Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
What is below is fairly self-explanatory. This is an exchange I had with a local liberal clergyman on the subject of abortion. The circumstances of the debate are included in the text itself. I initially e-mailed this out to a list of clergy in our city after a local (and…
The seemingly humdrum parts of the Bible often hide overlooked wisdom. Take, for example, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Their stories aren't exactly the most gripping or memorable. They are far less concrete than, say, the story of the Exodus. No one in Ezra is stricken blind or devoured…
For most of the past century, philosophical perspectives on life in the western world have been overtly grim and pessimistic. The optimism of the Enlightenment, generated by confidence in the scientific method and the potential of an increasingly civilized humanity to redress the evils of the world, was shattered by…
Chiastic structures are found all over the Bible, and in recent decades commentators have become more adept at spotting them. But identifying these literary structures is only part of the challenge. There remains the challenge of understanding what they mean. Part of the answer is found in the recognition that…
Part 1 can be found HERE . Clearly, more than just getting worship right is important in changing the world, but since worship is the central act of God’s people, performed on the first day of the week at the center of the world before the very face of God,…
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed.” ( Luke 11:27 ) Arguing for Christian morality in a secular society is difficult. A culture which accepts evolutionary dogma has no intellectual place — or inherent desire — for absolute morality, since it believes morality…
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Joseph Mangina ( Revelation , 248) summarizes David Barr's ( Tales of the End ) analysis of the parallels between Revelation 22 and the Didache 's depiction of early Christian Eucharist: “both Rev. 22 and the Didache (a) allude to Jesus's descent from David, (b) draw a sharp distinction between…
“‘Empire’ is a grand word,” write John Darwin at the beginning of his Unfinished Empire . On the ground, the reality of empire is “a mass of individuals, a network of lobbies, a mountain of hopes: for careers, fortunes, religious salvation or just physical safety. Empires were not made by…
Premillennialism - the view that Jesus returns to reign in person at the beginning of a literal one-thousand-year golden age - is often criticized these days for being defeatist, spiritualist, gnostic. It was not always so. As Martin Spence shows in his excellent Heaven on Earth , early critics of…
Four times in Revelation, John is directly told not to do something. When he falls at the feet of Jesus, Jesus touches him with his right hand and says, “Do not fear” (1:17; Gr. me phobou ). When no one in heaven, earth, or under earth can be found to…
Responding to Eugene McCarraher, John Milbank gives a brief overview of the complex interactions of European imperial powers, the church, and the colonized. Contrary to some popular opinion, “Missionaries were often opponents of military, economic and settler empire as has now been abundantly shown by historians. In a parallel fashion,…
When Dvorak's New World Symphony debuted in New York, it was hailed as a masterpiece, the American symphony that American composers had tried, and failed, to produce. Which American composers would those be? Douglas Shadle's Orchestrating the Nation answers the question. It's a question contemporary symphony-goers need answered too. As…
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