Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Understanding Shakespeare’s Biblical references is vital for the interpretation of many, if not all, of Shakespeare’s plays. For Othello , it is especially important, not only because the interpretation of the play is contested among various approaches — feminist, homosexual, post-colonial, Marxist, Freudian, new historical, and others — but also…
Mike Allen of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, scores some points in his review of The End of Protestantism . He lodges the fair complaint that my rhetoric sometimes outruns my evidence. He argues that more stress on the present reality of the church’s unity deepens the tragedy of division; divisions…
I begin with two observations. First, on any millennial view, the Christian account of history is progressive, moving from the garden to the city. It is eschatological not only in that there is an end, but that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. To…
The church is a new form of polity that erupts into the world as much as the Son of God comes into the world. It’s a real-world political alternative to the polities of the ancient world. It resolves many of the political dilemmas of the ancient world, though not simply…
In my last post , I explained how Baptists really have a “one-ordinance-one sacrament” ecclesiology. I said this: “what Baptists really believe, in modern parlance, is that there is one ordinance (baptism which is a sign or symbol only) and one sacrament (the Lord’s Supper in which feeding upon Jesus…
One of the most extensive and penetrating responses to the Yoder-Hauerwas attack on Constantiniansm is found in Oliver O’Donovan’s Desire of Nations , in a chapter entitled “The Obedience of Rulers.” O’Donovan defines the word “Christendom” as “a historical idea,” specifically “the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order,…
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In a recent article on Galatians 4:21-31, Ardel Caneday argues in part that Galatians 4:22 should govern 4:24. That is, Paul’s claim “it is written” should be extended to his statement that “which is allegorical,” yield “the natural sense, these things are written allegorically ” (55). Allegory isn’t an apostolic…
Susan Babbitt’s Humanism and Embodiment isn’t a book of theology. Babbitt draws on Marxist and feminist sources as much as on Eastern religion and Christianity. But she does think that religion offers unique resources for philosophy. Secularists, she thinks, are wrong to reject religion, because religion can become an ally…
Everyone knows that John’s writings are vastly important in the New Testament and in Christian theology, but Paul Rainbow claims in his recent Johannine Theology that “a comprehensive survey of the Johannine theology is wanting in current English-speaking New Testament scholarship” (32). In a footnote, he lists a half dozen…
John talks much of “the Jews” as the enemies of Christ, and this has led many to charge him with anti-Semitism. Paul Rainbow finds these charges groundless ( Johannine Theology , 130-6). John is Jewish, and “takes obvious pride in his own people’s religious heritage.” Jewish Scriptures are integral to…
Justin Holcomb, co-founder of Real Escape from the Sex Trade (REST), will speak in Birmingham, Alabama on sex-trafficking on November 19. See details and register at the Trinity House site . Holcomb serves as Canon for Vocations in the Diocese of Central Florida and teaches at Gordon-Conwell and Reformed Theological…
Andrew McGowan’s Ancient Christian Worship is a very fine introduction to the subject. Though it is up-to-date academically, and, as McGowan says, includes the results of some of his own research, it is accessibly written, clearly organized, and highly informative. McGowan traces early Christian worship from its origins in the…
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