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Writing

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

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Exodus

A Brief Response to Rev. Richard Bacon’s Opposition to Paedocommunion

1. Introduction Reverend Richard Bacon is the pastor of First Presbyterian Church of Rowlett, Texas. He has written a tract entitled " What Mean Ye By This Service? Paedocommunion in Light of Passover, " printed by Presbyterian Heritage Publications (P.O. Box 180922, Dallas, TX 75218). I am writing this brief…

by Mark HorneMay 29, 1997
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How to Worship

Formal Corporate Prayer

A Defense of the Use of Coordinated, Congregational Prayer in Public Worship My goal in this series of articles is to equip the members of Providence Reformed Presbyterian Church to worship God intelligently on Sunday and also to help visitors understand the biblical and theological rationale for our form of…

by Jeff MeyersMay 20, 1997
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Biblical Horizons

Twelve Fundamental Avenues of Revelation, Part 3

Several implications flow from this first group of considerations. First (D1), nature and natural objects reveal God to the eye of faith. The study of nature is the study of the design of the Spirit, and from it we learn how God designs things, and how we as His images…

by James B. JordanApril 30, 1997
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Biblical Chronology

John Sailhamer Weighs In, Part 1

Does the chronology in the Bible begin with the creation of Adam or with the creation of the universe? That is the question we are exploring this year. In January and February we took up the "Framework Hypothesis" as advocated by its most scholarly and powerful exponent, Dr. Meredith G.…

by James B. JordanApril 30, 1997
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Hermeneutics

Toward a Chiastic Understanding of the Gospel According to Matthew, Part 1

In preparing an essay on Matthew 24-25 for our subscription essayletter Studies in the Revelation , I have found it necessary to consider the structure of Matthew’s gospel as a whole. The following are the fruits of my research, such as they are. This essay is not intended as the…

by James B. JordanApril 29, 1997
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Creeds

In Whom Do You Trust?

An Explanation of and Apology for the Use of the Apostles’ and Nicene Creeds in Worship With the rest of the country I anxiously watched the siege of the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, but there is one image that I will always remember. It is not the firefight…

by Jeff MeyersApril 20, 1997

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Typical Beauty

Ruskin's concept of "typical beauty" is a piece of theological aesthetics. In the second volume of Modern Painters , Ruskin distinguished kinds of beauty, the typical and the vital. Of the first, he says: "that external quality of bodies already so often spoken of, and which, whether it occur in…

July 26, 2018

Of Subject and Objects

In the third volume of Modern Painters , Ruskin addresses the "German dulness, and English affectation" that has "multiplied among us the use of two of the most objectionable words that were ever coined by the troublesomeness of metaphysicians,—namely, 'Objective,' and 'Subjective.'" The words are "exquisitely . . . useless"…

July 25, 2018

Hopkins and Typology

George Landow argues ( Victorian Types, Victorian Shadows ) that the poetry of Gerald Manley Hopkins would look less bizarre, though no less innovative, if we placed Hopkins more firmly in the poetics of his time. Which is to say, placed him in the context of a typological poetics. Hopkins's…

July 24, 2018

Architecture of Sacrifice

Architecture, Ruskin claims ( Seven Lamps of Architecture ), isn’t the same as building. Architecture refers to the specifically artistic features of a building, and the specifically artistic features have to do with adornment and not function: “Architecture concerns itself only with those characters of an edifice which are above…

July 23, 2018

Types of Color

John Ruskin was the main art critic of his time; he was an artists himself, and also wrote on a variety of other topics, especially on the state of English politics and economy. He abandoned explicit attachment to Evangelical Christianity but remained deeply indebted. He provides an excellent example of…

July 19, 2018

The Typological Imagination

Typological forms of thought weren't confined to sermons and commentaries, but made their way into 19 th -century English poetry. -Some poets put typology to orthodox uses, though here we can see divergent deployments of a similar typology. Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote a poem, Casa Guidi Windows (1851) about the…

July 18, 2018

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