Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The idea of atonement is not a distinctly Christian, or even Hebraic, concept. It also makes an appearance in ancient Greek thought (among other places). The Greek tradition is by no means monolithic, so it isn’t possible to speak of a “Greek” concept of atonement. But there are certain commonalities…
As we know, there are seven deadly or capital sins. Prior to the list of the seven deadly sins there was a list of eight evil thoughts or demons. It was made by an Eastern monk, Evagrius Ponticus. When the list was transposed to the West, one evil thought was…
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is one of those epistles in Scripture to which pastors and teachers resort to show the church everything that it shouldn’t be . There is, of course, good reason for this. The Corinthian church was filled with all sorts of problems. Personality cults (i.e., factions),…
Today is Ash Wednesday , and as many Christians of the Protestant formerly "low church" persuasion are reacquiring some of the good and ancient practices of the church, one question in particular comes to the front: to ash or not to ash? That is, while many of us are finding…
A murder of tweets. To observe Lent rightly, we have to be persuaded that we already stand in God’s favor. Ash Wednesday reminds us to number our days. It helps us gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). We keep Easter to manifest and deepen our prior share in resurrection.…
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). Dale Allison 1993 book is a superb case study in the New Testament's use of the Old. Though he focuses on only a single typology (Christ as a new Moses) in only a single gospel (Matthew), Allison's…
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Revelation uses the verb “descend” ( katabaino ) ten times, often with the specification that something descends “from heaven.” Cities come down from the sky, and angels, and dragons, and fire. The ten uses of the verb are in a fairly neat chiastic pattern: A. New Jerusalem will descend, 3:12…
More grist for the discussion of Protestantism and writing, taken from my review of Lori Branch, Rituals of Spontaneity . See the whole review here . Focusing on English literary culture and religion, Branch examines the formation of an “ideology of spontaneity” from the Reformation attacks on ritual through Puritan…
“We must continue to develop nonmythological narratives that synthesize and interpret our experience. These narratives must be based on the facts as we currently know them,” argues Scott Gustafson in At the Altar of Wall Street . He thinks Marx and Schumpeter offer some coordinates for a “demythologizing” of economics…
What does Trump do if he loses the Iowa caucuses today? asks Michael Kruse over at Politico . Kruse says that he will do what he always does: “He will deny and distort and belittle his critics and change the subject. He will say that he won.” Paul Holmes, who…
Twice in Revelation, John sees a rider on a white horse. The first comes in response to a call from the lion cherub and the Lamb's opening of the first seal (Revelation 6:1-2). He is alone, has a bow and receives a crown as he goes out conquering and to…
My two-part essay on why Protestants can't write got a lot more attention last week than it did when first published in Credenda/Agenda . Clarifications are in order. Behind the bluster, bombast, and hyperbole of the essay lie an assumption, an assertion, and an argument. The assumption is that liturgy…
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