Category Archives: Bible

Domain Quarantine: The Relocation of a Practice Beyond the Reach of Its Governing Text

Posted on August 14, 2026 by nathanalbright

Paper 4 of Five Abstract This paper names a mechanism by which an indefensible practice becomes defensible without being defended: it is relocated into a register where the governing text is not consulted, and where its non-consultation reads not as … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Half-Verse Warrant and the Reciprocity Balance Index

Posted on August 14, 2026 by nathanalbright

Paper 3 of Five Abstract This paper is the operational member of the series. It defines a computable measure — the Reciprocity Balance Index (RBI) — for any corpus that cites commands binding two parties in a relation: the ratio … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Functional Subtraction: Diminishing Without Deleting

Posted on August 14, 2026 by nathanalbright

Paper 1 of Five Abstract This paper names a form of argumentative behavior that has been noticed piecemeal across several literatures and treated as a general object in none of them: the setting aside of an authoritative text by a … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

What Was Not Said: A Prolegomenon to Reading Absence in Theological Controversy

Posted on August 14, 2026 by nathanalbright

§1. The Problem of the Settled Verdict 1.1 Two ways a field closes A field can close in two ways, and from the outside they look the same. It can be exhausted: every question worth asking has been asked, the … Continue reading →

Posted in American Civil War, American History, Bible, Christianity, History, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Religious Costume

Posted on August 13, 2026 by nathanalbright

Paper 6 of a Series on Pseudolaw Abstract Pseudolegal claims frequently arrive with Scripture attached. This paper examines that overlay directly: the passages recurrently cited, the readings imposed on them, and what the passages say when read in context. It … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Musings | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Judge Not?  Judge Better.

Posted on August 9, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermonette given to the Portland, Oregon congregation of the United Church of God on Sabbath, August 8, 2026.] Almost everyone who has spent time around the Bible has run into it. You … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Church of God, Musings, Sermonettes | Tagged , | Leave a comment

The Difference Between Dead and Asleep

Posted on August 2, 2026 by nathanalbright

[Note:  This is the prepared text for a sermon given to the United Church of God in The Dalles, Oregon on Sabbath, August 1, 2026.] Introduction: A Week Among the Dying and the Dead I have spent most of this … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Church of God, Sermonettes | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Custody Without Guardians: Child Protection in the Entertainment Industry, Examined Against the Long History of the Performer

Posted on July 23, 2026 by nathanalbright

Abstract A short promotional video from 2009, in which a forty-year-old music executive announces to a global audience that he has been “given custody” of a fifteen-year-old singer for a weekend of activity that “we can’t really disclose,” has been … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Musings | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Steelmanning as a Memory Discipline: The Refusal of Laundering Turned Toward an Opponent

Posted on July 11, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. Steelmanning Defined The word is recent and slightly ugly, and it names an old thing badly. To steelman a position is to furnish it in its strongest documented form — the form its own ablest advocate would recognize and … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

The Charge to Enquire Wisely: Ecclesiastes 7:10 as a Rule of Method

Posted on July 11, 2026 by nathanalbright

I. The Charge Set Out The verse is brief, and its brevity has cost it. Say not thou, What is the cause that the former days were better than these? for thou dost not enquire wisely concerning this. (Ecclesiastes 7:10) … Continue reading →

Posted in Bible, Christianity, Musings | Tagged , , | Leave a comment