Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Brian: This is, I guess, the ultimate news flash. Maybe the last one. Just a couple of minutes ago a lot of people ascended up into the air and met the returning Jesus Christ. At least that seems to be what happened. As you can see, our cameras are on…
Lest we forget at least an over-the-shoulder acknowledgment to the very first radical: from all our legends, mythology, and history (and who knows where mythology leaves off and history begins–or which id which), the first radical known to man who rebelled against the establishment and did it so effectively that…
One of the mysteries in Esther is why Mordecai refused to acknowledge Haman. We are never explicitly told, and such guesses as that he was continuing Yahweh’s war against Amalek do not carry weight. If such was Mordecai’s purpose he was in sin, because it was Yahweh’s war, not his.…
Below are two views of marriage that came out of an e-mail exchange. The first is a kind of of phenomenology of marriage, and of behavior within marriage. It is who we are by nature. It is bad news, very bad news. The second entry is what can be done…
The previous essay on “Monocovenantalism” brought up this matter, so a few comments here. In this area also the mindless militants have perverted the conversation. The notion that the death of Jesus was insufficient for our justification and that we must also have an imputation of His perfect life in…
Repeatedly over the last several years a variety of characters have accused the so-called “Federal Vision” of being “monocovenantal.” Many other wild and unsubstantiated accusations against the “Federal Vision” have been made, of course. Recently I learned that two of the men on the Orthodox Presbyterian Church’s study committee on…
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In his 1972 Denominational Society , the late Andrew Greeley sketches the shape of the denominational society. It is a masterly portrait that captures the energies and contradictions of American religion. He notes, for instance, that “most American religious groups have accepted the existing social order and served as integrators…
In his contribution to Church, Identity, and Change , David Carlson offers an honest assessment of the entanglement of Lutheran Eucharistic theology with German Ethnicity. Friedrich Wyneken, “a key architect of confessional Lutheranism in America” (266), came to American intent on preserving Lutheran fellowship. As he understood it, “fellowship .…
The neatly structured song of the martyrs (Revelation 15:3-4) is a turning point in the book. The first four lines are set up in two pairs. The first line describes the Lord’s works as “great and marvelous,” like the sign that John sees in heaven (v. 1). This is exodus…
For a long time, opponents of the ecumenical movement have charged that it was an attempt to arrive at a doctrinally-light, lowest-common-denominator, man-made organizational unity. The slightest investigation would have demonstrated that this is untrue. The World Council of Church's New Delhi 1961 statement “On Unity” may be imperfect in…
Conflict has its uses. A form of social interaction, it seems nearly essential to maintaining the structures of society. Georg Simmel writes that “the positive and integrating role of antagonism is shown in structures which stand out by the sharpness and carefully preserved purity of their social divisions and gradations.…
Before Israel crosses the Jordan, the Lord reminds the three trans-Jordanian tribes of the deal struck with them. Yahweh has already begun to give them the land He promised to Abraham, and Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of Manasseh will settle there. Before they settle down, though, they need…
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