Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When a certain Samaritan village refused Jesus’ attempt to visit, James and John asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven upon it. The allusion to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is evident, but, as the story shows, James’ and John’s thinking was entirely warped. Jesus rebuked…
In the first part of this essay, I considered paideia (formation)and mimesis (imitation) in the context of Aristotle’s virtue ethics and that of the New Testament. The overall concern is to realize how relevant is Aristotle’s ethics both to diagnosing our current malaise and to enculturing our children, though we…
In these posts I am inviting you into my philosophical reflection about integration , the absence of which we feel palpably in our fragmented world. My hope is for us to understand it more deeply, and to be ourselves reintegrated in the process. At this point in this extended inquiry…
It’s hard to imagine someone, centuries from now, mistaking our culture for a moral highpoint in the history of the West. Increasingly the news is dominated by school shootings, abusive policing, sexploitation of women, and increasing rates of suicide, addiction, and divorce. In response, the Left calls for regulations, surveillance,…
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Ps. 34:17-18) God is listening. He is listening when we ask Him for financial provision,…
The allusions to Mt. Sinai in the transfiguration story point to Jesus as a new Moses and even more as Yahweh, the God who met Moses and Elijah on the mountain. The fact that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke of Jesus’ “exodus” suggests that the mountain of transfiguration was intended…
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In his remarkable book, Ascension and Ecclesia , Douglas Farrow points to the common modern conflation of resurrection with ascension, and points to some of the theological consequences of this conflation: “First of all, it puts in jeopardy the continuity between our present world and the higher places of the…
The ascension is one of the key issues in historical discussions about the Lord?s Supper. The question posed by many has been: How can Jesus, who has ascended into heaven, still be with us at this table, and feed us His flesh and blood? Many answers have been given, some…
In his commentary on Romans, John Murray offers these comments on Paul’s statement that “sin is not imputed when there is no law”: This “enunciates a general principle on which Paul is insistent. ‘Where there is no law, neither is there transgression’ (4:15). Since sin is transgression of law, it…
Keil and Delitzsch point out that Psalm 110 is structured as three sets of seven clauses. Each of these sets of seven consists of a “tetrastich together with a tristich.” These three sets are verses 1-2, verses 3-4, and verses 5-7. Verse 1 is the first tetrastich (Lord says; Sit;…
There’s a remarkably huge story on Indian-born evangelist Dr. K. A. Paul, described as the world’s most popular evangelist, in the May 17 issue of The New Republic . The story is weird not only for its length ( TNR is not given to reporting on the latest evangelistic trends,…
Reviewing Edith Grossman’s recent translation of Don Quixote for the Weekly Standard , Algis Valiunas notes that Cervantes’ parody of chivalry contains within it some veiled assaults on Christianity: “in destroying the fancies of chivalric romance stories, Cervantes simultaneously mounts a sneak attack on Christianity itself, chipping subtly away at…
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