Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Russian Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann died in 1983, but his importance continues to grow, sometimes in surprising ways. A Russian transplanted to Paris and then to Crestwood, New York, he was an acute observer of the American religious scene. He possessed the clarity of vision the Spirit often grants to…
This is the fifth in a series of studies of Deuteronomy 22:3-23:8. "A bastard ( mazmer ) shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh" (Deuteronomy 23:2). [i] The translation “bastard” here for mazmer ,…
The Enlightenment project is very comprehensible in terms of the “Wars of Religion” that followed the Reformation. It's questionable whether all that is said about the Wars of Religion is entirely fair (R. J. Rushdoony’s Christian Survey of World History has some very helpful things to say about this). Still,…
The fourth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. One wounded by crushing, or cut in the member shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh (Deuteronomy 23:1. [i] The translation of this verse varies in different English versions. The basic idea is clear enough, however: a eunuch is…
Trinity House President Peter Leithart will give a lecture on violence at the 2013 Wheaton Theology Conference later this week.
The third in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22-23. This continues the second essay, which examines Deuteronomy 22:30: "A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s wing" (Hebrew: kanaf ). The Sin of Ham Another story would almost certainly occur to an ancient…
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The following is an excerpt taken from my Blessed Are the Hungry (Canon, 2000). The Lord’s Supper is the world in miniature; it has cosmic significance. Within it we find clues to the meaning of all creation and all history, to the nature of God and the nature of man,…
John of Salisbury, the 12th-century political thinker, called Orosius, author of Seven Books of HIstories against the Pagans , a "disciple of the great Augustine." It's true. According to Francis Oakley ( Empty Bottles of Gentilism ), Orosius "had studied with Augustine from 414 to 415, and he himself tells…
Elizabeth Digeser ( Making of a Christian Empire ) observes that the Roman emperor Diocletian came to the purple with a disadvantage: He was a usurper. He needed to secure his power, lest another usurp his place. His strategy was to distribute power to a Tetrarchy, and to claim divine…
Thomas argues ( ST I, 28, 2) that since "everything which is not the divine essence is a creature" and "relation really belongs to god," it follows that relation is identical to essence. More fully: "whatever has an accidental existence in creatures, when considered as transferred to God has a…
Peter Schjeldahl claims that Auguste Rodin "or his hand, as his mind’s executive—wrenched figurative sculpture from millennia of tradition and sent it tumbling into modernity." He admits that There’s a stubborn tinge of vulgarity about Rodin, inseparable from his strength." Yet even when we are put off by vulgarity, "your…
"The doctrine of the Trinity is only possible as a piece of baffled theology," writes Joseph Ratzinger ( Introduction to Christianity , 122). This is true in a sheer historical sense: "Every one of the big basic concepts in the doctrine of the Trinity was condemned at one time or…
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