Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Meanings of Remembrance Both Luke’s account of the upper room (Luke 22:14–23) and Paul’s recounting in 1 Corinthians 11:23–25 record Jesus’ words that the Supper in the distribution of bread: “do this in remembrance of me” (τοῦτο ποιεῖτε εἰς τὴν ἐμὴν ἀνάμνησιν). 1 1 Corinthians 11:25 repeats the words in…
Genesis is a story of brotherly violence. Cain kills Abel. Jacob flees from Esau, his brother, to live with Laban, his mother’s brother, and ends up in a conflict with him too. Joseph’s brothers assault him, sell him away as a slave, and fake his death. All of this frames…
America is like a secular Holy Roman Empire. Contrary to dissidents who expect a collapse of the federal government, the implosion of the fiat dollar, or a national divorce into Jesusland and the United States of Canada, America will persist. Whether as a world hegemon or regional superpower, there is…
Many readers of the New Testament will, at some point or other, be troubled by the question of why Jesus’ earthly ministry did not address the Roman occupation. Perhaps as a child in Sunday school you were taught that the Jews were expecting a military deliverer, and that the form…
In a recent tweet , which he later expanded into a Substack post , Aaron Renn wrote about the importance of ‘picking the right ladders to climb’. One of our most critical life decisions, Renn argues, is that of choosing the right ‘status hierarchies’ to which we will commit ourselves;…
The Third Use of the Created Word “Lord have mercy upon us, and incline our hearts to keep this law.” Those words are reflexive for almost any Anglican. Repeated nine times weekly at least during Lent and Advent if not year round, they are said between 54 and 468 times…
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Addressing the question of whether God is “object” to us, Jenson says that objectivity is essential to conversation: “In all true mutual discourse . . . each must be both subject for and object of the other.  As I am present to address you, I am a subject and you…
Athanasius’ letter to Amun (354) is a meditation on purity.  Defilement, he argues, occurs “when we commit sin, that foulest of things.”  That is what Jesus meant when He said that we are defiled by what comes out - out of the heart . Bodily functions, by contrast, do not…
A fragment of Athanasius’ Easter Letter #22: “Our Lord Jesus Christ, who took upon Him to die for us all, stretched forth His hands, not somewhere on the earth beneath, but in the air itself, in order that the salvation effected by the Cross might be shown to be for…
INTRODUCTION With the plotters closing in on Him, Jesus celebrates the Passover with His disciples, but in the process He transforms it into a meal centered on the gift of His body and blood and celebrating the cutting of a new covenant. THE TEXT “Now on the first day of the…
The poor you will always have with you, Jesus says in defending the woman’s “wasteful” devotion, but you won’t always have me. The key to understanding this is to recognize that Jesus speaks of the woman pouring oil on His “body.”  The key is to recognize the double body of…
Comparing the beginning and end of Matthew’s passion narrative (Matthew 26:1-16; 28:1-20), Daniel Patte notes that both involve a confrontation between Jesus and the Jewish leaders.  But the balance of that confrontation shifts; Jesus begins in apparent passivity (“delivered up”), but in the resurrection story He is the one making…
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