Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Summary : The Bible is a multi-faceted text. As a result, it can fruitfully be analyzed in many ways. Pace, context, flow, imagery: all of these aspects of the Biblical text are significant and instructive. Here, by way of illustration, I analyze Gen. 38 in a range of different ways,…
Summary: The Bible is a multi-faceted text. As a result, it can fruitfully be analysed in many ways. Pace, context, flow, imagery: all of these aspects of the Biblical text are significant and instructive. Here, by way of illustration, I analyse Gen. 38 in a range of different ways, and…
The closing chapters of the Bible bring to fulfillment the mission inaugurated in the opening chapters of the Bible: the dwelling place of God expands to fill the entire new creation. The story of Scripture concludes having achieved God’s original intent for His people in the Garden of Eden, and…
Oddly, the nature of pre -modern economies plays a central role in today’s policy debate over economic globalization and neo-liberalism. Analysts take ancient non-market economies as the standard against which to measure the economic and social effects of the market system. Scholars compare the distribution of economic goods and services…
In part one of this essay, I mentioned that the story of Zacchaeus includes not only many details that point to other passages in Luke, but also details that point to the Old Testament, though we might not initially think of them. The first detail I have in mind is…
The story of Zacchaeus includes numerous interesting details that link this story with others in the Gospel of Luke. There are also details that tie the story of Zacchaeus to the Old Testament in ways that we might not initially take note of. In the Gospel of Luke, the story…
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Agricultural cycles symbolize periods of time. Human projects begin with a time of sowing and planting; then a time of watering and caring and weeding and growth; and finally a time of harvest. A couple marries, they have children who grow to adulthood, in the end they reap a harvest…
William Swatos observes that “The Church of England at its inception and in the Elizabethan period — perhaps its finest hour — was ‘pure' religion as Durkheim would define it: Society writ large” (217). The Anglican church was England at prayer. Given the symbiosis of church and crown, it's not…
William Swatos sees the decline of denominations as “a significant shift in Western civilization and its culture,” tied to the changing landscape of global political and economic life (220). To grasp what is happening to denominations, Swatos directs attention to the global political and economic circumstances of their formation. Post-Reformation…
Revelation describes three scenes of singing. When the Lamb first appears in heaven, the elders and creatures and angels break out into a “new song” (Revelation 5:9). That same “new song” is heard by the 144,000, who are assembled with the Lamb on Mount Zion (14:1), and the 144,000 begin…
T he angelic announcements of Revelation 14:6–11 are an encouragement to the saints to remain steadfast. “ Here is the perseverance of the saints,” John writes (v. 12). Then he adds the defining qualities of the saints: “those who guard the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus (…
In a 1979 article in the Journal of Ecumenical Studies , Russell Richey highlighted what he considered an overlooked source for the denominational system of American Protestantism. That organization of religious groups is typically seen as the product of theories of toleration. Richey argues that “the Puritans and Evangelicals who…
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