Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Paradosis Center at John Brown University in Siloam Spring, Arkansas, put on its first conference last week, it was a remarkable event. It was an ecumenical conference including Orthodox (John Behr, Edith Humphrey, others), Catholic (Rusty Reno, Michael Root, others), and Evangelical (Timothy George, David Lyle Jeffrey). Unusually for…
Naphtali Meshel observes in his new The "Grammar" of Sacrifice that scholars have been talking for decades about the "grammatical" character of ritual and sacrifice in general, but have never actually analyzed a specific ritual or sacrificial system grammatically. Some even talk about a "universal grammar" of sacrifice "even though…
Some Christians are rather breezy about the problem of evil. We shouldn't be. Do I need to remind you of the grisly beheadings that have taken place over the past few weeks? Do I need to remind you of the blood of innocents that’s been spilled in our own country?…
Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has…
Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He…
Paul stands against those who are “troubling” or “disturbing” the Galatians churches ( tarasso ; 1:7; also in 5:10). The reference seems to be two great troublers from the Old Testament. First, Achan is described as a “troubler” for the problems he causes in the aftermath of the battle at…
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In an extended review of my Delivered from the Elements of the World , Brad Littlejohn argues that I’m addicted to novelty. I write theology in which, so it seems to Brad, “newness is prized above all.” I am a Protestant primitivist yet at the same time a Protestant futurist,…
A s David brings the ark into Jerusalem, he assembles Levites and priests to carry it to its place, as Torah requires. 1 Chronicles 15:5-11 enumerates Levites in each of six subtribes: 1. Koathites, 120 2. Merarites, 220 3. Gershomites, 130 4. Sons of Elizaphan, 200 5. Sons of Hebron,…
“A rise, Yahweh, to Your resting place, you and the ark of your strength” (Psalm 132:8). The Psalm describes the ascent of Yahweh…s ark-throne into Jerusalem as an entry into rest. Yahweh has conquered, Yahweh has taken His throne, Yahweh enters Sabbath. Unsurprisingly, 1 Chronicles 15, which recounts the ascent…
P atrick Deneen argues that liberal order is incompatible with limited government. Liberalism is devoted to the protection of rights, including the right to happiness; its ends are limitless, and so the scope of liberal government is likewise unlimited. At the end of the essay, Deneen quotes this illuminating passage…
M IT’s Technology Review reports on research by computer scientist Andrew Reagan of the University of Vermont that uses data-mining to determine the most common story-arcs of 1700 English stories and novels. Their method is: “words have a positive or negative emotional impact. So words can be a measure of…
N inety-five-year-old Walter Laqueur has an interest in thinking that the aged are still useful. In an essay in The American Interest , he assembles ancient evidence in support: Foolish people, Cicero says, blame old age for their own faults and shortcomings, but Enius did not do so. As an…
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