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

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Advent

5 Reasons I Don't Like Advent

First, I love my Christmas songs. This is how I think of it: the season of Advent gets in the way of singing what I want to sing. How can you not listen to Nat King Cole in December? Or Bing Crosby, Harry Connick Jr., and Amy Grant? Even though…

by Caleb SkogenDecember 16, 2021
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Covenant

Grandparenting and the Transcendent Summons

Introduction Imagine the stereotypical American grandparents. Once you have the outline, start filling in the details. What picture emerges? Maybe something like what Ogden Nash said, “When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window.” Or maybe the oft-repeated assertion that it’s the grandparent’s job description “to spoil the…

by Jason CherryDecember 14, 2021
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Deuteronomy

The Audacity of Lament

Hundreds of generations of ancient Israelites grew up as children of Abraham, inheritors of the covenant—the promises of God. These promises were more than nice bumper stickers or framed photos to cover empty space in their homes–these promises were at the heart of their very identity–individually and collectively. Genesis “I…

by Zach MccartneyDecember 9, 2021
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Hermeneutics

Barren Worlds

Aliens and Sojourners When the question “Is there life on other planets?” is asked, even the best theologians can only reply, “The Bible doesn’t tell us.” Well, in truth, the Bible does tell us, but only if we are paying attention. …and there was not a man to till the…

by Mike BullDecember 7, 2021
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John

Jesus’ Search for a Wife

John runs a theme throughout his gospel that bubbles under the surface—Jesus is searching for, and finding, a wife. John launches into the narrative proper with a statement of where he’s going. “On the third day there was a wedding” (John 2.1) is about as good an example of flash…

by Tim SuffieldNovember 30, 2021
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Touch

I have come to believe that a great many people are almost too weak to repent in any very open way. There must first be some level of healing. In some cases, including biblical ones, there is not even any evidence of faith on the part of the recipients of…

by Richard BledsoeNovember 23, 2021

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Entrepreneurial State

Mariana Mazzucato argues in The Entrepreneurial State that government financing and research has been crucial to the technology booms of recent decades. Jeff Madrick summarizes part of her argument in his NYRB review : “private firms often invest after innovations have already come a long way under government’s much more…

April 9, 2014

Yahweh among the Gods

Shayne Cohen notes in his Beginnings of Jewishness that “many gentiles in antiquity recognized that the God of the Jews was a powerful God” (142). He cites the magical papyri that “routinely invoke the ‘God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,’ ‘Iao Sabaoth,’” as well as “a disciple of the orator…

April 9, 2014

Deuteronomy among the Greeks

In a 1978 article on funeral maledictions among Greeks, Louis Robert records a curse from an inscription. Various sources have been suggested, but Robert concludes that the malediction is a word for word translation of Deuteronomy 28:22, 28. He quotes one scholar’s conclusion that an inscription that quotes Deuteronomy alongside…

April 9, 2014

Jewish Sublime

“Longinus” describes the sublime as “the echo of a great soul” ( de Sublimitate , 9.2)). The sublime can be expressed in silence or in speech, and it can be found the terrible, awe-inspiring acts of the gods. But Longinus worries that Homeric accounts of the gods “if they be…

April 9, 2014
Shakespeare

Shakespeare the Christian?

The first of several of essays on Shakespeare is up at the Colson Center Worldview Journal this morning.

April 9, 2014

Pillar in the Temple

Jesus promises to make the overcomers in Philadelphia “pillars in the temple of My God” (Revelation 3:12). Yahweh was the original pillar. He led Israel to Sinai in a pillar of cloud, and then His cloudy pillar filled the tabernacle. Yahweh is the pillar in His own house, the load-bearing…

April 8, 2014

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