Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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The fundamental Christology of the New Testament, Barth insists ( The Doctrine of the Word of God (Church Dogmatics, vol. 1, pt. 2) , pp. 15-7), is that “God’s Son is called Jesus of Nazareth, and Jesus of Nazareth is God’s Son.” But this cannot be understood in the sense…
When King Asa of Judah heard the prophecy of Azariah, he “took courage and removed the abominable idols from all the land of Judah and Benjamin” (2 Chronicles 15:8). Then he gathered the people to Jerusalem to re-enter into the covenant with Yahweh, promising to hold to the terms of…
Isaiah 49:26: I will feed your oppressors with their own flesh, and they will become drunk with their own blood as with sweet wine; and all flesh will know that I, Yahweh, am your Savior, and your Redeemer, the Holy One of Jacob. Isaiah 49 ends with a macabre feast…
1 Corinthians 6: Don’t you know that you are not your own? “What is your comfort in life and in death?” begins the Heidelberg Catechism. And it answers, “That I with body and soul, both in life and death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Savior Jesus…
It’s easy to be cynical about American politics. It’s easy to think we can safety check out. Many have concluded that politics doesn’t matter. That’s a mistake. Laws and regulations form the institutional and even the physical shape of the world we live in every day, and there is no…
Ross Douthat observes ( Bad Religion: How We Became a Nation of Heretics ) that American politics oscillates between mad messianic hopes and insane apocalyptic fears. When our guy wins, we scan the prairie expecting to see the lambs lying with lions. When the other guy wins, we can hear…
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