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Creation

Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Part 4)

In my previous two posts, I looked at aspects of Psalms 93, 95, 96 and 98 that declare Yahweh, the divine King, to be the world’s own Creator. In my next post, I plan to argue that the creation theology of the sub-section constituted by Psalms 93-100 contributes to the…

by Stephen LongApril 23, 2015
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Otherness

Sexual Difference, Liberal and Christian

Ethika Politika has published a fascinating interview within which the French Catholic philosopher Fabrice Hadjadj discusses his recent work on the subject of sexuality. While there are many points where our lines of reasoning as Protestants will sharply diverge from Hadjadj’s, there is also much that is deeply perceptive in…

by Alastair RobertsApril 21, 2015
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Literature

Macbeth and the Fall of Adam

For anyone in Shakespeare’s audience who knew the real story of Macbeth, his play must have been surprising. Shakespeare changed so many important details of the historical Macbeth’s life that had Raphael Holinshed, the main author of the most popular history of the British Isles in Shakespeare’s day — Holinshed…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 16, 2015
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Creation

Maker of Heaven and Earth, (Part 3)

I started looking at a sequence of psalms on divine Kingship (Psalms 93-100) in my last post, part of a series looking at the Old Testament’s witness to Yahweh’s exercise of absolute mastery over his cosmos. I am not trying to “prove” a doctrine of creation ex nihilo directly from…

by Stephen LongApril 14, 2015
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Anxiety

(Un)Holy Fear

Most of the time I believe that dread is wise, anxiety righteous, fear a holy thing. It sounds ridiculous, but bear with me. There are days when fear seems to be not only a rational response to my circumstances, but a moral duty. After all, being a grown-up means responsibility.…

by Leta SundetApril 11, 2015
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Psalms

Psalm 36 Commentary

Get the Psalm 36 Translation here Psalm 36 begins with several translation problems. First, the first word in the actual psalm, as it is found in the English text, is the word "oracle." This word also begins the second verse in the medieval Massoretic Hebrew text, which is our basic…

by James B. JordanApril 10, 2015

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Medicine of Words

In her comparative study of Julian the Apostate and Gregory Nazianzus ( Sons of Hellenism, Fathers of the Church ), Susanna Elm devotes a long chapter to Gregory's Oration 2, which is concerned with the philosopher's practice of soul care. It is not an easy task: “As difficult as it…

November 2, 2015

In Praise of Bottom

Chesterton is nothing if not an enthusiast, and he is nothing if not enthusiastic about Bottom the Weaver, one of the “mechanicals” of A M idsummer Night's Dream . “It is difficult to approach critically so great a figure as that of Bottom the Weaver. He is greater and more…

November 2, 2015

Slavery and the Monroe Doctrine

By the Act Prohibiting the Importation of Slaves, the US Congress decided that no more slaves were to be imported to the United States. The law passed in 1807 and went into effect in 1808. The slave trade to the Americas did not end. As Stephen Chambers notes in his…

November 2, 2015

A Consuming Fire

What does it mean to say God is jealous (Heb. qanna' )? In a recent JBL piece, Nissim Amzallag points out that it is intimately linked to Yahweh's fieriness (cf. Psalm 79:5; Ezekiel 38:19) and to “furnace remelting.” If there is a hint of volcanic power in the Old Testament…

October 30, 2015

Courage, Nature and the Supernatural

Patrick Clark's Perfection in Death is a study of Thomas's treatment of the virtue of courage, especially as expressed in martyrdom, against the background of ancient treatments of the same subject - from Homer to Socrates to Aristotle. He poses the dilemma on the first page: “If acts of virtue…

October 30, 2015
Gratitude

Gratitude and the Good Life

Discontent is one of life's most corrosive vices. When we wish we lived then , when we want our life to be taking place over there , we take no joy in what's here and the now. We cannot enjoy the present without receiving it, and we cannot receive it…

October 30, 2015

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