Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Not long ago, I heard these statistics about New York City: New York City is in $100 billion in debt. 20% of all NYC residents are on food stamps, which cost $250 million a month. 5% of NYC population are on disability, costing $252 million a month. Other assistance costs…
1. All political power is ambivalent. Vertical violence of “the state” tends to limit horizontal and contested power between people and between tribes. “The State” brings new oppression, but also a measure of new peace and unity. 2. All political formations are ambiguous like this: a strong family conquers weaker…
Gnosticism by any other name would smell the same. But does the church have much of a theological sense of smell, these days, when it comes to the seductions of virtuality in our worshipping communities? Social isolation during a global pandemic makes good public health sense, but whether church should…
It is a remarkable thing, you know, this thing called priority. Just a few weeks ago, religious leaders were boldly asserting in their high-dollar online videos that it was too dangerous to return to worship and that we needed to listen to our political and health leaders. "They are the…
Somewhere in the city of Jerusalem on a rooftop just a few years after the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost. . . ". . . and just when are you guys going to live up to your ‘Sons of Thunder’ reputation? Huh? A lot…
In my book, Solomon Says: Directives for Young Men ( Amazon , Kindle ) I mention that Solomon portrays wisdom as a woman. But I don’t ask (or answer!) why he did so. Solomon uses the figure of Lady Wisdom without apology or explanation: Wisdom cries aloud in the street,…
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Here is a brief explanation of baptism I used in a service this morning: As we saw this morning, Jesus’ baptism and reception of the Spirit was immediately followed by combat in the wilderness with the devil. The church fathers saw that this was one of the meanings of Christian…
The exhortation for August 31, 2003. The essence of original sin, and of every sin, is to trust Satan’s word above God’s word. Satan’s word comes to us in many forms, but in essence every word of Satan is a slander against God. We succomb to temptation when we begin…
In Luke 4, Jesus responds to the wonder and marveling of the crowd by saying that “no prophet is welcome in his home town” (v. 24). The comments, like the comments in v 23, seem to come out of left field. Why does Jesus say this? What’s he up to?…
Adam (son of Saul) Bellow has written a book in praise of nepotism. Well, du-uh.
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). Dale Allison, a research fellow at the Friends University in Wichita, Kansas, has written a superb case study in the New Testament’s use of the Old. Though he focuses on only a single typology (Christ as a…
Here is a very partial review/summary of a wonderfully stimulating book. I hope to go over it again sometime and add to this, but here it is in its unfinished form. Jeremy Begbie, Theology, Music and Time (Cambridge Studies in Christian Doctrine; Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000). This is a…
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