Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…
Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…
The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…
Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…
Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…
When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…
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Rereading the chapter on Derrida in Brian Ingraffia’s Postmodern Theory and Biblical Theology (Cambridge, 1995), I realize just how much my understanding of Derrida was formed by reading this book several years ago. Ingraffia highlights (as I have done in a previous post, erroneously thinking I had come up with…
In his book on the “moral vision of the NT,” Richard Hays refers to homosexual acts as an “antisacrament” of rebellion against God, a visible (even ritual?) manifestation of a rejection of the Creator and His created order. This is a very profound way to describe the character of the…
Sermon notes for October 26: The Father’s Gifts to His Children, Luke 11:1-54 INTRODUCTION On His journey toward Jerusalem, Jesus meets the same range of responses that He met in Galilee. He is accused of being in league with the devil (v. 15) and criticized by the Pharisees (vv. 37-41),…
The remarkable Jody Bottum ?Epoet, poetry editor for First Things , and Books and Culture editor for The Weekly Standard ?Ehas made bioethics his bailiwick, having published several essays in The Weekly Standard in the past few years. He writes the lead editorial on the subject in the current issue,…
In her monograph on magic and the demonic in Luke-Acts (entitled The Demise of the Devil ), Susan Garrett offers some illuminating comments on Jesus’ declaration that He watched Satan fall from heaven like lightning (Luke 10:17-20): 1) She argues persuasively that Jesus is speaking prophetically of a future fall…
The same Weekly Standard review mentioned in a previous post gives a brief summary of the editorial introduction to Volume 21 of the Works of Jonathan Edwards , written by Sang Hyun Lee: “Lee claims that Edwards marks a stunning departure from the Western theological tradition by the way he…
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