Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Along His journey to Jerusalem, Jesus stops frequently to have meals, three times with Pharisees (7:37-50; 11:37-54; 14:1-35). Meals were central to Jesus’ ministry. He comes “eating and drinking” (Luke 7:34). While His meals are not just for refreshment, they are opportunities for teaching the protocols of the kingdom. Meals…
Time as a realm of participation can be difficult for us imaginatively to grasp. While music is a profoundly temporal art, exploring the medium of time like no other, most of our temporal experience seems decidedly unmusical in character, disjointed and unorchestrated. The form in which we naturally discover time…
John devotes much attention to Jesus’ burial clothes. He tells us that Nicodemus brought about a hundred pounds of myrrh and aloes to spice Jesus body, and that He was bound in linen wrappings. We find out that His body and His head were wrapped separately. (John 19:39-40; 20:6-7). When…
Thinking about time in terms of music also helps us to appreciate its unity and inner relations. Henri Bergson observes our cultural habit of dividing time into discrete moments, and conceiving of these as if akin to objects in a spatial succession. [1] Against such a notion, Bergson argues for…
As we attend to these and other aspects of music’s temporality, Begbie suggests, we will find means by which to resist some of our habitual modern ways of conceptualizing time, most especially our tendency to conceive of time as if it were a homogeneous set of technologically quantifiable units laid…
The Hidden Dimension In many fields of scientific study, the apparent complications and contradictions are dispelled once the internal logic is perceived. Biblical hermeneutics is no different, since the author of Creation is the Author of the Word. The Bible’s literary labyrinth radiates organically from an algorithm so simple it…
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INTRODUCTION Solomon was set up on a throne like a new Adam, but like Adam he seized the forbidden fruit of foreign women, and fell from his throne. Before chapter 11 is over, Solomon is trying to kill Jeroboam, making him a Cain as well as a fallen Adam. As…
1 Kings 10:4-5 The glory and prosperity of Solomon?s kingdom is particularly on display at his table. Back in 1 Kings 4, the abundance of the table of Solomon is a sign of the prosperity of the whole kingdom. The joy of his table represents the joy of his whole…
Proverbs 1:8-9 What is your goal as parents? There are of course many ways to answer that question, but one central biblical answer is that parents aim to train their children in wisdom. This is a central thrust of the Proverbs, which are addressed from a father to a son,…
The Queen of Sheba came to Jerusalem a skeptic. She had heard about Solomon?s wisdom, but she could not believe that the stories were true. She found the stories were untrue, not because they exaggerated Solomon?s wisdom and wealth, but because the stories were guilty of understatement. ?It was a…
INTRODUCTION What is known as the ?Regulative Principle of Worship?E(RPW) is one of the distinctive emphases of Reformed liturgics. Though this is variously formulated and understood, it boils down to the principle that worship must be biblical. We are called to worship God in a way that is pleasing to…
In his fine little book The Bible and Liturgy , E.H. van Olst briefly describes the liturgical renewal among Dutch Calvinists in the early 20th century: “Among Protestants it was J.H. Gunning and A. Kuyper who, at the turn of the century, called for renewed study of the liturgy. Gunning,…
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