Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
And through the hands of the apostles many signs and wonders were done among the people. And they were all with one accord in Solomon's Porch. Yet none of the rest dared join them, but the people esteemed them highly. Acts 5:12-13 When Grandma needed healing, her children knew the…
Like certain kinds of music, the unchanging rhythm of Aquinas's Summa gets into your bones. Read a few sections and it begins to run through your head. You start drumming your fingers, humming, swaying gently to the rhythm of Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, Videtur-Sed Contra-Responsio, “It seems-On the contrary-I answer.” The only…
And Arpachshad lived thirty-five years, and became the father of Shelah . . . And Shelah lived thirty years, and became the father of Eber . . . and Eber lived thirty-four years and became the father of Peleg . . . and Peleg lived thirty years, and became the…
Of course, the title should be something like, “The Fall of the Angel Who Came to be Satan,” but that and other more accurate titles are too cumbersome. The question is: who is Satan, and when and how did he become “Satan” (Adversary, Accuser) and the “devil” (slanderer)? By my…
In The Oddness of the Feast of Booths , we saw that the Feast of Booths is a commemoration of the first encampment of Israel at Sukkoth (Booths) in Exodus 12:37, almost certainly the first celebration of the week of Unleavened Bread after the first Passover. The Feast of Booths…
This piece was originally published in 1989. 1. The Blessed Hope "Looking for the blessed hope and the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior, Christ Jesus." Titus 2:13 I was recently asked how I as a postmillennialist would preach on "The Blessed Hope." This is often…
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Deuteronomy 7:13 gives a succinct summary of Yahweh’s promise to Israel. When Israel goes into the land, He will “love you and bless you and multiply you.” This triad appears to be a sequence: Yahweh loves, and therefore blesses; and blessing, as in the creation account, brings increase - He…
William Deresiewicz wants to preserve the stature of John Updike. In his TNR review of Adam Begley’s Updike , Deresiewicz contends that the current eclipse of Updike won’t last. For the moment, David Foster Wallace’s crack that Updike is a “penis with a thesaurus” will be the elite opinion, but…
Leonid Bershidsky isn’t impressed with the Apple Watch: “The Apple Watch isn’t a tech miracle. It requires a phone to work, creating an Occam’s-razor moment for the consumer: Do I need another device if I still have to carry my phone around with me everywhere? Samsung has overcome this by…
Neuroscientist Jeffrey Zacks says that filmmakers know a lot about how brains work, even if they couldn’t explain the science. After all, they’re able to get people to pay good money to watch light flickering on a screen, and they can get these people frightened, sad, jubilant in the space…
Fairy tales obviously have played an enormous role in folk culture over the centuries. Less well known perhaps is the role fairy tales have played in the intellectual life of the modern age, the age when we’ve given up belief in fairies. The collection compiled by the Brothers Grimm had…
Pastor Rich Lusk of Trinity Presbyterian Church, Birmingham, suggests that the “leaven of their Pharisees” isn’t simply their teaching, but their entire vision of the coming kingdom. For the Pharisees, as Marcus Borg pointed out, the kingdom could come only if Israel pursued holiness by means of separation. At the…
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