Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The idea of atonement is not a distinctly Christian, or even Hebraic, concept. It also makes an appearance in ancient Greek thought (among other places). The Greek tradition is by no means monolithic, so it isn’t possible to speak of a “Greek” concept of atonement. But there are certain commonalities…
As we know, there are seven deadly or capital sins. Prior to the list of the seven deadly sins there was a list of eight evil thoughts or demons. It was made by an Eastern monk, Evagrius Ponticus. When the list was transposed to the West, one evil thought was…
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is one of those epistles in Scripture to which pastors and teachers resort to show the church everything that it shouldn’t be . There is, of course, good reason for this. The Corinthian church was filled with all sorts of problems. Personality cults (i.e., factions),…
Today is Ash Wednesday , and as many Christians of the Protestant formerly "low church" persuasion are reacquiring some of the good and ancient practices of the church, one question in particular comes to the front: to ash or not to ash? That is, while many of us are finding…
A murder of tweets. To observe Lent rightly, we have to be persuaded that we already stand in God’s favor. Ash Wednesday reminds us to number our days. It helps us gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). We keep Easter to manifest and deepen our prior share in resurrection.…
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). Dale Allison 1993 book is a superb case study in the New Testament's use of the Old. Though he focuses on only a single typology (Christ as a new Moses) in only a single gospel (Matthew), Allison's…
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Sociologists want to present themselves as objective scientists of the social order, but when Christian Smith looks at his disciple he doesn’t see science. He sees the Sacred Project of American Sociology , sociology constituted as a project that he is even willing to describe as “spiritual.” He applies a…
When the sixth trumpet sounds, a voice commands the trumpet angel to let the four angels at the corners of the land go (Revelation 9:13-14). The following lines are a neatly parallel command-and-response. First the command: a. Loose b. the four angels c. who are bound d. at the river,…
Paul’s use of the notion of “flesh” has long been puzzling. He is no gnostic, but he seems to have a hostility to “flesh.” His condemnation is so strong that some translations have sidestepped the problem by glossing sarx (flesh) as “sinful nature.” It’s a bad translation, and bad theology.…
A recent report on research by the Federal Reserve of St Louis found that “Over the course of a 30-year career, mothers outperformed women without children at almost every stage of the game. In fact, mothers with at least two kids were the most productive of all.” The results were…
John sees the glorified Jesus at the beginning of Revelation, and described his clothing and then his figure in some detail. Jesus commissions him to write. In chapter 10, a similar figure appears holding a book, and instructs John to eat then then to prophesy. Though the figure descending from…
John sees two scenes in Revelation 9: A swarm of macabre cherubim arises from the abyss, and then four angels are permitted to release a massive army from the Euphrates. Both armies are described in some detail, and the organization of the descriptions are intricately structured. This post furthers some…
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