Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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The incident with the “ruler” in Luke 18 begins with a question about how to inherit eternal life, and ends with the promise of “eternal life” (v 30). Along the way, Jesus has radically transformed the path to eternal life. Jesus does not say that one inherits life by doing…
Kenneth Bailey helpfully emphasizes that Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican takes place in the temple, and he suggests convincingly that it is set during a public worship service. The fact that both men go up to the temple at the same time, and the fact that they…
Sermon outline, Feb 8: INTRODUCTION As we saw last week, Luke 17:11 begins a new stage of Luke’s account of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem, one that comes to an end in 19:48. This large section is divided into two subsections, 17:11-18:30 and 18:31-19:48. These two subsections are closely parallel to…
Here’s an ouline for a lecture on Renaissance and Modernity: Renaissance and Modernity Credenda/Agenda History Conference Pre-Conference Lecture February 5, 2004 Peter J. Leithart I. Assessments of the Renaissance and modernity. A. What is “modernity”? Slavoj Zizek in The Puppet and the Dwarf : “One possible definition of modernity is:…
The fact that the NT uses a political term, “kingdom of God,” to describe the salvation that Jesus achieves is puzzling to moderns. Part of the resolution to that problem is to recognize, as I’ve argued elsewhere, that the Bible treats “salvation” as a political issue. The other part of…
The fact that the NT uses a political term, “kingdom of God,” to describe the salvation that Jesus achieves is puzzling to moderns. Part of the resolution to that problem is to recognize, as I’ve argued elsewhere, that the Bible treats “salvation” as a political issue. The other part of…
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