Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Every advent of new media creates the justifiable reaction from some that the necessarily accompanied amputation may not be worth the extension made possible by the new tools. This is not unique to the Digital Age. Lamoignon Malesherbes, the French politician who was counsel for the defense of Louis XVI,…
A response to Gage Crowder's " The Hole in our Hope ?" Already, the first pages of the Bible promise a bright future. The story starts with the creation of heaven and earth, where heaven is perfect, but the earth is in a state of formless emptiness. Yet, God takes…
A rejoinder to Bubu Jarmulak's essay, " Embrace Pessimism ." Whereas calumnious critiques are reflections of more on the critic than the work criticized, good critiques are always opportunities for reassessment and improvement if they are received as such . Since its renaissance, the biblical doctrine of postmillennialism—or “optimistic eschatology,”…
Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…
On May 21, 1604, the cathedral of Toledo in Spain held job interviews for the post of choirmaster, the head of music at the church. The position had been vacated when the previous occupant, Alonso Lobo, was poached by the nearby cathedral of Seville, and Toledo needed a replacement who…
Imagine — counterfactually: on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus held up an empty hand and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for you. Drink of it.’ But there was no cup, no wine, nothing. If there’s no sign of the covenant, is there…
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From Nietzsche's Twilight of the Idols , on "reason" in philosophy: "You ask me what all idiosyncrasy is in philosophers? . . . For instance their lack of the historical sense, their hatred even of the idea of Becoming, their Egyptianism. They imagine that they do honour to a thing…
Martin Hauge's Descent from the Mountain draws attention to the parallels between Israel's reaction to Yahweh's direct revelation of the Ten Words (Exodus 20:18-21) and the golden calf incident and its aftermath (Exodus 32-34). The two episodes are introduced similarly: "the formal contacts of 20.18 and 32.1 [are] possible signs…
What does Yahweh mean when He introduces Himself to Moses as ' ehyeh ʾăšer 'ehyeh (Exodus 3)? Victor Hamilton (Exodus) notes that the traditional translation "I am who I am" is too constricting. Grammatically the phrase has multiple possible meanings: "The term 'ehyeh is a first-person imperfect of the verb…
Paul DeHart argues that Christianity, not the Enlightenment, gave us the separation of church and state. He cites Gelasius. He points out that Christianity challenged the near-universal institution of sacral kingship on Christological grounds. He of course alludes to Jesus' statement about the things of God and the things of…
Eric Laursen's forthcoming The Duty to Stand Aside provides an intimate glimpse into British debates about Allied tactics during World War II. He focuses on the "wartime quarrel of George Orwell and Alex Comfort." Orwell needs no introduce. Comfort is best known for his Joy of Sex , published long…
The letter to the Hebrews is sometimes read as a brief for a cultless, liturgy-free Christianity. Barnabas Lindars ( Theology of the Letter to the Hebrews ) argues that, on the contrary, the letter is a defense of Christian cult. He provides an innovative sketch of the pastoral impetus behind…
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