Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
A couple years ago, I read Paul Graham’s ruminations on higher- and lower-level languages in Hackers and Painters . Although he’s talking about computer languages, his insights have bearing on biblical language and hermeneutics. So bear with me while I lay out some of the basic points, and then we’ll…
Toward the end of the Revelation, John sees a vision of a new heaven and a new earth. The old created order in Adam has passed away, and the new order under the lordship of Jesus has been established. Within this new creation John also sees “the holy city, the…
I have been talking with you about integration—an elusive, allusive, word, pregnant with something we long for. I have suggested that what might be rightly a natural longing has been exacerbated by our own modern Western milieu’s dominating devotion to bits and bytes, a prevailing sense of fragmentation. Fragmentation is…
Sunday morning found me kneeling at the foot of my bed, trembling, pebbles of sweat leaping off the edge of my brow and nose, and hitting the floor in front of me, but not from piety was I procumbent; though as a minister for over a decade, I had made…
In April of this year, President Trump issued a zero-tolerance border policy that separated families, specifically children from their parents who had crossed the USA/Mexico border be it illegally or as asylum seekers . In mid-June, Trump dropped this policy of splitting up families, however there are still children who…
During the Middle Ages, Joseph, the husband of Mary, was the butt of many jokes. Medieval theater and art often depicted him as something of a buffoon, decidedly marginal to the gospel story. In part, this was the unfortunate obverse of the exaltation of Mary; any man would suffer by…
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Anxiety, writes Oliver O'Donovan ( Finding and Seeking ) is a “sin against time” (173-4). Anxiety is a form of fear, situated “on the border between anticipation and purpose.” Anticipation may make us fearful or optimistic, but it doesn’t make us anxious. Anxiety arises when we face the future with…
Below is an excerpt from an address given at last week's Theopolis Epiphany Feast. I am grateful to Erik van Versendaal for sending my a copy of his superb paper, "Reason for Being" (Communion, 2017), which inspired much of the following . We must eat to live. That’s not a…
Back in July 2020, Josh Michaud and Jen Kates published an essay on China’s public health program in Foreign Affairs . Chinese policy is summarized in the word fangkong , “prevent and control.” The term is dense with meaning. It refers to “crisis management involving control over diffuse forces (inside…
The tabernacle texts of Exodus are bisected by the account of the idolatry of the golden calf (Exodus 32-34). On one side of that episode is the seven-speech prescription for the building of the tabernacle (Exodus 25-31), and on the other is a second description of the tabernacle furnishings and…
Joe David Brown was born and grew up in Birmingham, Alabama, graduating from the University of Alabama and taking a job at the Birmingham Post. He wrote several novels, including one that became the film Paper Moon . In March 1963, he published a piece for the Saturday Evening Post…
The seven speeches of Exodus 25-31 conclude, fittingly, with a reiteration of the Sabbath law (Exodus 31:12-17). It’s one of the clearest indications that the tabernacle is a new creation. After Moses, the sub-creator, has completed the tabernacle, he enters into Yahweh’s Sabbath, ceasing as Yahweh ceased. This concluding speech…
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