Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why was Jesus Christ conceived in a virgin? The great Augustine, who never shrank from seeking to answer such questions, provided an explanation in his treatise On the Trinity (13.18.23). Though it was, Augustine believed, possible in marriage to "make a right use of the carnal concupiscence which is in…
And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah . . . And Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber . . . and Eber lived thirty-four years and became the father of Peleg . . . and Peleg lived thirty years, and became the…
Every word of God is tested; He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him. Do not add to His words Lest He reprove you, and you be proved a liar. Proverbs 30:5-6 We come now to Proverbs 30:5-6. The Sojourner (Agur) has already told us that he…
Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing Me! But you say, `How have we robbed Thee?’ In tithes and offerings. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing Me, the whole nation of you! Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, so that there may be…
Nadia Boulanger (1887-1979) was one of the most remarkable women of the 20th century. A devout Christian, she was the master teacher of composition at the American Conservatory in Fontainebleau, France. She taught music and composition to two generations of students, and is regarded as one of the most influential…
When Ronald Reagan was elected to office in 1980, Christians were hopeful that there would be a real change in our national affairs. Reagan was known to be strongly anti-abortion — he even wrote a book against it. He was a fiscal conservative. He believed in Biblical morality. He was…
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Prior to the 18th century, writes Mark Evan Bonds, instrumental music was considered inferior to music that accompanied words ( Wordless Rhetoric ). According to the artistic theory developed by Johann Georg Sulzer, “instrumental music . . . can be pleasing and at times moving, but its ‘meaning' is relatively…
Paul's speech on the Areopagus is the second of three programmatic speeches in Acts. Robert Tannehill notes ( The Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts ) that they trace the progression of Paul's mission: “Careful planning is indicated by the fact that we have three different types of speeches addressed to three…
In his now-classic Sources of the Self (143-4), Charles Taylor observes that Descartes is “in many ways profoundly Augustinian: the emphasis on radical reflexivity, the importance of the cogito, the central role of a proof of God's existence which starts from ‘within,' from features of my own ideas, instead of…
Mark Evan Bonds's Absolute Music is a study of 19th-century debates concerning the purity or absoluteness of music, the question of the possibility and/or propriety of segregating music from the rest of the world, music as a sheer aesthetic experience, an experience of pure beauty or simple form. It's a…
Robert Tannehill points out in the second volume of his Narrative Unity of Luke-Acts that Acts 16-19 depicts a recurring “public accusation type-scene.” Prior to chapter 16, the public accusations against Paul and his associates are not highlighted. After chapter 16, they are. “In 16:20-21 Romans accuse the mission of…
Matthew B. Crawford argues in The World Beyond Your Head that things discipline our attention and thus make genuine knowledge of the world possible: “ things that can serve as a kind of authority for us, by way of structuring our attention. The design of things—for example, cars and children’s…
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