Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Part 1 We do not understand the role of women in ministry because we do not understand the role of men in ministry. We do not understand the role of men in ministry because we do not understand the church. We do not understand the church because the consumer culture…
1. One structure The Creation account (G1:1-2:4) conspicuously conveys meaning using the literary shape of the text. The narrative is told with formulaic patterns, repetitions, and parallelism. The Garden account is different. It is viewed as a separate text, with its own author, employing its own structure. This second account’s…
I was reading James Jordan’s Creation in Six Days while also preparing for Trinity Sunday in which the gospel reading is John 3:1-15. As providence would have it Jordan dropped an easter egg for me along the lines of baptism. In chapter 5 he points out, “ On the second…
It's true. There is no verse in the New Testament that commands or records an infant baptism. This poses a problem for some Christians. Those who only look for explicit commands, or those whose theology is limited to the New Testament, will conclude that infant baptism is not biblical and…
1. Goal This paper’s goal is to identify and describe a literary strategy employed by scripture, namely using two episodes that cover similar territory or themes using details drawn from opposite ends of a number of spectrums. Once described the reader may recognize numerous other instances of this strategy in…
Numbers 14 records the tragic story of Israel’s decision to rebel against Yahweh and Moses. Twelve spies had been sent into the land to bring back a report to Israel. All twelve spies agreed: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey”…
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"Stay, you are so fair." That is the sentence that Mephistopheles tempts Faust to utter in Goethe's poem. To wish to remain in one moment is to abandon the restlessness of human experience. Virginia Woolf's To the Lighthouse takes the opposing tack: "Making of the moment something permanent" is the…
"That the kiss is the icon of intimacy is so obvious it is in danger of becoming a cliché," writes Ziyad Marar ( Intimacy , 33). "How many romantic films end, or at least peak, with that image? The orchestra swells, the hearts melt in one long embrace. Just as…
Nathan Mitchell (writing in the Oxford History of Christian Worship , 324) denies that Zwingli taught a "mere symbolist" according to which the Supper "simply served to remind believers of the great benefits bestowed on them through Christ's passion and death." Zwingli wasn't a symbolist "in any modern sense." Mitchell…
Beverly Gaventa ( The Child in the Bible ) points to the role of speech in Romans. Perverse speech is one of the key symptoms of the world of sin; by the cross and resurrection, Jesus has redeemed speech. She points to the inclusio around chapters 1-3: "the indictment itself…
How did the American federal government expand its power and reach? World War I is often cited as a turning point, but Christopher Capozzola's Uncle Sam Wants You shows that this expansion wasn't just a federal project. New forms of political obligations were enforced by local, unofficial forms of force…
Some years ago, I gave a quiz to college-bound high school students. Take it yourself: Finish the following sentences or phrases : With great power . . . . Hasta la vista . . . . Do the . . . (Dew) Shaken, not . . . . Space, the…
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