Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Summary In what follows, I will consider the “year-stamps” employed in Scripture, i.e., statements of the form, “Such-and-such an event took place in the Xth year of Y.” In the process, I will suggest some ways in which the Biblical narrative might relate to events in the extra-Biblical world, though…
In the first essay on the parable of the Prodigal Son, I suggested that the problems commentators and others encounter in interpreting Jesus three-part parable are not accidental. These are not just problems in our ignorance of cultural background. They are intentional features of the stories —stories designed to poke…
The story of the Prodigal Son is perhaps the most well-known story in the Bible. As others have observed, it may also be one of the most misunderstood. In two short essays, I will point out features of this story that are commonly neglected, aspects of Jesus’ parable that might…
The parable of Lazarus and the nameless rich man is not an independent story. It is part of a long context that begins in Luke 15:1, where Jesus is eating with tax collectors and sinners and the scribes and Pharisees grumble. In response to their hardheartedness, Jesus tells a three-part…
The Bible is written so that even when a reader cannot pick up on what might be deeper or more detailed aspects of a text, there is virtually always a message to be heard. In the ancient world, where the “reader” of Scripture would likely be a church official facing…
The distinction between garden (or vineyard) and field begins in Genesis 2. This relates to the ordering of the formless world. Plants of the field are contrasted with the garden planted by God in Genesis 2:5&8. Later on, under the Old Covenant the Israelites will be required to keep their…
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A review of Jeffrey Knapp’s Shakespeare’s Tribe in the November 7 TLS begins with the comment that Elizabethan dramatists approached their work with a missionary aim: “Countering the fears of religious commentators who believed acting to be nothing more than hypocrisy, this approach admitted the element of deception in theatre…
An interesting summary of the work of Nobel-prize winner J.M. Coetzee in the December 8 issue of The Weekly Standard . The reviewer, Michael Kochin, suggests that Coetzee, who is both an academic critic and a novelist, poses unique challenges to Western intellectuals, whether postmodern multiculturalists or conservative classicists. Kochin…
Were there Humanist iconoclasts? It seems plausible, given the interest in Platonism and Neoplatonism among Humanists. And here’s a quotation from the Humanist Vives: “If that very picture which we are gazing at, is obscene, does that not contaminate our minds, especially if it be subtly and artistically depicted? Not…
John Donne on Virginity (from Paradoxes and Problemes ): “I call not that Virginity a vertue, which resideth only in the Bodies integrity . . . But I call that Virginity a vertue which is willing and desirous to yeeld it selfe upon honest and lawfull terms, which just reason…
A pastoral similitude, in honor of Jonathan Edwards: What to do with a low-burning fire? Sometimes, additional wood will smother the fire. But sometimes additional wood is just what the fire needs to revive. So, when zeal is running at a low ebb, we should not necessarily remove burdens until…
The November 21 TLS has a review of a biography of Nicolaus Steno (1638-86), a Danish physician, theologian, and convert to Roman Catholicism who was beatified in 1988. The reviewer gives this account of Steno’s contribution to medicine: “Between 1663 and 1665, he discovered the cheek salivary duct, identified female…
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