Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
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INTRODUCTION “You are not greater than our father Jacob, are you?” asked the Samaritan woman at the well of Sychar to the stranger who offered her living water. By His death and resurrection, Jesus answers that question: He is the true Israel, greater than Jacob. THE TEXT “Then Jacob went…
A web article on structuralism contrasts the objectivity of structuralism with the subjectivism of the existentialism that preceded it: “So while Existentialism emphasizes subjectivity, Structuralism embraces an objectivity so impersonal that it tends to dispense with the individual altogether. All myths are homologous, capable of being generated out of one…
Gal 2:20: I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me, and delivered Himself up for me. In this…
What is the cross? For Mark, the cross is not so much Jesus’ passive suffering as His last great act of power. While Matthew shows Jesus as the great teacher of Israel, Mark shows Jesus as a man of action. In the first verse of his gospel, he identifies Jesus…
What is the cross? For Mark, the cross is not so much Jesus’ passive suffering as His last great act of power. While Matthew shows Jesus as the great teacher of Israel, Mark shows Jesus as a man of action. In the first verse of his gospel, he identifies Jesus…
R. R. Reno helpfully explains the attractions of Continental philosophy to theologians by suggesting that Continental philosophy has “become a form of theology.” More elaborately: “As an intellecutal practice, this branch of modern philosophy organizes itself around the task of discerning and proclaiming the deep meaning that is necessary to…
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