Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
After Elijah’s battered and depressed howling in the wilderness it must have seemed like the new prophet came eating and drinking. Which is a pattern we see again in the New Testament—John is explicitly identified with Elijah (Luke 1.17, Matthew 11.14), howling the truth in the wilderness that the people…
Reading Robert Conquest’s biography of Stalin 1 has opened new lines of meditation on Paul’s command in Colossians 3:9. But before turning to that, let me briefly indicate what Paul is not saying. He is not saying that there is no such thing as righteous deception, such as Jael practiced…
You won’t find wild lions today in Israel. But lions used to range much more widely than they do now, and in biblical times they were a menace that shepherds in Israel had to contend with. David did as a shepherd boy, and Amos—who “ was among the sheepbreeders of…
I would like to remedy a flaw for English speakers in the book of Genesis. A flaw that may seem innocuous, but we must remember where the devil lives...in the details. If we are to fear the Lord, it behooves our translation committees to ensure that the fearfulness of God…
While reading at my son’s baseball game this week, a mom from our school approached me and asked if I was reading Dante. I wasn’t, but our sons are both reading Divine Comedy in their sophomore literature class, so it was a reasonable question. What unfolded was a quick conversation…
In the first two essays in this series, I addressed the question of how the nations would learn about Israel’s Torah, in the second essay especially emphasizing the aesthetic aspects of Israel’s testimony. For we naturally wonder: How would people in Mesopotamia or Egypt, not to mention the rest of…
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INTRODUCTION Antony and Cleopatra is set in the 30s BC, during the period of the Second Triumvirate, which consisted of Antony, Octavius Caesar, and Lepidus. It is a story of middle-aged infatuation between the title characters, carried out in the context of a political struggle between Antony and Octavius for…
One Thomas Merriam has a very intriguing article on “Parallel Ironies: Henry VIII (All Is True) and Antony and Cleopatra ” (available in full on his web site ). He argues that the clown’s words to Cleopatra in Act 5 of Shakespeare’s play provide theological commentary on the action. Here…
Some exceprts from Coppelia Kahn’s stimulating feminist study of Shakespeare’s Roman plays [ Roman Shakespeare: Warriors, Wounds and Women (Routledge, 1997)], with appended theological reflections: The word ?suicide?Edoes ?not appear in ancient Latin, but is, rather, an English derivative from Latin compounds?EIn contrast, the Roman lexicon of suicide emphasized rationality…
In Shakespeare’s play, Cleopatra’s outburst against Agrippa (who has suggested that Antony marry Octavia, Caesar’s sister) is remarkable: “That Herod’s head I’ll have” (3.3.5-6). “Herod” cannot be used in the same sentence with “head” without evoking the story of John the Baptist. I’m not sure how this functions in the…
Nigel Cameron, director of a Wilberforce Forum council on biotechnology includes the following in his recent email update: “I gave a presentation at the Experimental Biology conference in Washington, D.C. a few weeks ago, where I was surveying the ethical pros and cons of stem cell research. Alongside me were…
Some of the following notes were taken from a longer introduction to Julius Caesar posted on this site some months ago. INTRODUCTION For several generations, Julius Caesar has been a staple of high school English literature, coming from a period when education was rooted in Greek and Roman classics and…
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