Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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The church has not been a static entity, nor has the church's history been one of smooth organic growth. There are many continuities from Jesus and the apostles to the present, but there have been regular disruptions along the way, disruptions that radically changed the church's relation to the world…
John sees the Lamb surrounded by the 144,000 that were sealed on the forehead (Revelation 14:1). The company of the Lamb stands in contrast to the company of the beast. The worshipers of the beast were marked on the hand and the forehead, and the 144,000 are sealed on the…
Critics have offered wildly different assessments of the role of sex in the fiction of James Joyce. On the one hand, many hostile critics his work, especially Ulysses , attack him for obscenity and indecency. They regard sex as one of the main themes of Joyce’s work. This is often…
Sociologists working from various theoretical and political perspectives have worried that American society is fragmenting into two separate worlds. Our cities aren't single anymore. Cities are dual, and the tale of late modernity is a tale of two cities. Jock Young ( Vertigo of Late Modernity ) isn't convinced. He…
“You who were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ,” Paul tells the Gentile Ephesians (2:13). Jesus' blood is the sacrificial blood that makes a way of approach to God. “He Himself is our peace, who made both one and broke down the dividing wall by…
In an oracle against Edom, Jeremiah warns that the guilty will be sentenced to drink: “Behold, those who were not sentenced to drink the cup will certainly drink, and are you the one who will be completely acquitted? You will not be acquitted, but you will certainly drink it” (Jeremiah…
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