Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Keeping the Law Paul states just as emphatically as James that the doers of the law will be justified (Rom. 2:13; James 2:14ff). But who are these doers of the law? Is Paul speaking hypothetically of a class of sinless people who do not really exist? Or does he have…
I have entitled this super-condensed piece to capture interest, but the fact is it sets forth what I have believed and taught long before I had ever heard of the so-called “new perspective.” For example, one can look at my paper on Ephesians 2.15 , written before I had ever…
N. T. Wright and other “New Perspective on Paul” (NPP) theologians have been criticized and condemned for speaking of justification in various “tenses.” In fact, Wright typically begins discussions of justification with future justification and works his way back to the present. But this is hardly a novelty. While the…
A doctrine of “faith alone” must be explicated and lived out in the light of the larger story of faithfulness, a story that reaches its climax in Jesus, the faithful Messiah. Indeed, the idea of “faith alone,” and even Paul’s use of the OT in service of that idea, makes…
In every city in the United States there are at least a couple of Christian radio stations which broadcast preaching around the clock, seven days a week. Many areas have a Christian television station or two which broadcast worship services several hours a day. Almost any bookstore will have a…
The queston has been discussed: which is prior, faith or repentance? It is an unnecessary question and the insistence that one is prior to the other is futile. There is no priority. The faith that is unto salvation is a penitent faith and the repentance that is unto life is…
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“T he whole of religion is contained in the Sacraments,” Feuerbach says at the beginning of The Essence of Christianity . That is, “there are . . . no other religious acts than those which are performed in Baptism and the Lord's Supper.” This being so, Feuerbach claims that “the…
Laurent Fleury's Sociology of Culture and Cultural Practices is “underpinned” by a conviction that runs counter to the consensus of sociology, especially among those influenced by Pierre Bourdieu. Fleury's conviction is that “there are no simple, univocal links between attitudes developed in childhood and choices, preferences, and practices deployed in…
MD Goulder ( Type and History in Acts ) summarizes the complaints against Luke's history of the early church in Acts: “No student can read Acts without dissatisfaction: he would not have written it thus. Why does it end where it ends? Why is so much space devoted to the…
Nietzche ( AntiChrist ) claims that German philosophy is descended from German theology. Kant's victory is a theological one. Nietzsche's own position, though, is equally theological, a different one. But not that different, because like Kant he's a low church Protestant attacking decadent priestly religion. The priest (section 26) is…
John hears several voices as he sees new Jerusalem descend from heaven like a bride. He hears a loud voice “out of the throne” announcing, in third person, that God has pitched His tent among men (Revelation 21:3-4). Then the one seated on the throne speaks: “Behold new I make…
Francis's I's pastoral exhortation on family life, A moris laetitia , will inevitably, and rightly, be the subject of scrutiny by Catholic theologians and canon lawyers. A great deal is at stake. But it's also important to note, as even hostile commentators have, that the controversial passages are set within…
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