Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I revisited Athanasius’s On the Incarnation in light of Advent this year. A particular passage struck me with a question that I hadn’t considered before. When addressing Adam’s fall, Athanasius says this: “If then there were only the offense and not the consequence of corruption, repentance would have been fine.…
There is much wisdom for kings in the first letter of Paul to the Church in Corinth. As I am preaching through this letter, this is one of the major themes that stands out. That is the theme of the reign of the Christian as we live in union with…
1 The title should not be a surprise to anyone who believes the Bible to be true. According to the Bible, any and every faith and religion that does not conform to the Gospel of Christ are not only false, but ultimately inspired by false spirits. Though Jeffrey Niehaus is…
Names are weighty things, a fact repeatedly evidenced in the biblical narrative. There are several occasions when the names mothers or fathers chose for their children, and the reasons for which the names were chosen, are given extended attention in the text. Much of Genesis 29 and 30, for instance,…
Growing up, I was crestfallen about any Christmas that fell on Sunday. Christmas on Sunday meant going to church when I’d rather lollygag around the Christmas tree in my pajamas, playing with new toys. Christmas on Sunday was a drag. If I still felt that way, I know what I’d…
Growing up in the church in Southern America, there was an oft-used category for leaders in the church. It was a category which was used to justify a variety of rules and restrictions on church leaders. Leaders were to be “above reproach” and that meant not drinking in public or…
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Like his book on the sacraments , Henry de Candole's brief study of the Eucharist, The Church's Offering , shows that liturgical renewal is inevitably also a renewal of ecclesiology. De Candole distinguishes between private prayers and the public worship of the church. The latter "is not simply the gathering…
In the opening essay to Reflexive Modernization , Ulrich Beck defines the phrase in the book's title as "the possibility of a creative (self-)destruction for an entire epoch." This creative destruction is not the product of a crisis but the result of the "victory of Western modernization" (2). Quoting Marx…
In After God , Tristram Engelhardt notes that autonomy is not merely a source of authority in secular culture, but "a cardinal directing value or goal." In today's world, one is "obliged freely to choose in conformity with very particular understandings of freedom. The result is that morally condemning autonomously…
Just before Luke records Jesus' visit to the home of Simon the Pharisee (Luke 7:36-50), he records Jesus teaching about the responses of the Jewish leaders to His ministry and the ministry of John (7:30-35). They don't catch the tune of the times, but the tax gatherers and sinners do.…
The following essay was first published at Firstthings.com . Lent is a time of renunciation and fasting, spiritual striving, self-examination, contrition, and penitence. It seems a grim and black season of self-accusation. But that’s all superficial. Lent is better understood as a season of Christian comedy. It’s not the glum…
Even after the disciples have seen Jesus calm the storm and walk on the sea, even after they have eaten miracle bread, they don’t understand. They don’t know what we know – that Jesus is Son of God. The problem isn’t a lack of evidence. They have plenty of evidence…
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