Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Some of the key ways Biblical writers draw attention to important details in their stories are by the use of key words, repetition, and structural devices like chiasms and parallel constructions. The Bible sounds different, even odd, to us sometimes because of the use of these and similar literary conventions.…
It is pretty standard in conservative Christian circles to condemn unbelief for pretensions of “autonomy.” Cornelius Van Til famously (at least among those of us who knows who he is) said that “There is no alternative but that of theonomy and autonomy.” Greg Bahnsen appealed to this quotation by labeling…
Jesus was the greatest teacher who ever taught — the Light of the World, whose pure Truth brought sight to the blind (John 9). Almost no one — even those who speak openly against Him — disputes His reputation as a wise and good teacher of the way of love.…
It is clear that the events in Esther are an integral part of the history of the formation of the Restoration Covenant Era. Amalek attacks. Amalek is spoiled. The spoils are used to build the Temple, in the sense that the crude Temple of Zerubbabel can now be glorified with…
It is not coincidental that John Calvin speaks most strongly in defense of vernacular language just after his defense of singing in church. "From this also it plainly appears that public prayers must be couched not in Greek among the Latins, nor in Latin among the French or English, as…
In A Voyage Around the World , George Anson recounts the effects of scurvy upon an unfortunate man: But a most extraordinary circumstance, and what would be scarcely credible upon any single evidence, is, that the scars of wounds which had been for many years healed, were forced open again…
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In her contribution to The Apocalypse in English Renaissance Thought and Literature , Florence Sandler suggests that “Spenser presents to the Elizabethan reader a moral allegory with an Erasmian cast,” a “poem modelled on the Apocalypse” (150). The whole first book of the Fairie Queene , she suggests, can be…
God is a God of speech. Robert Jenson has said we worship a talkative God, The first thing we learn about God is that He creates by speaking. John 1 deepens our understanding of that by telling us that God not only speaks, but that speech is one of His…
Over at The Spectator , James Mumford offers a hard-hitting analysis of the response to the recent Anglican summit. Mumford doesn't analyze the summit itself, but the blustering response from politicians and the press: “On Thursday the Labour shadow cabinet minister and former Anglican priest, Chris Bryant, declared he had…
Catherine Keller argues ( God and Power ) that apocalyptic vision turned “a local, territorializing Israelite faith” into a global one. Apocalyptic “formed first as a response to the imperial aggression of Babylon, which had traumatically deterritorialized Israel; then the Babylon of Isaianic apocalyptic became code for Rome.” In Christian…
“For three transgressions of Damascus and for four. . . . for three transgressions of Gaza and for four. . . . For three transgressions of Tyre and for four. . . . For three transgressions of Edom and for four.” That is how Amos opens his prophecy: A series…
Biblical scholars commonly criticize other biblical scholars for being inconsistent in their handling of literal and figurative language. If one bit of a text is literal, it is assumed, the whole must be; and vice versa. This demand for consistency is mistaken, and can only lead to absurdities. Take the…
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