Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
John 18:1-11 appears on the surface to be a straightforward, if somewhat unusual, narrative of Jesus’ arrest by officers of the chief priests and Pharisees accompanied by an apparently large group of Roman soldiers, all of them led by the betrayer, Judas. But there is much more here than what…
Why is the US embroiled in the Middle East? There are two primary answers: Oil and Israel. Both are fairly intractable problems, the latter in significant part because of the unique convergence of theology and politics that has forged American policy in the region. Dispensationalists insist that we must bless…
There’s a common theme that arises in the study of theologians James B. Jordan and Peter Leithart. It is this: Context matters. Details matter. This is God’s Word. The details are not arbitrary “filler” hiding the kernel of truth in the husk of the text. The husk and the kernel…
Perhaps the most fearful of all possibilities in the world is the possibility of betrayal on the part of someone who is in a “position of trust.” This, unfortunately, is the first block in what ought to be the foundation of every marriage in the world. Every woman has a…
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The way we talk about the world matters. Our doctrine of creation tells us that words do not simply reflect reality. They also shape it and the way we inhabit it. Among the world’s many language groups, the Church is distinct. She is called to name things with Scriptural language,…
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Derrida’s pursuit of the pure gift is premised on a strict dichotomy of “economy” and “gift.” “Economy” includes anything done for gain, no matter how meager that gain is (it might be the feeling of satisfaction I get from giving something useful to someone); “gift” is the impossible purity of…
Why grasp the horns of the altar when you’re a fugitive in the temple? How is it legitimate to touch the horns, when the altar as a whole is forbidden to all but the priests? The answer to the first is found in the premise of the second: The altar…
INTRODUCTION Micah prophesies of a “ruler in Israel” (5:2). But to grasp the full promise of this prophecy, we have to read it in the light of Micah’s description of Israel’s current rulers. To put it mildly, they are not pleasant fellows. The Christ is going to come to establish…
Feasting and care for the poor have been polarized in contemporary culture. If you’re a “conservative,” you’re in favor of free trade, consumption without guilt, festivity without concern for those who can’t join you, who probably deserve their poverty anyway. If you’re a “liberal,” you renounce festivity because other people…
Ruth not only points ahead to the union of Jews and Gentiles, but records it. Ruth the Moabitess marries Boaz the Jew - a marital union of Jew and Moabite, and Obed incorporates Jew and Gentile in his own body. Obed, whose name means “servant,” is a type of the…
Perhaps the pattern noted earlier can be applied more broadly. Perhaps the incorporation of outsiders is always what spurs God’s return to save the insiders. So, the current moment may not only be one (as Philip Yancy put it) of God moving on from the West to a place where…
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