Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. My argument is simple: What Paul means in writing the quotation above in context is the same as what he was telling the Ephesians when he wrote,…
THE ART OF BIBLICAL THEOLOGY IN PRACTICE: INTERTEXTUALITY AND TWO PAULINE CASE STUDIES The Art of Biblical Theology: Intertextuality Biblical Theology is really an art. Like other skills of this sort, it is not a matter of following rules (though there are certainly guidelines and techniques). Rather, it’s matter of…
Click HERE for Part 1 Reading Christotelically Jesus Christ is the heart of God’s plan for creation and history. There is no “hidden plan” or “hidden God” lurking behind Christ; rather, in and through Christ God has revealed himself and his intentions towards the world. In Christ, the Father has…
STORY THEOLOGY AND A THEOLOGY OF STORY Defining Biblical Theology What is Biblical Theology? How does it compare to other ways of doing theology, such as Systematic Theology? Geerhardus Vos suggested that whereas Biblical Theology draws a line, Systematic Theology draws a circle. That is to say, Biblical Theology is…
The gospels strongly imply Jesus lived by faith in the promise of his heavenly Father. How else can his prayer life understood? How else could he have wrestled through the Gethsemane experience? How else could he have committed himself into his Father’s care at death? How could Jesus have presented…
John 3:16 is probably best-known, or at least, best-liked Bible passage in North America: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.” This declaration of God’s love of the whole world is greatly comforting…
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When Aaron and his sons were ordained, they were washed, vested, and anointed (Leviticus 8:6-9). When Aaron approached the Most Holy Place on the Day of Atonement, he puts on linen clothes and washes (16:4). There is no anointing, he removes the garments of glory. The ordination rite goes in…
Faith is the discernment of things unseen. Faith looks for a city yet to come, not made with hands. To any visible arrangement of things, faith stands with Faust in his refusal of “Stay, you are so fair.” Faith says to every human construction, “Good, but not it .” Faith’s…
In a contribution to Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice , David Frankfurter analyzes several contexts of Egyptian religion on the way to a critique of the whole category of “sacrifice.” In some of these contexts, no animals were slaughtered; no violence done. In some contexts, though, animals were killed. He elaborates on…
Jonathan Klawans asserts in an essay in Ancient Mediterranean Sacrifice that “symbolic action was an undeniably central feature of ancient Israelite culture” (114). As evidence, he points to passages in the Hebrew Bible that highlight the memorial function of rituals. Passover, Sukkot, Sabbath, circumcision, phylacteries are all presents as communicative…
In his treatise On Abstinence from Killing Animals , Porphyry states a principle of philosophical sacrifice: Different strokes for different deities. For “intelligible gods,” the best worship is “hymn-singing in words,” since “sacrifice is an offering to each god from what he has given, with which he sustains us and…
John Steven explains at Slate why the ceasefire in South Sudan, like many ceasefires, could well backfire” “The cease-fire is making it worse. Indeed, this uncomfortable truth isn’t even unique to South Sudan. Cease-fires almost always make a conflict worse, delaying political deals, prolonging the killing, and ensuring that the…
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