Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Romans 8:31-39 is better sung than commented upon. It’s a thrilling, ecstatic hymn of boisterous assurance that God’s purposes will be accomplished. Yet, I will attempt to comment on them. If we sing Paul’s hymn, let’s make sure we sing with understanding. Given the character of these verses, it’s easy…
"An ethic unshaped by eschatology is neither Jesus’ nor Christian.” - Tremper Longman How does an immature culture grow up? Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is about the dangers of being lost in adolescence. By the end of the movie, the viewer is pointed to a road we infer leads to…
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Prolegomena 1. “You’re a pastor,” my new friend says as we sit down, “and you’re a massage therapist. How does that work?” To her, Christianity implies stuffy ideology, a disregard of the physical. A Christian massage therapist is an oddity; a pastor massage therapist is nearly a contradiction in terms.…
54% of Poles think favorably of Americans, only 13% unfavorably, according to Centrum Badania Opinii Spolecznej . Ten years ago, the numbers were 44% and 21% respectively. Twenty years ago, they were 64% and 6%. Back in the 1990s, Americans were the most liked nation among Poles. Now they are…
Stones of Life and Death Of course, the sex of a child is not a choice between light and darkness or life and death. Sex, like circumcision, is a horizontal demarcation, a delegation of roles within humanity. In contrast, the white stone and the black stone within the “liturgical scrotum”…
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Stephen Holmes’s The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is a learned, sharp challenge to the “Trinitarian revival” of the 20th century. One of his central criticisms is that recent Trinitarian theology, in contrast to patristic theology, focuses almost exclusively on the New…
I’m still absorbing parts of NT Wright’s recent JSNT essay, “Paul and the Patriarch: The Role of Abraham in Romans 4.” A couple of his points are very compelling. First, he disputes what he calls a “customary” way of understanding Paul’s reference to “justification of the ungodly” in Romans 4:5.…
Since Deleuze’s Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque , the fold and its use in Baroque art, music, and philosophy have become a leading trope for postmodern thought and culture. Deleuze describes the significance of the Baroque in opposition to the clarity of Cartesian straight lines: “The Baroque refers not to…
Isaiah charges that the people of Judah ascend mountains to sacrifice sacrifices (57:7; lizboach zavach ). That’s normal: Every ancient people ascended toward heaven for worship. The furniture that Judah sets up on the mountain is, however, unusual. They set up a bed , not an altar, on the high…
In one of His most intense exchanges with His enemies, Jesus says that they “do the deeds of your father” in seeking to kill Jesus. He means that the devil is their father (John 8:39, 44). They protest that they are children of Abraham and sons of God (vv. 39,…
Isaiah condemns the people of Judah as “sons of a sorceress” (57:3). “Sorceress” translates ‘anan , which is derived from a verb “to cover” and sometimes refers to the gathering of clouds (Genesis 9:14). This particular form of the verb is typically used for the “dark arts” that take place…
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