Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In The Meaning of History , Nikolai Berdyaev argues that the ancient Greeks had no concept of history and no philosophy of history because their concept of God and the world did not allow for it. “They conceived the world aesthetically, as a finite and harmonious cosmos. The most representative…
You know how the curtain parts at the beginning of a play, and you see a new scene, with characters and sets and incidents that had remained hidden up til then? Church last week was like that. Except the curtain was made up of all the things I thought were…
Genesis 3 records the terrible day when humanity fell into sin and shalom was violated. This was a moment of cosmic treason, when Adam and Eve violated their relationship with God by rebelling against His command and fell into the severe ignobility we all experience. The entrance of sin wrecked…
One of the most important contributions of twentieth-century Catholic nouvelle théologie , and of Henri de Lubac and Jean Danielou in particular, was its rehabilitation of the typological interpretation of the Bible practiced by patristic and medieval theologians. Typological interpretation assumes that events and institutions of the Old Testament present…
The Catholic News Service has reported that Pope Francis has called for the abolition of not only the death penalty, but also of life in prison. In a meeting with representatives of the International Association of Penal Law, the pontiff called for all “Christians and people of good will” to…
Each year, the United Nations designates November 25 as the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon explains, “Violence against women and girls takes many forms and is widespread throughout the globe. It includes rape, domestic violence, harassment at work, abuse in school, female…
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Calvin O. Schrag has this helpful critique of what he calls the “foundationalist paradigm”: It “profeers a theoretical construct of mind that is designed to determine in advance the criteria for what counts as knowledge, both knowledge of oneself and knowledge of the world. It is as though one were…
The magi come searching for Jesus from the east, from Persia, moving west toward the promised land, as Israel did following the Babylonian exile. As they travel, they follow a star, as Israel followed the pillar of cloud and fire from Egypt. They bring gold, frankincense, and myrrh to worship…
The Israel that the Son of God entered in the incarnation was not some pristine, sinless Israel. God took on a genealogy that included harlots, adulterers, murderers, and idolaters. God did not keep his distance from his bride, but came near to rescue her. Though initially intending to put Mary…
Matthew 1:24-2:1: And Joseph arose from his sleep, and did as the angel of the Lord commanded him, and took her as his wife, and kept her a virgin until she gave birth to a Son; and he called his name Jesus. Now . . . Jesus was born in…
Joseph is often a neglected character in the Christmas story. In paintings and crèches, he politely stands to the side so that the Madonna and child can be at the focal point. In medieval mystery plays, he was often a comic character, a doddering old man more marginal even than…
This is not a paper, and that is not an ironic self-referential comment like Magritte’s Ceci n’est pas une pipe . This really is not a paper. It is a gesture toward a paper, a collection of fragments and notes. There is a goal here, a telos and trajectory: These…
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