Through New Eyes

Through New Eyes is the quintessence of James Jordan. Jordan always takes his readers by the hand and whirls them through a wonderland of symbols, connections, ideas, and paradigms. It's always a fun ride, and he always challenges his readers to think more deeply about the Bible. For that reason alone, Jordan is always worth a read.

In this book Jordan is trying to reawaken readers to the rich depth of symbolism in the world God created, especially as that world is described in Scripture. After taking time to talk about man, the animals, the structure of creation, plants, trees, stars, planets, rocks, and gems, Jordan specifically focuses on the repeated pattern of covenants in the Bible. He shows how with each new covenant there is a new heaven and new earth, better and more glorious than the one before. I had already read Peter Leithart's A House For My Name, but in Jordan I see the seed from which many of Leithart's ideas germinated.

The downside of Jordan is that he goes a bit too fast. Sometimes he makes actual arguments to support his ideas, and sometimes he simply gives an enticing explanation that seems to make sense of all the facts. The way he speeds along with wide-eyed wonder, it's sometimes hard to separate the two.

My favorite parts of the book were when he discussed how Mosaic law should be read and applied by Christians today and when he discussed the connections between Jesus and the Tabernacle in the book of John.