Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Paradosis Center at John Brown University in Siloam Spring, Arkansas, put on its first conference last week, it was a remarkable event. It was an ecumenical conference including Orthodox (John Behr, Edith Humphrey, others), Catholic (Rusty Reno, Michael Root, others), and Evangelical (Timothy George, David Lyle Jeffrey). Unusually for…
Naphtali Meshel observes in his new The "Grammar" of Sacrifice that scholars have been talking for decades about the "grammatical" character of ritual and sacrifice in general, but have never actually analyzed a specific ritual or sacrificial system grammatically. Some even talk about a "universal grammar" of sacrifice "even though…
Some Christians are rather breezy about the problem of evil. We shouldn't be. Do I need to remind you of the grisly beheadings that have taken place over the past few weeks? Do I need to remind you of the blood of innocents that’s been spilled in our own country?…
Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has…
Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He…
Paul stands against those who are “troubling” or “disturbing” the Galatians churches ( tarasso ; 1:7; also in 5:10). The reference seems to be two great troublers from the Old Testament. First, Achan is described as a “troubler” for the problems he causes in the aftermath of the battle at…
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P lutocrats , Chrystia Freeland’s 2013 book, is about the rise of the “global super-rich” and the ways the global economy squeezes the middle classes in development countries. Freeland argues that “we are living through two, slightly different gilded ages that are unfolding simultaneously. The industrialized West is experiencing a…
“T o understand the mind-set of the super-elite,” writes Chrystia Freeland in Plutocrats , “your starting point should be the reality—and their own self-perception—that they, too, lead anxious, overworked, and uncertain lives.” Unlike the super-rich of earlier ages, most of today's billionaires didn't inherit wealth, and they aren't a leisure…
D oes Protestantism Have A Future? The answer to that question depends on what we mean by the word “Protestantism.” We Protestants typically think of Protestantism in doctrinal terms. Protestantism is the sola s, justification by grace through faith, opposition to the merit theology of medieval Catholicism. These doctrines are…
I n his commentary on Revelation 4, Victorinus spins off a fascinating allegory about the wings of the living creatures who surround the Lords’ throne. Four living creatures with six wings each: Victorinus does the obvious and multiplies. The resulting twenty-four wings represent the twenty-four books of the Old Testament,…
A fter he recounts Yahweh’s commitment to the Davidic line (1 Chronicles 17), the Chronicler recounts David’s conquests (ch. 18). David strikes to the west (Philistia, v. 1) and east (Moab, v. 2; Aram, vv. 3-8), and Abishai later follows up with an annexation of Edomite territory to the south…
T he Chronicler’s account of the death of Saul (1 Chronicles 10) is organized in three paragraphs: first, an account of the battle of Mount Gilboa; then, an account of the Philistine seizure of Saul’s body and its rescue by men from Jabeth-Gilead; finally, an editorial evaluation of Saul. The…
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