Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In our first essay we looked at Kline’s flawed exegesis of Genesis 2:5 as it relates to Day 3 of creation. Now we turn to Kline’s new argument against a chronological reading of Genesis 1, as found, again, in "Space and Time in the Genesis Cosmogony," Perspectives on Science and…
One of the advantages of paying very close attention to the details in the Bible, especially chronological and genealogical details, is that they can shed light on situations that don’t seem to make much sense apart from them. One such situation is that of Bathsheba. It appears that Bathsheba willingly…
Once upon a time, Jeff Meyers and Tony Rollins–old friends who had not seen each other for a few years–met in the parking lot of a neighborhood church. They were dropping off their pre-school children at the church for Mother’s Day Out. They were such conscientious and helpful fathers. As…
Years ago, when I was at the briefly-existing Geneva Divinity School, I taught a course in the Apocrypha. One thing that struck me at that time is that two of the stories are almost certainly religious allegories (as well as moral tales): Judith and Susanna. Since "Susanna" means "Lily," this…
Peter’s essay inspires me to write up some similar thoughts about the flower of the field. Rightly does Peter associate the almond with Yahweh’s garden, because the Garden of Eden is symbolically positioned as parallel to the Holy Place of the Tabernacle and Temple. To wit: Since Aaron’s rod blossomed…
We have had occasion to discuss the views of Meredith G. Kline previously in these newsletters, and now it is time to do so again. Kline teaches at Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary and also at the Westminster Theological Seminaries (Philadelphia and San Diego). He is the author of some interesting insights…
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Teaching and learning never take place in no-place. They are always in an environment. The issue is always which environment and whether it is coherent with what is taught or at cross-purposes with content. Attention to the teaching environment may sound trendily modern, but it's ancient wisdom. Deuteronomy 6 records…
“The dead do not praise Yahweh, nor do any who do down into silence” (Psalm 115:17). It's a refrain in the Psalms: Death marks the end of the life of praise. The dead cannot give thanks to God. Sheol isn't just dark; it's silent. But then Revelation comes along and…
RW Southern ( Making of the Middle Ages ) sees a commonality between the romances of of the high middle ages and the theological and spiritual movements of the 11th-12th centuries. It's a shift from an epic mentality to the thought-world of romance. Southern argues that this movement is evident…
Prophets always initiate new covenants. They end one set of covenantal arrangements and bring in new ones. They are the hinges of history. Noah is a prophet who becomes an Adam in a new creation covenant. Abraham is the first man called a prophet, and is the recipient of covenant…
For medievals, allegory wasn’t simply a way of dealing with texts or a method of writing. It was science, a mode of understanding of the world as a whole. The world was a forest of symbols and allegories from which moral and theological lessons might be drawn. The great medieval…
In his 2014 study of The Royalist Revolution , Eric Nelson presents the counter-intuitive case that the American revolutionaries were not revolting against monarchy but against a legislature: “It was, indeed, a rebellion in favor of royal power” (2). Nelson elaborates: “Colonial whigs who had long been ‘slumbering under the…
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