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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Sudanese artist Philip Makuei has used scrap metal from crashed MiG fighters to make decorative crosses. Isaiah 2:4.
Last week, I posted a critique of the argument of Cal Beisner and Fowler White concerning the connection between the covenant of redemption and the covenant of works. Beisner and White replied, and I post their reply here with their permission. We offer our sincere thanks to Dr. Leithart for…
A Transvaal hymn celebrates Jesus’ victory: Jesus Christ is Conqueror By his resurrection he overcame death itself By his resurrection he overcame all things He overcame magic He overcame amulets and charms He overcame the darkness of demon possession He overcame dread When we are with him We also conquer.
Jenkins comments a number of times on the prominence of Old Testament Wisdom literature and James in Southern Christianity. He notes that these books have been particularly important as inter-religious texts. The Galai Lama “provided an admiring introduction” for the letter of James, and Ecclesiastes has “acquired a significant following…
A Zulu song includes the line, “Aka na mandla uSathane/ S’omshaya nge vhesi.” Philip Jenkins translates: “Satan has no power/ we wil clobber him with a [biblical] verse.”
A number of writers have drawn up exposes of the “theocratic” agenda of evangelical Republicans over the past two years, and many find the darkly Armenian figure of RJ Rushdoony lurking behind every legislative proposal and protest march. They don’t know the half of it. By Philip Jenkins’s description (…
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