Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I thought it might be good to put this up here, since it is 14 years old, and itself reflects earlier discussion. From this you can see that we at BH have been considering this notion for quite some time. Clearly, the last word has not been said. — James…
Hopefully, my commentary on James will be out later this year. But here are a few chiasms for your consideration. I think the James 5 chiasm orginally came from Doug Jordan. The entire book of James is focused on how the pastors and leaders (“brothers”) of the church use their…
In my first post I noted that the parables of Jesus were not simply illustrative stories. They are really nothing like the kind of simple, homely illustrations that preachers often use to explain difficult concepts to their congregations. Just to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with illustrating one’s sermonic statements.…
Ephesians is often treated as a pure type example of the Pauline method that “the indicative preceds the imperative.” But what Paul does first is pray . Simply reading verse 3 and following involves readers in a prayer of thanksgiving to God–and much more so for those listening to the…
Yesterday, I took part with my oldest son in a church-sponsored city outreach project (not because I’m especially prone to such behavior but because my son has a Boy Scout requirement that this would help him meet). Before we were sent out on our various jobs, the leader gave a…
There is a scene in Prince Caspian , the second in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia that helps explain why it is we have four Gospels, that is four accounts of the Good News of Jesus Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the account of Lucy’s longed-for experience…
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This from the lead editorial in the March 29 edition of The New Republic : “The new [Spanish] government of the Socialists, led by Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, represents the more commonplace EU view of the world: the suspicion of force, the religion of diplomacy, the horror of American power,…
Robert Louis Wilken has a brief article in the April issue of First Things on the church as culture. He illustrates the internal culture of the church by examining early Christian art, the development of the Christian calendar, and the formation of a distinctive Christian language. Nothing spectacularly new here,…
George Steiner has a lengthy review of Bouretz’s Temoins du Futur in the February 27 issue of the London Times Literary Supplement . Bouretz’s book traces the history of Jewish social thought, and particularly the connection between philosophy and messianism, from Herman Cohen through Emmanuel Levinas, taking the story, as…
Luke 23:13-25 Six times in this passage, Luke uses the word ?release.?E Most of the uses describe Pilate?s desire to release Jesus. He plans to scourge Jesus and ?release?EHim; he is obliged to ?release?Esomeone at the festival, but the Jews demand that Pilate ?release?EBarabbas rather than Jesus, which is what…
The NT teaches that Jesus was a man of faith. Jesus trusted in God throughout His passion, His trials, torture, and death. Among other passages, Peter wrote in his first epistle: ?Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in His steps, who committed no sin,…
In Rom 4 and elsewhere, Paul indicates that the Jews had been radically misusing circumcision. According to Paul, circumcision pointed to the covenant righteousness that Yahweh had reckoned to Abraham on account of his faith. Paul says that circumcision was the “seal of righteousness” but Genesis 17 talks about circumcision…
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