Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b) The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to…
Two offerings Humanity’s first vocation involves guarding and serving the trees that emerge from the ground (Genesis 2:15). God provides these trees to humanity for food. A serpent appears and tempts the couple to eat from a special forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity…
At the outset of the Torah (as Christians understand it), a triune God creates the heavens and earth over the course of a seven-day week. Why? What’s the connection between the three and the seven? Could a triune God have created the world over any period of time he chose?…
How relevant to the modern reader are the flying axe head of Deuteronomy 19:5 and the roof parapet of Deuteronomy 22:8? Indeed, how relevant were they to the daily lives of Israelites thirty-five hundred years ago? Suppose that accidental falls from rooftops were exceedingly uncommon in ancient Israel, or that…
1 For most of my life, the standing of the American church as a source of national social and political order was measured by reports from the front of the so-called “culture wars.” 2 Memory brings to mind battles over feminism and the ERA, so-called gay rights, the breakdown of…
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…’ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the…
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Speech exists that we may "lovingly create names," writes Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy ( In the Cross of Reality , 149). "Speaking is always courting" (149). Courtrooms exist for those times when speech falters. In a courtroom, speech turns from courtship to dispute and this setting changes the character of speech: "In…
Jay Zysk's Shadow and Substance is a recent contribution to a growing literature linking early modern theology with early modern drama. Zysk focuses on the ways Reformation disputes about the Eucharist play into plays, how Eucharistic semiotics shapes understandings of bodies and signs, flesh and spirit, letter and figure, words…
For Luther, faith isn't mere assent to truth, nor even confidence and trust in a distant savior. As David Fink puts it, "Faith . . . becomes the unitive force," or, in Luther's words, it "takes hold of Christ and has Him present, enclosing Him as the ring encloses a…
In his analysis of Luther's treatment of Galatians (in Reformation Readings of Paul ), David Fink gives a brief overview of pre-Reformation interpretations of the letter. Jerome said that the letter "is concerned especially with establishing the 'cessation of the old Law and the introduction of the new Law.'" Jerome…
Vico's claim that verum et factum convertuntur , "the true and the made are convertible," has been taken as a sign of the foundational atheism of modernity. Benedict XVI sees Vico's claim as a secularization, a turn from the uncreated truth that is God to constructed human things. As Robert…
"Liberals and communists," writes Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy ( In the Cross of Reality ), "have in common that they wish to make do without church and dogma, and indeed without faith. . . . reason is enough, for we can say what we think" (141). Both retain the term "believe," but…
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