Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…
Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…
The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…
Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…
Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…
When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…
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The whole of Marcia Angell’s review of Alison Wolf’s The XX Factor is worth careful reading. It’s a detailed sketch of the lives of upper-middle-class working women and the effect their entrance into the workplace has had on marriage and family. Some of those effects are ironic. Among the points…
Zizek’s more violent apocalypticism avoids these difficulties of the milder but less coherent apocalyptic of Alain Badiou. It is the commitment and passion inherent in apocalyptic that attracts Zizek. The deconstructive theology of John Caputo destroys the very foundations of Christianity because it opens up a gap between the “spectral…
Timothy Snyder reports that gay marriage got implicated in the Ukrainian uprising and the Russian response. Putin’s appeal to Ukraine’s President Viktor Yanukovych included, as everyone knows, financial incentives. It also included warnings about the effect of entering the EU: The “gay conspiracy” has “dominated Russian propaganda throughout last year…
Oedipus was the ideal hero for classical Athens, a solver of riddles intent on discovering secrets. And the Sphinx was the perfect monstrous adversary. It’s no surprise that the story became one of the most famous myths of the ancient and modern worlds. In her recent brief monograph, Oedipus and…
Suppose you’re walking to church to worship God. Along the way, your motive changes from piety to vainglory. You continue walking to church, but now you’re walking to church to be seen by others to be walking to church. What happened to the action of walking to church when your…
Are Christians obsessed with sex? Yes we are, and for good reason .
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