Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Midwives are rarely mentioned in Scripture, but play a prominent role in the first chapter of Exodus. The word midwife is used seven times in verses 15-22, though it is used only twice elsewhere in the Old Testament. The reason, I think, is not merely that the midwives were heroic…
Leviathan (41:1-11) is the climax of the theophany, the culmination of the Lord’s speech. His final answer to Job’s injudicious charges against God’s justice. After hearing God rehearse the characteristics of Leviathan and His absolute power over him, Job instantly repents in dust and ashes. He confesses, "I know now…
Our purpose in this study is to lay out the chronology and history of the Kingdom of Judah from the reign of King Josiah to the completion of the exile of the Jews under Nebuchadnezzar, with particular attention to the events recorded in Jeremiah and Ezekiel. The Empire of Assyria…
Protestants have always insisted that the sacraments bring no benefit without a response of faith, but this seems to undermine infant baptism, since infants do not appear to be able to exercise faith. Luther and Calvin held together their insistence on faith with infant baptism by claiming that infants can…
Traditional Presbyterian theologians regularly cite 1 Corinthians 11:28 as an argument against the practice of paedocommunion. Children must be able “to examine themselves” before they come to the table. Supposedly this text demands a certain level of intellectual capability as well as the capacity to engage in self-conscious introspection, both…
Yahweh’s two speeches at the end of the book of Job (38-41) should bring some closure to the book. The prologue has the whole cosmic order arrayed against the blameless and upright Job, "a man who feared God and shunned evil" (1:1, 8; 2:3). Yahweh’s capstone speeches affirm God’s absolute…
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1 Chronicles 23–27 describes the distribution of responsibilities for the house of Yahweh (chs. 23–26) and the management of the king's palace and estates (ch. 27). Using lots, David and the priests create “divisions” of priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, treasurers, and others. “Division” translates the Hebrew machaloqet , derived from…
I n her After Writing , Catherine Pickstock argues that the Cartesian Cogito is grounded in a Cartesian ontology, which is in turn related to a Cartesian politics. According to Descartes' Regulae , she says, “being is defined as that which is clear and distinct, available to absolute and certain…
A ccording to Jean-Louis Chretien ( Hand to Hand ), the notion of God as divine artist and of the world as art comes into its own in Augustine’s Trinitarian notion of ars divina , developed in medieval theology and Baroque art theory. This tradition was not free of ambiguities.…
E veryone who's read Genesis 1 knows that Hebrews reckoned time from night till day. “Evening and morning, one day” is a refrain of the creation week (Genesis 1:5, 8, 13, 19, 23, 31). Lamps in the tabernacle burned continually ( tamid ), that is, from evening till morning (Leviticus…
D espite its orientation to Catholics, Thomas Ryan's Christian Unity is full of practical suggestions for pastors, lay people, and theologians of all Christian traditions. A few more or less random gleanings. Ryan quotes Cardinal Kurt Koch's warning that we must not be satisfied with mutual recognition in a situation…
P lato said that purification is a science of division. So is creation. In Genesis, God forms the formless by separating. He divides ( badal ) light from darkness to form a temporal structure of evenings and mornings (Genesis 1:4) and waters from water to create a vertical spatiality (Genesis…
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