Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Who were the company of singers who sang in the Temple built by Solomon? I think many people might answer “the Levitical singers.” That is not correct, because the Levites were not allowed inside the Temple; only the priests were. The Levitical choir and orchestra performed for Yahweh outside the…
Dear Congregation, Social media is awash with rants for and against the ruling from the Supreme Court (SCOTUS) yesterday regarding homosexual marriage ( Obergefell v. Hodges ). My contribution on Facebook was simply to quote relevant sections of the dissents written by the four judges in the minority. Even though…
After the Civil War, the hobbled nation and fractured races looked about for leadership; animosity was high and envy was crouching at the door. Booker Taliaferro Washington, up from slavery, surveyed the rising tension and injustice, foreseeing civil unrest and chafing inequalities, eschewed, remarkably, a legislative remedy and advised a…
The ruling on Obergefell v. Hodges “came down” on Friday morning, June 26, 2015, like a bolt from Zeus. Many who refuse to bow to the dictates of our Olympians will write trenchant legal, theological, and cultural/political analyses of the court’s ruling. What I’m comfortable contributing to the historical record,…
Orthodox Christianity has lost all cultural potency in the U.S. No one defending traditional marriage before the court dared raise the fundamental question: Who creates marriage, God or the state? Theology has no public standing, no persuasive force in the culture at large. Obergefell is another nail in the coffin…
One will rarely come upon a classical allusion in a Robert Frost poem. His poetic scheme was to follow the speaking patterns of common folk, to use their words and images to achieve his point. Despite this simplicity, there is a depth and richness to his poetry that can be…
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My Solemn Charge and Exhortation to inaugurate our 2019 Pentecost Term course . The anthropologist Mary Douglas once observed that modernity has witnessed “a wide-spread, explicit rejection of ritual as such. Ritual is become a bad word signifying empty conformity.” To which many would reply, So what? Haven’t Christians been…
I offered the following remarks at the beginning of the Theopolis Feast, which we celebrated last Saturday evening . Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. Welcome to the Theopolis Feast, the first of what we hope will become an annual event. I’m…
A friend asked me to write an exhortation for a newly ordained deacon. Here’s what I wrote . In many churches, deacons seem to be menial laborers. They prepare budgets, maintain church buildings, organize work days, clean up after pot luck dinners. Pastors and elders do spiritual things; deacons worry…
In a column this week on David Brooks's new book, Rod Dreher admitted, “my politics are driven entirely by fear of the Left, specifically on matters of religious liberty and social policy.” As always, Rod writes with a searing honesty, but his self-assessment also exposes the weakness of his political…
Once, argues Nicholas Xenos ( Scarcity and Modernity ), “scarcity” did not exist. What existed with “scarcities,” or “periods of scarcity.” He writes, “Of medieval origin, ‘scarcity’ derives from the Old Northern French escarcete . Its original usage denoted an insufficiency of supply, and by the fifteenth century the word…
Leviticus 2 prescribes the rite for the tribute offering ( minchah ). Three general forms are described, differing mainly by the ways they are prepared before they are brought to the sanctuary. There are flour offerings (vv. 1-3), baked minchah (vv. 4-10), and grains roasted in fire (vv. 14-16). Baked…
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