Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Building of the Temple Solomon began work on the Temple in the second month of his fourth year. This was the year 2993, a sabbath year. He finished in the eighth month of his eleventh year, the year 3000, also a sabbath. (1 Ki. 6:1, 38). This is said…
The Bible expresses its chronology not only in sequences of years, but also in sequences of sabbath years and jubilees. This enables us to make a cross-check of our chronology, and when we find apparent problems, to refine it. If our chronology is right, we should find some significant correlations…
Adele Berlin, Poetics and Interpretation of Biblical Narrative Sheffield, England: Almond Press, 1983. This volume is the ninth in the "Bible and Literature Series" under the general editorship of David M. Gunn. According to its author, who teaches Hebrew at the University of Maryland, the book is an effort to…
V. Propp’s classic work Morphology of the Folktale (University of Texas, 1968) argues that one of the basic structures of folk literature is "lack, lack liquidated." A king sets out to look for a wife, and the tale ends with a wedding. Often, the hero sets out on some business…
Luke’s gospel begins and ends in the temple. It opens with Gabriel’s annunciation to the priest Zacharias (whose name, appropriately, means "Yahweh remembers") of the coming of a forerunner. Zacharias is performing priestly service at the time. The book ends with the joyful worship of a new priesthood in the…
Last time we arrived at the year A.M. 3960 as the date for the inauguration of the New Creation through the death, resurrection, ascension, and session of Christ, and the sending of the Holy Spirit. We also saw that this is most likely the year of Paul’s conversion. Fourteen years…
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In a TLS exchange with Timothy Williamson on the uses of philosophy, Roger Scruton argues that philosophy's task is to preserve humanity's humanity, the subjectivity that sets us apart from the rest of the world. Philosophy mans the boundaries between objective science and humanism, especially aesthetics. Scruton writes that the…
Rosenstock-Huessy begins his sociology with a lengthy discussion of the spaces of play. His premise is that "in play, it transpires that we anticipate the experiences of real life." A little girl marries her boy doll to her girl doll. A boy enacts a battle with his toy soldiers (47).…
Rosenstock-Huessy scoffs at the notion of presuppositionless sociology ( Sociology , vol. 1, 26). In a moving tribute to the life and work of Saint Simon, he argues that, on the contrary, "Everything known to sociology is known only because suffering is a fundamental fact. From the very first, her…
Anthony Lane doesn't much like George Clooney's 1950s black comedy, Suburbicon . One of the story-lines focuses on the Mayerses, a black family, who move into the Suborbicon neighborhood. All hell breaks loose: "The mailman is astounded. The street is appalled. The whole community is in an uproar, and, before…
In the early years of Joash, the house of David hangs by a thread (2 Chronicles 23). Its entire future rests in a baby, Joash son of Ahaziah, whom Jehoiada the priest rescues from Athaliah’s slaughter to be raised among the priests. By every empirical measure, the Davidic dynasty is…
Charlotte Methuen's TLS review essay of recent books on the Reformation is the best one-stop summary of recent scholarship I've seen during this season of Ref500 commemorations. In the recent biographies of Luther, you can find Luther the medieval mystic (Volker Leppin), Luther the angry, lonely rebel (Lyndal Roper), Luther…
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