Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I'm afraid of messing up. Not just of messing up in general, but of messing this up—the big This that is the story that is my life, the story that God is attempting to tell with me as His material. The question casts its shadow over all my decisions. Can…
Jesus’ letter to Pergamum mentions Balaam and Balak (Revelation 2:14), and that is a signal that the whole message is running along the lines of Numbers 22-25. The death of the high priest is a sacrificial moment in the life of Israel. According to the rules of the cities of…
As you come to be joined in marriage today, I want to take a moment to focus on one important dimension of what it means to be married as Christians: that is as those who know Jesus and are being made into His likeness. This is a glorious day, full…
When Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him, saying, “Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.” Jesus saith unto him, “I will come and heal him.” The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest…
Philosophers have measured mountains, Fathom'd the depths of seas, of states, and kings, Walk'd with a staff to heaven, and traced fountains But there are two vast, spacious things, The which to measure it doth more behove: Yet few there are that sound them; Sin and Love. The Agonie –…
The third chapter of Luke famously opens with a list of mighty men, seven mighty men, potential heroes of the Mediterranean world. Beginning with Tiberius Caesar and Pontius Pilate, passing on to Herod the Tetrarch and his brothers, and ending with two High Priests, Luke says that the word of…
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A central theme in the philosophy of Martin Heidegger is his critique of traditional conceptions of time. Aristotle is his bete noire . Aristotle defines time as a “number of motion,” which “inclines toward the quantitative, and so chronological sense of time as a sequence of ‘nows’” (D.C. Schindler, A…
Acts 8:1-4 records the beginning of Saul’s persecution of the Jerusalem church following the death of Stephen. It has a neat, nearly-chiastic structure: A. Saul in agreement with Stephen’s “taking off” (8:1a) B. A great persecution, scattering disciples (8:1b) C. Except the apostles (8:1c) B’. Devout men gather Stephen, with…
Anointing the sick, including the dying, is one of the traditional seven sacraments of the Catholic Church. The Reformers denied that the rite qualified as a sacrament. Formally, this was because anointing did not have a direct authorization from Jesus; more theologically, it was not one of the marks that…
The ordination rite for Aaron & sons is a ritual of taking and giving. At one level, that’s simply a basic linguistic fact. The verb “take” (Heb. laqach ) is used only five times in Leviticus 1-7, mostly with reference to taking blood to smear on the horns of the…
I first posted the following in August 2015, right at the start of Trump's primary campaign. Seven years on, it holds up - both as an analysis of why decent people enthuse over Trump and why they shouldn't. I've changed a grammatical infelicity or two and added an update in…
God is an event, writes Robert Jenson ( Systematic Theology, I , 221). “God is a person,” writes Robert Jenson, on the next page (222). How, Jenson asks, can He be both? Jenson’s rejoinder: How can He not be both? “What else could be a person?” A bit more elaborately:…
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