Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Paradosis Center at John Brown University in Siloam Spring, Arkansas, put on its first conference last week, it was a remarkable event. It was an ecumenical conference including Orthodox (John Behr, Edith Humphrey, others), Catholic (Rusty Reno, Michael Root, others), and Evangelical (Timothy George, David Lyle Jeffrey). Unusually for…
Naphtali Meshel observes in his new The "Grammar" of Sacrifice that scholars have been talking for decades about the "grammatical" character of ritual and sacrifice in general, but have never actually analyzed a specific ritual or sacrificial system grammatically. Some even talk about a "universal grammar" of sacrifice "even though…
Some Christians are rather breezy about the problem of evil. We shouldn't be. Do I need to remind you of the grisly beheadings that have taken place over the past few weeks? Do I need to remind you of the blood of innocents that’s been spilled in our own country?…
Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has…
Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He…
Paul stands against those who are “troubling” or “disturbing” the Galatians churches ( tarasso ; 1:7; also in 5:10). The reference seems to be two great troublers from the Old Testament. First, Achan is described as a “troubler” for the problems he causes in the aftermath of the battle at…
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Near the end of his prayer in 2 Samuel 7, David confesses his confidence in Yahweh’s promises concerning David’s house, saying “Thy words are truth” (v. 28). Jesus echoes this words in John 17:17. The connection seems to be a fruitful one, and perhaps there are more verbal links than…
I and many of my friends have been criticized for our supposed lack theological rigor. It’s meant as an insult. I take it as a compliment. Rigor has its place. But it’s not the be and end all of theology. A Turretin is necessary for consolidating a Reformation. He could…
INTRODUCTION 16:20 starts a new section of the chapter, as Solomon returns again to the issue of speech. Waltke sees two sections here, verses 20-24 and 25-30. The first section focuses on the benefits of wise and winning speech, while the second section focuses negatively on destructive speech. Verse 20…
Artists never accepted the attribution of genius as readily as theorists and bourgeois admirers applied it. Artists knew too much about the recalcitrantly physical qualities of words, paint, stone, ink, and sounds for that. Artists are as interested in technique as in inspirations. But for Kant genius was the criterion…
Gadamer says, “One day someone should write the history of ‘purity.’” He cites one H. Sedlmayr, who “refers to Calvinistic purism and the deism of the Enlightenment.” Kant would play a key role: He “linked himself directly with the classical Pythagorean and Platonic doctrine of purity.” Gadamer wonders whether “Platonism…
Contrary to empiricism, perception is never pure, never merely a response to stimulus. That it is is merely a kind of “epistmological dogmatism” (Gadamer), which can only be defended if all instinct and fantasy is removed. In actual life, we never perceive without instinct or fantasy, and so “pure perception,…
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