Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
There is no question about the fact that the book of Deuteronomy is full of literary allusion. But there is a serious problem, even a paradox, of understanding how that allusion works. To begin with, if we assume that Deuteronomy was written by Moses — with some editorial emendations added…
Genesis and Genetics in Blade Runner 2049 The power of science fiction, and what’s positive about it, is that you’re able to experience the worst-case scenario without actually having to live it. (Actor Ryan Gosling, who plays Officer “K”) (Warning: The following analysis contains spoilers for both Blade Runner films.)…
The battle of Gog and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. My purpose in this brief essay is to propound an explanation for this passage that I have not encountered in any of my commentaries, but that makes more sense to me than any other. I offer it here in…
I. Varlam Shalamov in Kolyma Tales describes his experience of the Gulag, where he spent more than a dozen of years. In a story titled The Life of Engineer Kipreev Shalamov reflects on the theme of hope in the life of a prisoner: “Hope always shackles the convict. Hope is…
Genesis 14:14 says that Abram mustered his trained men, “born in his house,” to rescue Lot, and gives their number as 318. It is clear that the precise number is provided for some reason, but what is it? S. Gevirtz notes that 318 is the sum of all the prime…
And he said to me, "What do you see?" And I answered, "I see a flying scroll; its length is twenty cubits and its width ten cubits" (Zechariah 5:2). Immediately following his vision of the outpouring of the Spirit upon the restoration community (4:1-14), Zechariah saw a flying scroll. The…
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Ryan Leif Hansen doesn't think it's accurate to say that apocalyptic depictions of evil are “dualistic” ( Silence and Praise ). At the very least, the kind of dualism needs to be specified. Hansen writes, “evil is the result of a resistance to divine rule and order, and a transgressing…
John Knox's influence on the modern world has been enormous. He shaped the Scottish Reformed church, and so shaped the faith and culture of the corners of the world to which Scottish Reformed missionaries and pastors spread. Yet, it's been nearly thirty years since we've seen a major biography. As…
Berkeley is an anti-abstractionist. What is abstraction? Berkeley is basically taking on Locke, who argues (in Berkeley's telling) that our process of thought works something liek this: We have a particular thing that invariably has a combination of qualities. But those qualities are abstractions. We can see resemblances among things:…
According to TLS reviewer David Morgan, Peter Frankopan's The Silk Roads is the fruit of teenage dissatisfaction with world history: “Frankopan tells us that as a teenager he became increasingly dissatisfied with the version of history he had been taught: essentially the ‘Rise of the West,' in which Greece led…
The gospel is all about teaching us to walk. Once we walked, zombie-like, in death and sin (Ephesians 2:1), but God raised us in Christ to walk in good works ( 2:10). We used to walk like the Gentiles, in darkness and dissipation, without God in the world. Now that…
Dickens's Hard Times takes place in Coketown, a coal mining town, focused on a small cluster of characters. There’s Gradgrind, a leading citizen and MP and education reformer. The Gradgrind children, Tom and Louisa, have both been trained according to Gradgrind’s modern educational methods. Bounderby is the manager of one…
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