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Writing

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

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Masculinity

Ringing the Brothel Door

Bruce Marshall once wrote that every young man who rings the bell at a brothel is unconsciously looking for God. While it is not necessarily true that the inward desire of every man is ultimately a thirst for righteousness, it is true that every sin is the disordering of a…

by Garrett SoucyOctober 31, 2023
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Ruth

Work and Gratitude in Ruth

In a previous essay , I argued that the story which begins with Lot and culminates in Ruth’s great-grandson David follows God’s five-fold pattern of creative work as laid out by Jim Jordan: taking something in hand (in this case, the Abrahamic family), restructuring it, distributing the product of labor,…

by Josh JensenOctober 27, 2023
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Books

Men, Marriage, and the Feminine Imperative: A Review of "Men and Marriage"

Gilder, George. Men and Marriage. Moscow, ID: Canon Press, 2023. 1 By 1973, the hightide of second-wave feminism had flooded the beaches of American culture. Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique eroded the shores of traditional female roles by naming and stirring up further domestic discontentment. Kate Millet wrote her dissertation-turned-book,…

by Bill SmithOctober 17, 2023
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Galatians

Get Behind Me, Eliphaz!

The Book of Job is a very tortuous book. The arguments of Job and his friends are shot through with truth and error hopelessly mixed together. Every line of contentious poetry stands locked in deadly battle with every other line. As maddening as this can be for a reader who…

by Jonathan WhiteOctober 10, 2023
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Apostle Paul

Before His Conversion, Paul Knew Jesus

More than once in the last 50 years it has occurred to me that Paul might have known Jesus before He appeared to Paul on the Damascus road, but I had never taken up the notion in earnest until recently when I ran into a book by Stanley Porter titled…

by Ralph Allan SmithOctober 4, 2023
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Acts

Did Peter Found the Church in Rome?

The question in the title is genuine, not polemic. I could be perfectly happy to follow an ancient — and what is regarded as a well-attested — tradition. But I do not feel compelled to follow it simply because it is tradition. I would like to have arguments that Peter…

by Ralph Allan SmithSeptember 26, 2023

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Gift of the Spirit

At every stage of His incarnation, Jesus is involved with the Spirit. Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, anointed with the Spirit at His baptism, offered Himself in the Spirit on the cross, rose by the power of the Spirit, and then at His ascension, the Father conferred the fullness…

June 9, 2014

Nevin Lectures 2014

Dr. Timothy George, Dean of Beeson Divinity School in Birmingham, was the first Nevin Lecturer at Trinity House in February 2014 on the topic of “Baptist Sacramental Theology.” Videos of those lectures are now available here . In an 1844 sermon on Ephesian 4, John Williamson Nevin declared that “unity…

June 9, 2014
Reformational Catholicism

First the Table

The Eucharist is a memorial of Jesus, a ritual portrayal of the church God promised to form. It points toward a future union. Because it is a memorial, it is also the path toward that ultimate goal .

June 9, 2014

Ancient Influence

The possibility that the Babylonian “creation” stories were influenced by the biblical account are usually dismissed quickly for chronological reasons. The Babylonian texts are, it is said, much earlier than Genesis. John Walton thinks this quick dismissal too quick ( Ancient Israelite Literature in its Cultural Context , 36): “Though…

June 7, 2014
Uncategorized

Presbyterians at the Table

Ronald Byars’s Come and See is a piece of theological/religious reporting, but on a topic that doesn’t often get press coverage - the movement among Presbyterians (in the PCUSA) toward weekly communion. Byars documents that the number of churches that celebrate communion each week is increasing, examines the pastoral challenges…

June 7, 2014

Look and be Radiant

In the blessing he pronounced over Israel, Aaron was to say “Yahweh make His face to shine upon you” (Numbers 6). Why this particular form of blessing? God’s face shines like the sun, and so gives life and health to all it shines on. If a man is like a…

June 7, 2014

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