Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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A review of the recent collection of essays on Charles Hodge claims that no biography of Hodge has appeared since his son’s 1880 account. This is fairly astonishing, given Hodge’s importance even to this day. It’s a gap in the Reformed past that needs to be filled.
In the December 12, 2003 issue of the TLS , Jerry Fodor reviews a book by Brian Ellis on “the new essentialism.” In a nutshell, the new essentialism challenges an important feature of modern accounts of knowledge and reality. As Fodor puts it, modern philosophy has assumed there are two…
In the December 12, 2003 issue of the TLS , Jerry Fodor reviews a book by Brian Ellis on “the new essentialism.” In a nutshell, the new essentialism challenges an important feature of modern accounts of knowledge and reality. As Fodor puts it, modern philosophy has assumed there are two…
Joseph Epstein goes to town pricking the inflated reputation of George Steiner in the Feb 16 issue of the Weekly Standard . Among his jibes: “I once, in print, referred to Harold Bloom as George Steiner without the sense of humor, which was, as Senator Claghorn used to say, ‘A…
Richard John Neuhaus wants to defend the theological prowess of our current President, defending his statement that “Muslims worship the same Almighty” as Christians. Neuhaus has some jolly fun at the expense of “official of the Southern Baptist Convention” and the NAE, reducing the arguments to: “we got a competition…
Philip Jenkins has a superb review of Charles Murray’s Human Accomplishment in the Feb issue of First Things . Jenkins challenges Murray’s basic method, which involved a process of selecting eminent persons in science and culture by attending to their role and presence in standard reference works. Murray discovers by…
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