Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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As Guy Stroumsa describes it ( A New Science ), comparative religion originates from a combined political and intellectual challenge to European thinkers. First, the wars of religion led some to question the primacy of Christianity and to search for some religious (or non-religious) substitute to serve as civil religion.…
Vanessa Grigoriadis writes a lengthy profile of Justin Bieber at Vulture , analyzing along the way our “sadistic” fascination with watching young celebrities lurch their way toward adulthood. Bieber is the name of a legion: Most of today’s biggest pop stars “were teen stars, or at least made money off…
Pierre Daniel Huet, seventeenth-century bishop of Soissons, was one of the most respected scholars of his time. A historian of religion and apologist, he was also one of the first critics of Descartes. As Thomas Lennon described it in The Plain Truth , one of Huet’s central criticism was that…
John distinguishes between different degrees and sorts of sins (1 John 5): There is a sin that leads to death and another sin that does not lead to death. The substance of this distinction doesn’t concern me here, but rather the form. John’s distinction is not a pragmatic one. Sins…
Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, liturgy for liturgy. Isaiah warns those who forsake Yahweh by preparing sacrificial feasts for Fortune and Destiny (65:11). The judgment for this sacrificial infringement is itself sacrificial. Those who worship Destiny are “destined” (65:12; the Hebrew verb is from manah, also the root of…
Yahweh will take some of the clusters from Judah to make new wine (Isaiah 65:8-9). Those who seek Yahweh will inherit land (v. 10). But those who forsake him are in danger. Isaiah ends the section with a beautifully constructed set of four contrasting beatitudes and curses (65:13-14). Each verset…
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