Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
My first title for this series of posts was “Evangelical Sacramental Ecumenism” – not exactly a clickbait title. But those three words, evangelical, sacramental, and ecumenical, say a lot: The centrality of the gospel; a focus on baptism, bread, and wine; and the quest for visible unity among diverse churches.…
I can imagine someone reading the title of this essay and saying to himself, "I have two questions. First, what in the world is “contextualization”?" Second, even before hearing the answer to the first question, he may wonder, "what does baptism have to do with such an awkward and vague…
Deuteronomy 21:18-21 My colleague Ralph Smith has recently written on this passage, here . I entirely agree with Ralph's thrust, which is typological, that the passage is ultimately aimed at the entire nation of Israel itself as the rebellious son. But what I am thinking is from another perspective, perhaps…
In the previous article in this series, I drew attention to the threefold meaning of the Spirit of God descending as a dove on Jesus at His baptism. On a related note, I also argued that 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 and Titus 3:3-7 were parallel passages that addressed the same issues…
The National Anthem protest is misguided. So too the conservative backlash. The Church’s response has been disappointing. I address each in turn. The greatest triumph of the American Civil Rights Movement was its seizing of the moral high ground in American politics. It did so by insisting only on those…
Peter Leithart’s book, The Priesthood of the Plebs: A Theology of Baptism , argues that baptism is parallel to and the fulfillment of the old covenant rite of priestly ordination. But this is not something explicitly stated in the New Testament. Why, then, should we believe it? Leithart shows in…
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Rom 6:1-4 Today, we?ve looked at several passages in Romans that display Paul?s interest in the redemption of the body. For Paul, salvation is ultimately about the resurrection and transfiguration of our bodies into bodies of glory, and in the present our salvation is about submitting to a new authority…
Our chief goal in organizing the worship of God is to conform to Scriptural patterns of worship. When we look at the whole biblical teaching on worship, we learn that worship is basically covenant renewal, and we also learn that many features of traditional liturgical worship are grounded in Scripture.…
It is traditional, and true, to say that the resurrection of the body is still future. What Paul calls the “redemption of our body” (Rom 8) has not occurred; and what he describes as the springing up of a plant from the seed of the dead body (1 Cor 15)…
INTRODUCTION Coriolanus is the last of Shakespeare’s great tragedies, and has often been criticized as an inferior piece of work. There have been exceptions: T. S. Eliot said that Coriolanus was one Shakespeare’s most accomplished artistic successes. And in recent years, the critical evaluation has been shifting. Still, the play…
Following is a set of notes for a lecture given at the Biblical Horizons conference, July 21. I will deliver the same lecture as part of a series on Shakespeare’s Classical World at the NSA Summer Institute next week. Shakespeare’s Classical World INTRODUCTION There are a variety of ways to…
Present Your Bodies, Romans 12:1-21 INTRODUCTION As we’ve seen in previous sermons in this seriees, “spiritual” worship is not disembodied worship. Throughout Scripture, worship involves various uses of the body. These gestures, postures, and movements are an important part of our worship. As we worship with our bodies on the…
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