Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Thus says the Lord: “A voice is heard in Ramah, lamentation and bitter weeping. Rachel is weeping for her children; she refuses to be comforted for her children, because they are no more” (Jer 31:15). The Night of the Hunter belongs on every Christian’s Christmas list. My family has even…
One important part of Jesus's birth narrative is the presence of angels. The angel Gabriel appeared to the Virgin Mary, announcing that she would bear a son. And then, on the night Jesus was born, a whole host of angels appeared to the shepherds. Angels are mysterious creatures to us.…
I was settled nicely into my chair and listening to the conversation in an undergrad religion seminar, my last required course to graduate. Though a few Christians sat scattered around the room, the course itself was dedicated to poking holes in traditional understandings of the Bible: our readings deconstructed notions…
God’s symbols belong to Him and to His people. They are constantly at work in the world, including the world of film, music, painting, architecture, and other artforms. You cannot escape God’s symbols or the meaning He has woven into the created order. Artists use and borrow God’s symbols, whether…
For centuries, Christians identified Israel in the Old Testament as a single, literal ethnic group, often called “the Jews.” Even supersessionists – those who believed the Church superseded Israel – assumed the clear-cut, technical definition of “Israel” in the Bible is the ethnic group. However, a deeper dive into Genesis,…
Misreading Intent In the opening verses of Matthew 11, the reader is confronted immediately by John the baptizer who has been imprisoned since 4:12. John poses a question to Jesus, inquiring from prison as to whether or not he is Israel’s awaited Messiah or if they should anticipate another: “Are…
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David is frequently under threat in the Psalms, usually from enemies. In Psalm 40, though, the enemies seem to be different. “Evils beyond number have surrounded me; my iniquities have overtaken me, so that I am not able to see” (v. 12). David’s own sins are his enemies, circling, setting…
Psalm 148:7-12 calls everything to praise the Yahweh, from sea monsters to children. The list has a number of interesting features. It is organized first by the zones of creation and then by the categories of created things. It begins with the sea (v. 7b), moves to the sky (v.…
The Spirit joins us to Christ so we share all His gifts. The Spirit binds us in the communion of the saints. The Spirit is the earnest of our future inheritance. He is the Spirit of salvation, the Spirit of the church, the Spirit of the future. Economy reveals ontology.…
The last of Jesus’ woes in Matthew 23 warns about the judgment coming on the scribes, Pharisees, and hypocrites for their treatment of the prophets. Several notes: First, the Pharisees and scribes say that they would not have shed the blood of prophets as their fathers did (v. 30). This…
Work is worrisome. Time was, though, when you could leave the worries at the office. Not any more, Bauman says ( Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age , 76): “Most of us take those worries with us, in our laptops and mobile phones, wherever we go - to…
We are in the middle of a second “great transformation,” suggests Zygmunt Bauman in Collateral Damage: Social Inequalities in a Global Age (46-7). Industrialization has given way to an “experience economy.” Bauman points to a shift in the metaphors and vocabulary of management theory as evidence: “To convey the rules…
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