derrida says that because of this communication and meaning are indeterminate, deferred, etc.…

April 20, 2004

Faith

According to the etymological and historical study of Wilfred Cantwell Smith , “believe” once had the range of meaning of the Greek PISTEUO and the Latin CREDO, and meant basically to entrust or commit oneself to something, to pledge allegiance. As Smith says, this notion had changed significantly by the…

April 20, 2004
Literature

Lolita

Before Nabokov wrote his scandalous book , one Heinz von Lichberg had published an 18-page story about a middle-age man who falls in love with the daughter of the woman who runs the boarding house where he lives. He has sex, and in the end the girl dies, while the…

April 20, 2004
Literature

Defoe and de Devil

A new edition of Daniel Defoe ‘s The Political History of the Devil (hitherto unknown to me) has recently been published, and receives a review in the April 2 issue of the TLS . The book covers not only Satan’s involvement in biblical history, but his continuing involvement in the…

April 19, 2004

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