Author: Adam Johnson
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On the Shoulders of Farmers
Thucydides’ Revelation of Our Indebtedness Thucydides opens his “History of the Peloponnesian War” by tying the capability for a truly great war with the stable growth of a culture. He argues that the Peloponnesian was the greatest war because no cultures, to his knowledge, had attained sufficient stability and wealth to wage a greater war.…
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When Mercy Looks Like Justice
A friend of mine is involved in a lawsuit, alleging that she was sexually harassed at work. But she has “some extended family and close friends saying that she’s taking this too far and that justice and vengeance is for the Lord only.” She’s trying to figure out whether it is okay to sue someone –…
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Redefining Freedom on the Frontier
If Western civilization as we know it were to collapse, I think I will last a week, month, or maybe even a year longer, simply for having read the Little House on the Prairie series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Pa and Ma are simply amazing. I’ve learned much “looking over their shoulders,” as it were, as they…
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Lenten Reflections: The Temptation of Jesus
Day 24 – Friday, March 9 Scripture: Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry. And the devil said to…
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Following and Sight: Lewis’ Retelling of “The Bacchae”
“‘Till We Have Faces” is not the only myth Lewis retold. In fact, he loved retelling myths. And while you may have noted the conspicuous presence of Bacchus at the end of Prince Caspian and the amazing feast that follows, you may not have caught some of the other details Lewis wove into his retelling of the Bacchae.…
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Al Geier at Torrey: Learning in Leisure
One year out of college, I was invited to return to Biola to work for John Mark Reynolds, the founder and then director of the Torrey Honors Institute. One of the unquestionable highlights of the three years which followed have to do with certain memories and experiences with Dr. Al Geier, who taught classics at the University of…
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Cross in Pompeii and Ancient Theology
In case you weren’t paying close attention, 2015 was a bad year for an old thesis. You may have heard or read the claim that Christians in the first three centuries of the church didn’t use the cross in their art or worship—that it was a brutal symbol of persecution, and that they focused instead…
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Pilgrimage to the National Parks: Awe, Wonder, and What’s Missing
We made our annual pilgrimage this year—not to a temple or a religious site (much as I would like to visit the Holy Land!). We made our annual trip northward to visit more of America’s National Parks on our way to see family in Washington and Idaho. This year, five nights in Yellowstone and four…
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Christmas is a Time for Family
Like most people I know, I have some very special Christmas memories, and many of them revolve around presents: the treasure-hunt gift that culminated in my first basketball, wrapped and hidden in a garbage can, or the tiny little present hidden on the tree itself that proved to be the pin for a set of…
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The Virtue of Tolerance
A virtue, in order to live up to its lofty title, must contain within itself its own proper resources for opposing the vice unique to it. As Aristotle taught us, virtues rarely travel alone; typically they wander the streets accompanied by distorted versions of themselves; the vices that carry the virtue in one extreme direction…
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Eusebius on Christ: “The Great Martyr”
Martyrdom Martyrdom is a matter of finding oneself caught between an absolute and unyielding monotheism on the one hand (15, 39, 100), and an absolute and demonic claim to the contrary on the other. It is where we find ourselves forced to confess God at pain of death, or reject God to embrace a life…
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T&T Clark Companion to the Atonement
This week, I submitted the manuscript for the T&T Clark Companion to the Atonement, an edited work with 18 major chapters and 85 shorter essays from scholars around the world, exploring the doctrine of the atonement from a variety of angles. The various essays explore the atonement in its relationship to different doctrines (e.g. atonement…