Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The sin of Ham in Genesis 9 continues to elicit comment, since it seems mysterious. We read in 9:21-23 that Noah uncovered himself inside (the covering of) his tent, that Ham (entered the privacy of Noah’s tent) and saw his father’s (not “Noah’s”, n.b.) nakedness, that Ham told his two…
Recently the magazine Tabletalk published a series of essays against Calvinist theologian N. T. Wright. The black cover of this issue lets us know just how dangerous this man is. But how dangerous is N. T. Wright? Well, he’s dangerous to some people, but not to others. Let’s see: He…
You need to read Rob Rayburn’s defense of his presbytery to the PCA SJC (Standing Judicial Committee). If you’ve been out of the loop on this, that’s okay. But what has happened in the last few years is that people have made accusations against Peter Leithart, and in response the…
What does it mean to read the Bible as inspired literature? The method is not new nor is it uncommon in Dutch Reformed circles. Exegesis must be Christocentric, plenary (all the text serves a theological purpose), respect the context in God’s redemptive plan, and plumb the full literary depth of…
Reading in John Calvin’s sermons on 2 Samuel today, I came across this wonderful statement. This comes from a sermon preached on July 3, 1562, “The True Worship of God,” an exposition of 2 Sam. 6:1-7. Calvin is discussing the implications of the affirmation that Yaweh, the God of Israel,…
A great deal of confusion about the relative value of “virginity” and marriage can be avoided if one pays careful attention to the text of Paul’s advice in 1 Corinthians 7. The two most important observations are: 1) that Paul’s specific recommendations are made because of the “impending crisis” (v.…
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“Classic theories of modernization, from the 1950s,” write the editors of Reflections on Multiple Modernities , “identified the core of modernity, of modern social structure, as the decomposition of older ‘closed' formations and . . . of the growing potential for social mobilization, and the concomitant development of new structural,…
In a 2009 University of Michigan dissertation, Richard Persky explores the cultural meaning of time in ancient Greece, focusing on the concept of kairos . According to Persky, “a kairos is a moment of opportunity, the right time to do some particular thing. The allegorical sculpture made by Lysippos and…
Jerusalem descends from heaven a jeweled bride, with the luminosity of a precious stone, a “crystal-clear jasper” (v. 11; hos litho iaspidi krustallizonti ). She is also surrounded by a jasper wall (v. 18). How might the city be related to the wall? The structure of 21:18-22 gives us a…
In the Weekly Standard , Paul Cantor explains that both Shakespeare and Cervantes aimed their writing at a common target: Chivalry. He describes chivalry as “a noble ideal and at its best it did much to refine an otherwise coarse and brutal world, but it rested on shaky foundations and…
Susan Holman ( The Hungry Are Dying ) draws on recent scholarship to argue that “food doles, communal religious feasts, public works, or subsidized public entertainment prior to the Christianization of Graeco-Roman culture did not function out of any concern to alleviate poverty per se.” These “public works” or leitourgia…
Peter tells us that Jesus was the “just” man who suffered for the sins of the “unjust,” and that the purpose of this suffering was to “bring us to God.” William Dalton ( Christ's Proclamation to the Spirits ) points out that the verb prosago has technical legal meaning in…
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