Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
D. G. Hart’s The Lost Soul of American Protestantism vividly clarifies the differences between evangelical and Confessional Protestantism. In part the book is a manifesto for historians of American religion. Hart argues that historians of American Protestantism have operated with a simplistic binary contrast of evangelical/conservative v. liberal/progressive. At best,…
Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Idiot , like his other major works, is a complex evaluation of the human condition—a juxtaposition of the innate goodness and innate evil that resides within every human heart. There is much one can say about The Idiot . I am no specialist of Russian literature, or…
At risk of violating some secret handshake agreement on some important nuance to “natural law,” I will sum up what I understand in my own words. As far as I can tell natural law is supposed to be an area of knowledge that all people should be able to agree…
The first installment of this article may be found here . The Image of Man This brings us to a substitutionary atonement which we do understand, the fulfilment of the cruciform Tabernacle in the cross of Christ. Although Jesus’ execution was Physical and Social, it was primarily Personal . Beginning…
The first two essays in this series drew attention to the structure of the first part of Macbeth and to the way Shakespeare incorporates the Garden of Eden into his story. Macbeth , we saw, is a temptation story in which, compared to the Biblical story, the temptation itself is…
Revelation 19:6-9 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For theLord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him,…
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In his monograph on Divine Simplicity , Steven J. Duby discusses the relation between metaphysics and dogmatics. He writes, "In addition to Thomas's metaphysics, the metaphysical works of Bartholomaus Keckermann, Johann Alsted, and Johannes Maccovius provide guidance here. For Keckermann, metaphysics is 'the science of being [ entis ], or…
Wesley Bergen's Reading Ritual explores Leviticus through the lens of contemporary popular culture. Instead of treating Leviticus as "religious" ritual in opposition to daily life, he tries to de-de-familiarize Leviticus ritual by finding parallels with contemporary culture. In the first chapter, he examines the ritual dimensions of a meat-packing plant,…
In the third volume of his magisterial Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics , Richard Muller offers a helpful summary of pre-Reformation discussions of divine simplicity. Today, simplicity is making a comeback, taken as essential to orthodoxy. Muller's discussion is a healthy reminder that "the doctrine of divine simplicity has not always been…
In Can We Trust the Gospels? , Peter J. Williams, Principal at Tyndale House, Cambridge, doesn't aim to prove that the gospels are true. He wants to show rather that "they can be rationally trusted" (120). If successful, this demonstration is a big deal, as Williams says on the closing…
Literally, woodenly translated, the 9th Word is: "Thou shalt not answer ( 'anah ) with/against your neighbor a false witness." The verb 'anah is of interest, mainly because it is such an uninteresting word. Of the 300+ times it's used in the Old Testament, the KJV translates it as "answer"…
Children provide a test case for psychological and epistemological theories. Many theories fail: They do not suffer the little children to come to them. That's part of the point of Vasudevi Reddy's fascinating How Infants Know Minds . The title contains the thesis: Infants know other minds. They don't act…
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