Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Reformers did not start out with a plan to found separated churches. Their goal was to reform the entire Latin church. In this they failed. The paradox is sharp, and we need to feel its point and its edge if we Protestants are to reckon honestly with our history…
Conversion is a turning from sin to Christ. Now, let's think about that. Does conversion happen only once in a lifetime, or does it happen many times? That is the question, I believe, that needs answering. From my experience, and from my understanding of the Bible and of Christianity, there…
Israel was supposed to be a priest to the nations (Ex. 19:6). Her water would cause their trees to grow. This was signified to all men when Israel came out of Egypt, for "then they came to Elim, where they were twelve springs of water and seventy date palms, and…
Rousing Soviet songs surround us as we pass through a gloomy gauntlet of titanic statues on our way to Kyiv’s Museum of the Great Patriotic War. My friends, a Polish and a Ukrainian pastor, remember the songs, which played incessantly on the radio during their childhood. The sculpture complex depicts…
This is the second installment of a two-part article. Click HERE to read Part I. The fourth perspective on ceremony is that of the action of the Lord's Supper. As we noted before, the inauguration of the Lord's Supper preceded its interpretation. Jesus did not at that point give an…
The best courses are those that make you see the Bible, the church, or the world differently. The recent Theopolis Architecture Course with Daniel Lee did exactly that. Architect Daniel Lee began the week with architectural theory, continued through the week taking students through a history of architectural practice, and…
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Perception is never merely sensible. A professional photographer points out that our “visual” impressions of people are formed not merely by visual factors but by such factors as the context in which we see someone, their personality and our rapport, and so forth. We can come away from an encounter…
Jonathan Dollimore argues in Death, Desire and Loss in Western Culture that the West has been defined by a particular linking of thanatos and eros, which is associated with the problem of mutability. He quotes Yeats to the effect that we love what vanishes, and there is no more to…
Exhortation for December 28: New Year’s is frequently a time for assessment, and for making resolutions and setting plans for the coming year. With New Year’s Day coming up this week, I am devoting the sermon to sketching what we want the church to be and to do in Moscow.…
Political religiosity in America is a strange bird, and add journalism to the mix and it approachs mythical proportions. Consider Howard Dean: Yesterday, Drudge was listing a report on Dean’s plan to highlight his religious background as he campaigns in the South. Dean is a Congregationalist who says Jesus has…
The resurrection of Jesus, and our participation in it, is of course foundational for the “comic” vision of Christianity. Barth, however, expresses this in a particularly sharp way, when he describes how the Christian looks back to death and the grave as a past event, and forward to resurrection. The…
Sermon outline for December 28: What Are Our Plans for Moscow? INTRODUCTION During the recent furor, the question has been posed to Christ Church (and, implicitly, to Trinity), “What are your plans for Moscow?” To answer that question, we must understand what the church is, and what she’s called to…
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