Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Not long ago, I heard these statistics about New York City: New York City is in $100 billion in debt. 20% of all NYC residents are on food stamps, which cost $250 million a month. 5% of NYC population are on disability, costing $252 million a month. Other assistance costs…
1. All political power is ambivalent. Vertical violence of “the state” tends to limit horizontal and contested power between people and between tribes. “The State” brings new oppression, but also a measure of new peace and unity. 2. All political formations are ambiguous like this: a strong family conquers weaker…
Gnosticism by any other name would smell the same. But does the church have much of a theological sense of smell, these days, when it comes to the seductions of virtuality in our worshipping communities? Social isolation during a global pandemic makes good public health sense, but whether church should…
It is a remarkable thing, you know, this thing called priority. Just a few weeks ago, religious leaders were boldly asserting in their high-dollar online videos that it was too dangerous to return to worship and that we needed to listen to our political and health leaders. "They are the…
Somewhere in the city of Jerusalem on a rooftop just a few years after the ascension of Jesus and the outpouring of the Spirit on Pentecost. . . ". . . and just when are you guys going to live up to your ‘Sons of Thunder’ reputation? Huh? A lot…
In my book, Solomon Says: Directives for Young Men ( Amazon , Kindle ) I mention that Solomon portrays wisdom as a woman. But I don’t ask (or answer!) why he did so. Solomon uses the figure of Lady Wisdom without apology or explanation: Wisdom cries aloud in the street,…
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Daniel Miller’s The Comfort of Things begins from the premise that our relationship to things is not opposed to relationship with people but rather that “the closer our relationships are with objects, the closer our relationship are with people.” Visiting the Clarke family at Christian (as summed up by the…
Joel Marcus has an intriguing article on the Markan crucifixion account in JBL (2006). He points out that Mark reserves the title “king” until chapter 15, where Jesus is called king six times. As in the other gospels, Mark presents the crucifixion as an exaltation. Old news, that. Where Marcus…
INTRODUCTION In this “divided kingdom” portion of Matthew’s gospel, Jesus sets out the way of life and the government for His church. THE TEXT “When they had come to Capernaum, those who received the temple tax came to Peter and said, ‘Does your Teacher not pay the temple tax?’ He…
Matthew 17:19-20: Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, Why could we not cast out the demon? Jesus said to them, Because of the littleness of your faith; for truly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain,…
Malachi 4:5-6: Behold I am going to send Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of Yahweh. And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children, and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land…
Jonathan Chait - no Bush-loving right-winger he - doesn’t at all like Naomi Klein’s popular Shock Doctrine . Her thesis is that Milton Friedman is the evil genius behind the history of global economics and politics in the last three decades. The idea is to disorient the public by “wars,…
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