Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
During one of my AAPC lectures I read a portion of Richard Mitchell’s provocative little book The Underground Grammarian . Here’s the portion I read: The mind is a rudderless wanderer blown here or there by any puff of breeze. If I mention watermelons, you must think of watermelons; if…
This is the donation thank-you essay for January 2008. Our studies in the Psalms go out month by month in response to donations. I’m putting this one up here as an example, and also because the version I actually mailed out contained several egregious arithmetical errors! So, here is the…
Part 1: Introduction The collapse of the Western tradition in the United States, seen in the hostility to Christianity in government and education, and the elimination of “traditional” or “canon” learning from our institutions of middle and higher learning, provides a crisis and an opportunity for serious believers at the…
While “forgiving oneself” is widely accepted in the secular world as a legitimate and needful thing to do, Christians are rightly suspicious. After all, God is the one who forgives. When we sin against other people, we need to seek their forgiveness, not our own. Nevertheless after looking at Vine’s…
This was originally published as HIStory in the column, “A Pastor’s Perspective” in Ligonier Ministrie’s Tabletalk Magazine . I am not sure of the date but it was probably published in 1999 or 2000. Quick! What’s the basic message of the Bible? Summarize it in as few words as possible…
A Brief Explanation of What a Presbytery Is & Why Pastors in Presbyterian Denominations are Members of Them A belief in the primacy of the local congregation of the Church, I think, reflects the gut feeling of most North American Evangelicals. As a result, the form of Church government universally…
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Karl Wojtya (aka, John Paul II) deftly charts the collapse of utilitarianism into egoism in Love and Responsibility (37-39): Utilitarianism makes pleasure the overriding aim of human action. But pleasure is a momentary good, and a good only for a particular person. A utilitarian might attempt to maximize the pleasure…
Joe Rigney sent along an unpublished paper on Galatians 2. He translates verses 15-16 this way: “We are Jews by nature and not ‘sinners’ from the Gentiles. Nevertheless, because we know that a ‘man of the works of the Law’ is not justified except through faith in Jesus Christ, even…
According to Paul, Peter feared “those of circumcision” (Galatians 2:12; Gr. tous ek peritomes ). Elsewhere in the context, Paul speaks of those who are “of nations sinners” (2:15), “of works of the law” (2:16) and “of the faith of Christ” (2:16). Each time, Paul uses the proposition ek ,…
Paul charges the Galatians with quickly “translating” from the one who called them to another gospel (Galatians 1:6). What is the otherness of this other gospel? Merit? Works righteousness? Wearing the badges of Judaism? In context, it must be most immediately related to Paul’s summary of Jesus’ achievement in 1:4:…
In his philosophical phase, Walker Percy meditated deeply on perception and knowledge, and their relationship to symbols and language. This superb passage is from a 1958 essay in the Journal of Philosophy : “If I see an object at some distance and do not quite recognize it, I may see…
No ought from is, say the philosophers. Says who? says Clifford Geertz ( The Interpretation Of Cultures (Basic Books Classics) ). Not, he points out, most people in most cultures most of the time. For them, ethos and ontology are inseparable: “Like bees who fly despite theories of aeronautics which…
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