Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Romans 8:31-39 is better sung than commented upon. It’s a thrilling, ecstatic hymn of boisterous assurance that God’s purposes will be accomplished. Yet, I will attempt to comment on them. If we sing Paul’s hymn, let’s make sure we sing with understanding. Given the character of these verses, it’s easy…
"An ethic unshaped by eschatology is neither Jesus’ nor Christian.” - Tremper Longman How does an immature culture grow up? Edgar Wright’s Baby Driver is about the dangers of being lost in adolescence. By the end of the movie, the viewer is pointed to a road we infer leads to…
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Prolegomena 1. “You’re a pastor,” my new friend says as we sit down, “and you’re a massage therapist. How does that work?” To her, Christianity implies stuffy ideology, a disregard of the physical. A Christian massage therapist is an oddity; a pastor massage therapist is nearly a contradiction in terms.…
54% of Poles think favorably of Americans, only 13% unfavorably, according to Centrum Badania Opinii Spolecznej . Ten years ago, the numbers were 44% and 21% respectively. Twenty years ago, they were 64% and 6%. Back in the 1990s, Americans were the most liked nation among Poles. Now they are…
Stones of Life and Death Of course, the sex of a child is not a choice between light and darkness or life and death. Sex, like circumcision, is a horizontal demarcation, a delegation of roles within humanity. In contrast, the white stone and the black stone within the “liturgical scrotum”…
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This paper is an exploration of the modern urban situation, how it differs from the older cities, and the challenges modern urban/suburban civilization poses for Christianity. All of America, ERH claims, is urbanized by industry, which removes the barriers between city and country. The contrast of factory and suburb has…
According to our translations, the OT describes idols as “vain” (eg, Isaiah 57:13), but the word used is the same as the word in Ecclesiastes - and is better translated as “vaporous.” The point is not simply that idols are worthless, but that they are ephemeral. Idols may provide all…
In his study of Judaic Baptism, James W. Dale quotes Jewish War , 3.7, where Josephus speaks of a city being, in Dale’s translation, “overmersed” ( epibaptizo ). Dale comments, “It is intolerable to suppose that a city is figured, through the departure of an individual [in this case, Josephus…
One final quotation: “The creation of a plural system of Churches with their separate baptisms (Catholic, Lutheran, Calvinist) implied also the emergence of a plural system of civil citizenries or communities. Therefore, in the case of States with multiple confessional communities, new systems had to be devised to test the…
Another quotation from the aforementioned article: “The abolition of compulsory baptism at birth was the most radical kind of sacramental reform ever conceived in the 16th century. In fact, it implied not only separation from the old compulsory Church, but also secession from the State: adult baptism, based on freedom…
In an article in Religion and Philosophy , Elena Brambilla and Joaquim Carvalho discuss the connections between baptism and citizenship under the ancien regime. They begin by distinguishing two levels of citizenship: “It is therefore essential to consider, as a preliminary step, and also at the historical level, the distinction…
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