Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Genesis 3 ends on a decisive, and decisively negative, note. Yahweh “drove the man out” of the garden, and, in addition, “at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.”…
When she died in 2005 at the age of 72, Anna Haycraft, the author who published under the name Alice Thomas Ellis, was a celebrated writer in Great Britain. While working at Duckworth Publishers(which her husband owned), she produced a dozen novels, a collection of short stories, a cookbook, volumes…
Some have suggested recently that my "project" is postmodern. To clarify my views on postmodernism, I'm re-posting something I wrote in 2005, with a few modifications. For a fuller discussion, you can check out my Solomon among the Postmoderns (Canon, 2008). First, it is helpful to distinguish, as many writers…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Asking why the church doesn’t sing hymns or even why men don’t sing in church is a bit like lamenting over the lame man who can’t waltz on the dance floor. While it is a valid question, the more immediate question would seem to be, “why doesn’t the lame man…
The theme of 1 Timothy is the distinction between the true children in the Household of God and false children who really belong to the household of Satan. This is seen in the fact that in the chiastic structure of the Epistle, heresy is the subject in the center (…
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Mary appears twice in John's Gospel. She is at the wedding of Cana, where Jesus does His first sign and first reveals His glory. She reappears at the foot of the cross (John 19), at the hour of Jesus. As Max Thurian points out ( Mary, Mother of All Christians…
This summary of Wright’s views on justification is taken from passages in his 2006 Paul in Fresh Perspective . 1) Covenant and apocalyptic . Unlike some contemporary scholars, Wright insists that covenant and apocalyptic are not opposed to one another, but joined in Paul’s teaching. By “covenant,” he means God’s…
Max Thurian ( Mary, Mother of All Christians ) has a wonderful treatment of Mary's role at the wedding feast at Cana. He starts by noting some of the symbolic dimensions of the event. The wedding takes place on "the third day," initiating a theme that runs through the rest…
Sex is a mystery. Sex is a mystery because masculinity and femininity are elusive qualities. Sexual desire is a mystery, so spontaneous and powerful that we might almost forgive ancient pagans for thinking of sex as a goddess, a divine power. Sexual intercourse is a mystery of mutual indwelling that…
Douglas Axe ( Undeniable ) is out to defend our intuition that something as intricate as a living things must have a designer. One of his tactics is to prick the bubble of scientific pretension. We don't know nearly as much as we pretend we know. For instance: “the giant…
Writing at USA Today , W. Bradford Wilcox sums up his and others' research on children born into or growing up in a home with unmarried parents: "Cohabiting families in America, partly because they are characterized by markedly lower levels of commitment, are also characterized by markedly higher levels of…
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