Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
We've all heard it, too often to count. The Apostle Paul was a misgynistic homophobic pro-slavery authoritarian, probably a repressed homosexual himself, the first Puritan - Puritan here defined as "someone who cannot sleep if someone in the world is having fun." To call this a caricature is too generous.…
Some of our forefathers believed in reading/singing the psalms in order. Today, when the psalms are even used at all, they tend to be used randomly, though sometimes tied to a church calendar or to the pastor’s sermon. The Bible does not bind us to any particular practice, but there…
". . . and all drank the same spiritual drink, for they were drinking from a spiritual rock that followed them; and the rock was Christ" (1 Corinthians 10:4). Paul’s passing comment about the rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness has often been treated as a bit of…
The story of Hezekiah’s illness and recovery is familiar to every child who has attended Sunday School. Informed that he would die, faithful King Hezekiah pleaded in tears for a longer life. God heard his prayers and saw his tears, and promised fifteen more years. As a sign that He…
When viewed as an allegory of biblical history, the controversial third act of Danny Boyle’s gripping sci-fi adventure is transformed from an illogical divergence into a blinding revelation. The following analysis contains spoilers for the movie “Sunshine.” The Creation Week is the elementary type that orders everything God has said…
In my last post , I told you the story of my current desire to understand philosopher D.C. Schindler’s metaphysical work. With this post, I start in to the venture. I begin by reflecting on what it is to be a thing. This matter always makes me laugh, and makes…
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The papers in the seminar on the recent Duke publication Theology and the Political: The New Debate were dense, difficult, and hard to follow. And then Graham Ward got up and said, essentially, that the whole point of Radical Orthodoxy was to start with Christ; all the philosophical apparatus arises…
Chrisi Maier gave an interesting paper on the feminine conception of space in Lamentations. Jeremiah speaks of Jerusalem in turn as widow, as violated virgin, and as mother bereft of children. There is an intriguing asymmetry between these three images. The first two have an obvious literal referent: The city…
Gabriella Gelardini of the University of Basel gave an excellent presentation on the structure of Hebrews, defending this basic chiasm: A. Elevation and Abasement of the Son, 1:1-2:18 (terminology: son, angels, abase) B. Faithlessness of fathers and sons, 3:1-6:20 C. New Covenant and the cult, 7:1-10:18 B’. Faith of sons…
One of Wright’s respondents argued for what he called a “skeptical theism” with regard to the problem of evil. The main points are: 1) We don’t have the cognitive equipment to figure out whether God intends to achieve goods that are morally sufficient to justify His permission of evil. When…
In a discussion of NT Wright’s new book on evil, the question of pre-fall carnivores came up. Both Wright and his respondent basically agreed that animals killed and ate other animals before the fall, and that this was not incompatible with Yahweh’s judgment that this was “very good.” But both…
I don’t recall now if I noticed the connections between Isaac and Saul in 1 Samuel. Isaac abuses his divinely favored son Jacob; Saul abuses his son-in-law David. Isaac preferred Esau, the eldest, to the second son; Saul prefers Jonathan to David. One of the key discontinuities is Jonathan’s behavior.…
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