Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I grew up in the 1950s. This was before the "Sixties" and the democratization, informalization, and general cheapening of the church and her worship. Ministers were Father Donovan, Pastor Eckhart, Reverend MacPherson, Mister (Episcopal) Parker, and Brother Smith. Liturgical speech was high language, sounding kind of like the King James…
Metaphor exerts a surprisingly powerful influence within our thinking. Although it is easily dismissed as little more than a figure of speech, when we attend more closely to the ways in which we use it, metaphor’s importance swiftly becomes more apparent. Although many of our metaphors have become quite invisible…
What is a tree, scientifically speaking? A mere googling gives the following answer: “a woody perennial plant, typically having a single stem or trunk growing to a considerable height and bearing lateral branches at some distance from the ground.” We can increase detail by describing its family, genus, species and…
The majority of Western evangelical Christians rarely, if ever, fast as a form of spiritual discipline. In our culture, fasting is more connected with dieting than worship, the other side of our deeply ambiguous fascination with food. Food is everywhere. We eat more than ever before, at greater speed, and…
A Grammar of Creation An understanding of the visual-musical language of the Bible must begin with Genesis 1. This is fortunate, because when explaining biblical types to academics, as opposed to children, one is repeatedly forced to start from scratch. From birth, a healthy child is attuned to rhythm and…
In an inverse Eden, a land laid waste, one works alone tending the trash. There are none like him in all the earth, inquisitive, playful and most drawn to those mysterious, dancing bipedal creatures who lost earth and left it to go wandering the vast wilderness of space. Humans have…
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1 John 3:17: Whoever has the world’s goods and beholds his brother in need and closes his heart against him, how does the love of God abide in him? John insists, as we’ve seen, that love must take specific, concrete form among believers. Love is not just fellow-feeling, or sympathy,…
1 John 3:24: The one who keeps His commandments abides in Him, and He in him. John emphasizes throughout his letter that Christians must obey God’s commandments. In this, he only repeats what Jesus said. Jesus said, If you love Me, keep My commandments. That’s all that John is saying.…
Sacrifice is built into human life. It’s unavoidable. Even though we don’t slaughter animals in worship, sacrifice still happens every day. We either sacrifice other people, or we offer ourselves in sacrifice for them. That’s what John is saying when he contrasts Cain with Jesus. Cain “butchered” he brother, John…
For a number of years, I have wanted a historical study of the decline of Trinitarian theology between the Reformation and the Enlightenment. James Buckley tells part of that story in his history of atheism, but his interests are broader. Philip Dixon has produced the book I’ve been looking for…
INTRODUCTION John emphasizes throughout his letter that Christians must love one another. Here, he emphasizes that this love must take form as Christlike self-giving and generosity. John’s “children” are to love “in deed and truth” (v. 17). THE TEXT “Do not marvel, my brethren, if the world hates you. We…
Challenging Cunningham’s suggestion, against Deleuze, that without some hierarchy of goods, there is no way to determine preferences, even for something as basic as diet, Kenneth Surin cited a bumper sticker: The top line says, “I love animals,” and the second “They’re delicious.” This, he claimed, was simply an expression…
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