Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I live in an area where Mardi Gras is in full swing, and I can remember from my upbringing that Fat Tuesday was a last ditch effort at debauchery before the pseudo-spiritual practice of “giving something up for Lent” really began. In my youth I would give up some kind…
Part 1: Observations from the Texts (Matthew 9:14-17, Mark 2:18-22, Luke 5:33-39) The precipitating context for the new wine/old wineskins discussion is people asking Jesus why His disciples did not fast. His immediate answer is that you can’t get the friends of the groom to fast at the bachelor party…
Simply, “progress” means to move forward. In that sense, a slug can progress from one end of the sidewalk to the other. But for us in twenty-first century America, progress means something else. For us, it is almost a synonym for goodness. The slug can only “progress” if the other…
I have the privilege of being able to counsel a lot of women who are seeking abortions. I can tell you that the majority of them are seeking to end their pregnancies not because they feel like it would be a fun thing to do, but because they are scared…
Last night, along with a few online friends, I watched this debate on the meaning of life between William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, and Jordan Peterson, hosted by Wycliffe College. While watching it, and reflecting upon Peterson’s work more generally (about which I’ve written in the past ), I was…
I’m glad to have been invited to contribute regularly to the Theopolis Institute website. Thank you, readers, for welcoming and joining what I hope will be a venture of integration. Integration itself is what I want to explore. And for me personally, this is the shape of my current integrative…
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In Galatians 2:10, Paul unexpectedly makes a reference to the Jerusalem apostles' interest in the poor and his own eagerness to provide assistance. What is this doing in a letter about justification and Jew/Gentile relations? Historically, this reference suggests that the visit he describes in Galatians 2:10 is the same…
The contrasting lists of “deeds of the flesh” and “fruits of the Spirit” in Galatians 5:16-25 are arranged in a chiastic inversion: a. Walk by Spirit b. Flesh and Spirit at war c. Deeds of the flesh d. No inheritance for flesh c'. Fruits of the Spirit b'. Crucifixion of…
Paul rebukes the Galatians for beginning by the Spirit, and then attempting to revert to the flesh (Galatians 3:1-5). The Spirit initiates the Christian life. Paul makes it clear later in Galatians that the whole Christian life is life in the Spirit. We “walk” by the Spirit, and “stay in…
No “sequence of fossils by itself” can “demonstrate whether Darwinian mutation and natural selection can and did evolve genuine biological novelties (new structures or body plans),” argues Leonard Brand ( Faith, Reason, & Earth History , 281). Some other sort of evidence is needed. Brand doesn't find such evidence in…
Philip Zimbardo and Nikita D. Coulombe ( Man (Dis)connecte d , 226) claim that the average American male teen plays video games 676 hours each year. With that time, he could. . . . Learn the rudiments of French on Rosetta Stone (205 hours); Learn to play the guitar (260…
In Signs and Wonders (65–66), Paul Alexander recounts a conversation with Nigerian theologian Lawrence Nwankwo. Nwankwo expressed the opinion that God wants all Christians to be prosperous. Alexander offered a corrective: “Food, clothing, shelter, health care, and education—these things are necessary and important, but prosperity for all is impossible. It’s…
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