Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The story of Judges 19 and the subsequent chapters are some of the most shocking and appalling accounts in all of Scripture. The callousness of the old host and the Levite, and the monstrous brutality of the men of Gibeah, leaves us feebly scrabbling for words by which to surmount…
David has become king. He has conquered the capital city of Jerusalem. He has brought the ark of Yahweh into the city and placed it in a tent. He has stationed Levites at the tent to offer sacrifices of praise. An anomaly hits him: He has a cedar-paneled palace, and…
In Part 2 of this series we traced what we have of the development of the epiclesis in the liturgy of the Church. In this third and final part we’ll look at the theological implications of this and how we may apply what we’ve learned. As we saw in Part…
In a 2014 piece published in First Things , I offered a "wish list" for Protestant churches, a checklist for a future catholic Protestantism. The wish list doesn't cover everything. It doesn't mention those things that Protestants, especially Evangelicals, already do, often exceedingly well, things like missions and evangelism and…
In the first part of this series we examined the meaning of “blessing” in Scripture and its parallels in Jewish liturgical tradition, but did not find anything that we could properly call an epiclesis (an invocation of the Holy Spirit). We did find examples of invocation of Jesus to “come”…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
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The ark of the covenant is made of acacia wood, two and a half cubits long, a cubit and a half wide, a cubit and a half high. It’s covered inside and out with pure gold, and has four gold rings at its four feet. The cover is also pure…
I am filmmaker by trade. 22 years. It’s all I have done. I have been a Christian for 15 of those years. When my wife and I began having children, education became very important. I stumbled onto Doug Wilson and knew we had start a Classical Christian school. Then we…
The gospel is the engine of cultural creativity. But how? “A certain sense of guilt is a corollary of any privilege even when the privilege is deserved,” observes Paul Tournier in Guilt & Grace a Psychological Study (37). He illustrates: “An employee of quality feels it towards his fellows when…
Kant ( Kant: The Metaphysics of Morals (Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy) ) defines envy penetratingly as “a tendency to perceive with displeasure the good of others, although it detracts in no way from one’s own, and which, when it leads to action (in order to diminish that…
John is told to measure the temple but not the court (Revelation 11:2). The verb can mean “except” but regularly connotes more than simple exclusion (cf. John 2:15; 9:34-35; 12:31). John is told to “cast out” ( ekbale exothen ) the court to be trampled by the nations. The verb…
An addition to my article at firstthings.com: I say there that the “first question” Christians should ask about American deployments is whether there are fellow Christians in harm’s way. My point was to emphasize that American Christians need to learn to see past national interest and recognize that the brotherhood…
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