Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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Christians today often think that the church needs to be powerful and well-ordered to attract notice. This is nothing less than unbelief. Think of Ruth the Moabitess, who attaches herself to Naomi when Naomi has nothing (Ruth 1:15-18). Naomi went out of Israel full — with husband, two sons, everything…
Moses' blessing of Levi (Deuteronomy 33:8-11) includes a curse against Levi's enemies: “Yahweh, bless his substance, and accept the work of his hands; shatter the loins of those who rise up against him, and those who hate him, so that they may not rise” (v. 11). Levi's substance consists of…
The description of the angels on Jacob's ladder has long been a puzzle: They are “ascending and descending” (Genesis 28). Since angels come from heaven to earth, shouldn't it be the opposite? Shouldn't they come down before they go up? Yitzhak Pegel suggests a solution in his Going Up and…
Tomoko Masuzawa was startled to discover that one of the “precepts” of modern religious studies was “Thou shalt not quest for the origin of religion” ( In Search of Dreamtime , 2). This was odd on a couple of fronts. For starters, “every one of the ‘founding fathers' of our…
In her 1959 study of Shakespeare's Tragic Heroes , Lily Campbell treats the four main tragedies of tragedies of passion. Shakespeare places characters of different humor in similar circumstances, and depicts how the characters react. Hamlet is a tragedy of grief, Othello of jealousy, Lear of old-age wrath, Macbeth of…
Mark Chaves observes ( Congregations in America ) that it is difficult to say what congregations do, and that for two reasons. On the one hand, a congregation's “ministry” may actually be the work of a tiny minority of a congregation., On the other hand, congregations in the US are…
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