Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek…
INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek…
ELIZABETHANS AND GREECE Today, many view ancient Greece, and especially ancient Athens, as the fountainhead of Western civilization. This was not the case for medievals, who knew Greek literature in Latin translations. Though Chaucer set some of his works in ancient Greece (?The Knight?s Tale?E Troilus and Criseyde ), he…
Gilbert Highet has a wonderful chapter on translation in the Renaissance in his book, The Classical Tradition . He says that the first translation that we know of was made about 250 BC by the Greek-Roman poet Livius Andronicus, who translated the Odyssey into Latin. This was about the same…
I suggested in Against Christianity that worship can be understood as a sequence of postures: We kneel for confession, stand for absolution and service and to hear the word, sit enthroned to eat and drink in God’s presence, then stand to walk out for ministry. It occurs to me that…
Lk 9:10-17 The Lord?s Supper has been celebrated in many different ways through the centuries. In many churches, the people come forward and kneel to receive the elements. In the Roman Catholic church, the elevation of the Host has been nearly as important as the communion meal. Some Reformed churches…
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