Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Russian Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann died in 1983, but his importance continues to grow, sometimes in surprising ways. A Russian transplanted to Paris and then to Crestwood, New York, he was an acute observer of the American religious scene. He possessed the clarity of vision the Spirit often grants to…
This is the fifth in a series of studies of Deuteronomy 22:3-23:8. "A bastard ( mazmer ) shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh" (Deuteronomy 23:2). [i] The translation “bastard” here for mazmer ,…
The Enlightenment project is very comprehensible in terms of the “Wars of Religion” that followed the Reformation. It's questionable whether all that is said about the Wars of Religion is entirely fair (R. J. Rushdoony’s Christian Survey of World History has some very helpful things to say about this). Still,…
The fourth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. One wounded by crushing, or cut in the member shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh (Deuteronomy 23:1. [i] The translation of this verse varies in different English versions. The basic idea is clear enough, however: a eunuch is…
Trinity House President Peter Leithart will give a lecture on violence at the 2013 Wheaton Theology Conference later this week.
The third in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22-23. This continues the second essay, which examines Deuteronomy 22:30: "A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s wing" (Hebrew: kanaf ). The Sin of Ham Another story would almost certainly occur to an ancient…
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With characteristic gleeful verve, Rodney Stark assaults secularization theory in his Triumph of Christianity . Secularization theory revived, he says, a charge brought against religious pluralism by “monopoly religions: that disputes among religious groups undermine the credibility of all” (357). But people kept being religious, even in pluralistic settings. Secularization…
Latin America was supposed to become Protestant by now. In one of the major non-developments of the past quarter-century, it didn’t. Catholics didn’t take predictions of a Protestant Latin America lightly, and responded with renewal efforts of their own. Rodney Stark ( Triumph of Christianity ) highlights the role of…
Carlotta Gall spent 12 years in Afghanistan, and spent much of her time investigating the sources of the Taliban resurgence. She traced it back to Pakistan, and discovered that the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) was secretly supportive of both the Taliban and al Quaeda. Gall writes , “The Pakistani government,…
Gall again, reporting on Pakistan’s cozy relationship with bin Laden: She found evidence of “regular correspondence between Bin Laden and a string of militant leaders who must have known he was living in Pakistan, including Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, the founder of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a pro-Kashmiri group that has also been active…
Jesus searches the entrails and hearts of His people (Revelation 2:23), but then judges everyone “according to your deeds” ( erga ). Why does He need the internal inspection when he’s going to judge by behavior in the last instance? That question highlights what might be called one dimension of…
Carol Wilson’s For I Was Hungry and You Gave Me Food is a well-researched and illuminating piece of social-scientific scholarship on the New Testament. Picking up on recent work that places Matthew’s gospel in a Greco-Roman imperial context (e.g., Warren Carter), Wilson focuses narrowly on access to food. How did…
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