Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…
The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…
Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…
The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…
Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…
The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…
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Russian Orthodox liturgical theologian Alexander Schmemann died in 1983, but his importance continues to grow, and 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…
The Chronicler's account of the reign of Amon, son of Manasseh and father of Josiah, is very brief (2 Chronicles 33:21-25). But these few verses hold some treasure. Like his father, he does evil in the eyes of Yahweh. Throughout 1-2 Chronicles the verb for "doing" evil is 'asah ,…
The following is a selection from my survey of the Old Testament, A House For My Name . Use the code LEITREADER to get 30% off this book during checkout at www.canonpress.com/a-house-for-my-name . The time of the judges is a bad time for Israel. Priests and Levites are unfaithful, the…
How is liturgy related to life? We might explore that question by attending to the nouns: What is liturgy? What is life? I instead want to pay attention to the conjunction: What are we saying when we say we talk about liturgy “and” life? The "and" suggests that we're talking…
The Chronicler's account of Manasseh's reign (2 Chronicles 33:1-20) is organized in a chiasm: A. Manasseh becomes king, v. 1 B. Builds high places, erects altars and an image, vv. 2-9 C. Manasseh does not listen, v. 10 D. Yahweh brings host of Assyrians, v. 11 C’. Humbles himself, prays,…
The story of the tower of Babel, writes Harvey H. Guthrie ( Theology As Thanksgiving ) is "a sarcastic caricature of ancient Near Eastern culture and society and religion" (91). The tower is "the structure through which the human community made contact with the heavenly community whose existence was the…
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