Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
First, I love my Christmas songs. This is how I think of it: the season of Advent gets in the way of singing what I want to sing. How can you not listen to Nat King Cole in December? Or Bing Crosby, Harry Connick Jr., and Amy Grant? Even though…
Introduction Imagine the stereotypical American grandparents. Once you have the outline, start filling in the details. What picture emerges? Maybe something like what Ogden Nash said, “When grandparents enter the door, discipline flies out the window.” Or maybe the oft-repeated assertion that it’s the grandparent’s job description “to spoil the…
Hundreds of generations of ancient Israelites grew up as children of Abraham, inheritors of the covenant—the promises of God. These promises were more than nice bumper stickers or framed photos to cover empty space in their homes–these promises were at the heart of their very identity–individually and collectively. Genesis “I…
Aliens and Sojourners When the question “Is there life on other planets?” is asked, even the best theologians can only reply, “The Bible doesn’t tell us.” Well, in truth, the Bible does tell us, but only if we are paying attention. …and there was not a man to till the…
John runs a theme throughout his gospel that bubbles under the surface—Jesus is searching for, and finding, a wife. John launches into the narrative proper with a statement of where he’s going. “On the third day there was a wedding” (John 2.1) is about as good an example of flash…
I have come to believe that a great many people are almost too weak to repent in any very open way. There must first be some level of healing. In some cases, including biblical ones, there is not even any evidence of faith on the part of the recipients of…
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Collingwood: “The reason why gramophone music is so unsatisfactory to any one accustomed to real music is not because the mechanical reproduction is bad - that would be easily compensated by the hearer’s imagination - but because the performers and the audience are out of touch.  The audience is not…
A few selections from Hegel, “Oldest System Programme of German Idealism” (1796; name given by Franz Rosenzweig in 1913); from Simon Critchley, Very Short Introduction to Continental Philosophy (Oxford, 2001) “I should like to give wings again to our physics which is progressing slowly and laboriously via experiments. Thus –…
Hegel arranges art, religion, and philosophy on a scale.  Art, bound to sensuous external stuff, is the lowest self-expression of Geist , religion’s representation ( Vorstellung ) climbs a bit higher, but the peak comes with the pure, transparent, total conceptual clarity achieved in philosophy. Only: Even philosophy has to…
Charles Taylor writes that for Hegel “Europe had to go through the Reformation before the rational law-state could be built.  The Catholic variant of Christianity was not yet purified of its intrication with external forms, with sacraments and priestly power.  Thus the Catholic church is led to fight the state…
1 Peter 1:1: Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who reside as aliens, scattered. Peter here uses the word “diaspora,” which in Jewish writing of the first century refers to the scattering of Jews after the Babylonian exile. This is one of the many ways that Peter identifies…
Trinity season seems to be an anomaly in the church year. The other seasons mark and celebrate what God has done for us. Advent and Christmas celebrate the incarnation of the Son, Epiphany marks His revelation to the Gentiles, Lent is a time for remembering His sufferings and death; Easter…
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