Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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Russell’s article, mentioned in the previous post, scores a few points against Zizi and a relational emphasis in theological anthropology. His main criticisms, however, do not touch a high Reformed anthropology. One of his criticisms is that Zizi does not pay sufficient attention to the role the world plays in…
Writing in the July 2003 issue of the International Journal of Systematic Theology , one Edward Russell argues that Zizioulas’s relational anthropology fails, in part, because of an inadequate doctrine of sin. I’m with him there. But then he quotes from Alan Torrance, and summarizes the point by saying that…
In Luke 8:16-18, Jesus says that a lamp is made to be set on a lampstand. In context, He is talking about the Word that He preaches, and the fact that it both illuminates and exposes. A light on the lampstand means that “nothing is hidden that shall not become…
There’s a wonderful article in the October 2003 issue of First Things by David B. Hart, an Orthodox theologian who teaches at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota (also home to William Cavanagh, one of the most interesting American theologians writing today). Hart’s article is taken from…
Communion meditation for September 21: In many traditional Eucharistic liturgies, the liturgy begins with the Sanctus (Holy, Holy, Holy), which includes the words that were sung to Jesus at the time of His entry into Jerusalem: “Hosanna in the Highest. Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the…
My exhortation for September 21: The word of God always divides. It always evokes hostility as well as faith. That is what Jesus says about John’s preaching and ministry in our sermon text this morning, and it was also true of Jesus’ preaching. Both John and Jesus divided Israel by…
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