Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…
The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…
Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…
The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…
Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…
The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…
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Bediako cites a report from Voice Weekly about a conflict concerning drumming in African Christian worship: “A sharp conflict recently erupted between the Christian churches and the traditional authorities in teh Ghanian town of Akim Tafo over violation by the churches of a ban on drumming during a traditional religious…
Kwame Bediako summarizes the trends of African theology under two headings: liberation and study of indigenous religions. He focuses on the latter, emphasizing that this study is a theological enterprise, and not simply cultural anthropology. He also suggests that this emphasis of African theology provides a case study in theology…
Philippians 2:17-18: But even if I am being poured out as a drink offering upon the sacrifice and service of your faith, I rejoice and share my joy with you all. You too, I urge you, rejoice in the same way and share your joy with me. Christians sometimes misunderstand…
Philippians 2:5: Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus. Toby has pointed out this morning how much Paul emphasizes the effect of the gospel and the Spirit on our minds. We are to strive together with one mind, to cultivate humility of mind, set our…
Genesis 2:21-22: So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and…
Bediako says that Christianity has always had more success evangelizing primal religious areas than “advanced” religions like Buddhism or Hinduism or Islam. Or modern Western secularism. Perhaps the West needs to be re-primitivized in order to be re-evangelized. Or perhaps the West needs to learn that it was never so…
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