Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I've pastored a very rural church for well over a decade. Our town has about 1,000 people and will never grow until Jesus returns. 38 people attend our worship on Sundays. Here's a quick list of what we’ve done to grow our church, and what I’ve done to survive pastorally.…
Thanks for sharing so honestly about your current crisis of creativity. I totally understand and relate to that; it’s happened many times in my musical life thus far, and I’ve begun to accept it as a normal rhythm of the creative process. I actually went through a serious dry spell…
The Broken Stones of Israel At Sinai, the tablets of the Law of Moses were broken and restored. The Old Testament is a history of “new covenants,” including that promised in Jeremiah and fulfilled in Zechariah. Ultimately, the vertical Oath and the horizontal Sanctions met in the death of Jesus…
Woe to the sinful nation. Woe to those who enlarge their estates and build their portfolios. Woe to the drunks. Woe to those who call evil good and good evil. Woe to the proud who are wise in their own eyes. Woe to Congressmen who pass unjust laws and to…
The interpretation of Romans 7:7-25 is notoriously difficult. Good scholars disagree on many aspects of the passage, but the central interpretative difficulty concerns the identity of the “I.” Is Paul referring to himself? Is Paul referring to himself pre- or post-conversion? Does the “I” refer to Adam? Is the “I”…
You board the Metra train at Arlington Heights station one afternoon, heading to downtown Chicago for some sight-seeing. As the train departs from the station, a man in jeans, a striped t-shirt, and a Kansas City Royals baseball cap enters your train car, and begins asking to see each passenger’s…
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Luther assaulted the enthusiasts of the Reformation era with vigor: “enthusiasm lurks in Adam and his children from the beginning up to the end of the world, as a poison placed in them by teh ancient serpent, and it is the source, power and might of all heresy . .…
Interpreting the Psalmist’s cry for understanding, Luther discusses the need for understanding to grow over time: “The Psalmist prays for an understanding against the mere letter,for the Spirit is understanding. For as the years have passed, so has the relationship grown closer between letter and the Spirit. For what was…
In Emma, as U. C. Knoepflmacher has pointed out, the writing of letters is an index of character. Writing letters is itself less manly and direct that face-to-face speech, and the kinds of letters one writes reveal the person. Frank is said to write long, “pretty” letters; Robert Martin writes…
PD James devotes a considerable amount of space to Austen in her autobiography, including biographical details about Austen and an appendix where she analyzes Emma as a “detective story.” She notes that detective stories don’t need to have murder, but only mystery: “facts which are hidden from the reader but…
As Claire Tomalin points out, Austen had two bursts of creativity during her lifetime. The first came in her early twenties, when she wrote the early versions of Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Pride and Prejudice within about a three year period from 1795-1798. None of these was published…
The volume edited by McCormack includes a final chapter by NT Wright. Like a good Calvinist, Wright summarizes his views on Paul and justification under five points. He begins where he says Paul begins, with the gospel. For Paul, Wright argues, the gospel is not a message of individual salvation,…
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