Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Christian tradition has always had an uneasy relationship with the materiality of creation. Dirt, liquid, sex, blood, and bodies—the world and the flesh stand in company with the Devil as two of the three great enemies of the saints. Mundus, caro, et diabolus , as the old Latin saying…
Since the destruction of Jerusalem was an event of earth-shattering covenantal significance, what might be the meaning of the subsequent tragic events at the desert fortress of Masada? In Hebrew, the name Masada means “strong foundation or support,” from a root meaning “to hunt, lie in wait for prey.” Located…
Take a long look at the photo above. To whom is this woman praying? It is hard to tell, isn’t it? Suppose we watch her for a while. We may see her bow low to the floor. Her lips may move, though perhaps it is too low for us to…
Psalm 137 is widely regarded as one of the meanest of the imprecatory psalms. Certainly as we read it it is seems to be a song of pure vengeance. The exiles in Babylon, in grief over the judgment that Babylon has brought upon them, pray for the destruction of that…
Forty men and women came from all over the United States to attend the 2018 Trinity Term course at Theopolis. Pastors, students, teachers, an electrician, a city planner, and others from a variety of denominations spent five days at Beeson Divinity School studying covenant epistemology under the tutelage of philosopher…
Matthew records that Jesus "withdrew" to Galilee to begin His public ministry there after He "heard that John had been delivered up" (Mt. 4:12). Matthew’s typically matter-of-fact style veils the truly remarkable character of Jesus’ withdrawal. Matthew has been presenting Jesus as the Messiah, the Seed of Abraham and Son…
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The first way to honor the Passion as a mysterion , Jenson argues, is liturgical ( Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics , 132-3): “We understand the cross as our reunion with God when we ourselves are made actors in the cross’s story,” especially, he argues, in the three-day celebration of Pascha.…
One of Douglas Campbell’s essays in Beyond Old and New Perspectives on Paul deals the dikaio - language of Paul, both as a noun (righteousness, dikaiosune ) and as a verb (“justify,” dikaioo ). Addressing the latter, Campbell rightly highlights the importance of Romans 6:7: “whoever has died is justified…
The first thing that came on my computer screen when I clicked the link to look over Ethan Zuckerman’s Atlantic essay on the ad-based web was a pop-up. Oh, the irony! as my kids like to say. Zuckerman has been in the web industry for a couple of decades, and…
Cesarean sections have gotten a lot safer over the past century plus. And as they’ve gotten safer, they’ve gotten a lot commoner. But Sarah Yager reports that there are costs attached to the increase: “unnecessary C-sections cost insurers an estimated $5 billion a year.” And the cost of the procedure…
Jenson gives a concise summary of the weaknesses of traditional atonement theories ( Theology as Revisionary Metaphysics , 128-30). There are “two paired errors.” The first separates the cross “from its future, in the resurrection.” As Jenson says, without the resurrection, the “in the Bible’s general view of reality, a…
One of the themes of Andrea Gabriel’s summary of Barth’s Doctrine of Creation is that, for Barth, the doctrine of creation is a doctrine about God. This brings some fresh insights to the fore. It means, Barth insists, that “God” is not “synonymous with the concept of a world-cause, rightly…
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