Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
10. Do not slander [tattle on] a slave to his master, Lest he curse [denounce] you and you be found guilty. The Sojourner of Proverbs 30 is a humble man. He makes this clear in verses 2-4, where he says that he is stupider than anyone else on earth, but…
In retrospect and at first glance, many of the issues that have plagued and divided the Church seem incredibly trivial. The Quartodecimians were branded as heretics for celebrating Easter on 14 Nisan. One of the issues that divided the Eastern and Western Churches in 1054 was the kind of bread…
The gifts of the wise men have been commonly interpreted as royal gifts to the infant King of the Jews. Each of the three gifts is, indeed, connected with kings and kingship in Scripture. The Lord’s anointed is pictured wearing a crown of gold in Psalm 21:3, and the gold…
The Church is not in good shape. Nearly every week we hear about another prominent Christian leader who has fallen into scandalous sin. Many shepherds feed their flocks a diet of baby food, if not outright poison. Few Churches celebrate the Lord’s Supper regularly, and few Christians appreciate its importance.…
Two things I asked of Thee, Do not refuse me before I die: Keep deception and words of falsehood far from me, Give me neither poverty nor riches, Feed me with the food that it my portion, Lest I be full and deny Thee, And say, "Who is the LORD?"…
During the Middle Ages, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the butt of many jokes. Medieval theater and art often depicted him as something of a buffoon, decidedly marginal to the gospel story. In part, this was the unfortunate obverse of the exaltation of Mary; any man would suffer by…
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Coleridge, on the other hand, stood up for Bertram: “I cannot agree with the solemn abuse which the critics have poured out upon Bertram in All’s Well that ends Well . He was a young nobleman in feudal times, just bursting into manhood, with all the feelings of pride of…
Samuel Johnson said of Bertram in Shakespeare’s All’s Well that Ends Well : “I cannot reconcile my heart to Bertram, a man noble without generosity, and young without truth, who marries Helena as a coward and leaves her as a profligate; when she is dead by his unkindness, sneaks home…
Belated help for a friend: Pastor Ralph Smith of the Mitaka Evangelical Church in Tokyo has produced an course entitled “Shakespeare the Christian.” The lectures cover Shakespeare’s debts to Christianity and his use of the Bible, and then analyze 10 of the plays in detail. Ralph has done his homework,…
Augustine on Psalm 149: “Chorus Christi jam totus mundus est.” Christ’s choir is now the whole world.
Behind Varro’s classification of Roman religion into mythical, natural, and civic, Augustine discerns an interest, and a political one. Varro speaks harshly about the mythic or fabulous religions, for violating the dignity of immortal gods. Yet, the classification system serves to protect civic religion from similar condemnation. On Augustine’s reading,…
Augustine quotes Cicero saying, “quae harmonia a musicis dicitur in cantu, eam esse in civitate concordiam.” That is, somewhat loosely, “what musicians call harmony in singing is concord in the city.”
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