Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the Bible, all the world is a stage, but like the Tabernacle, that stage moves around a lot. David’s defeat of Goliath can only be fully understood as liturgy fulfilled in history. Liturgy, as a sacrifice of praise, is the step-by-step process of resolving a conflict. It relinquishes all…
Aristotle isn’t fundamentally wrong about friendship, nor is the long tradition that follows him. But you might not gather that by reading some of the more pointed critics of the classical conception of friendship. I think, however, that the classical view is not only viable but taken up and fulfilled…
#13 in Theopolis Papers, Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World It is time for me to “cast off” integration, the way a knitter removes a completed scarf from the needles. I want to bring my quest concerning integration to a decent closure, though my happy quest for reality continues. With…
Below are some notes on a particular sub-theme of Daniel 3, namely the downfall of Babylon’s liturgy. First up, a few words on our text’s literary construction. One of the most conspicuous features of Dan. 3 is its author’s love of lists . Personnel are listed (vs. 2, 3, 27),…
Few things in Scripture, few things in the Christian life, are more familiar than the Lord’s Prayer. Sunday after Sunday, we pray these words together with our brothers and sisters. At home, alone or with our families, we pray this prayer daily, as Jesus taught us (Luke 11:2: “When you…
At the 2019 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, the denominational delegates considered a number of official overtures (requests for action from the regional parts of the denomination) relating to issues of gender and sexuality. The PCA is conservative. As evidence of this, the assembly passed a resolution…
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As NT Wright points out in his commentary on Romans, Paul’s description of Abraham’s faith reverses point-by-point the earlier description of sinful humanity, humanity under wrath. Abraham believes in God the Creator, while the wicked ignore the creator (1:20, 25). Abraham’s body is as good as dead and yet trusts…
Christians have sometimes suggested that homosexual practice is universally condemned. In Homosexuality and Civilization , Louis Crompton, Emeritus Professor of English at the University of Nebraska and a longtime gay activist, shows that homosexuality was common and accepted in various forms in ancient Greece and Rome, as well as in…
Some thoughts inspired by Joel Green’s commentary on Luke 22-23: Luke stuffs his account of Jesus’ trials with understated ironies. The soldiers mock Jesus’ prophetic claims by blindfolding and beating Him; but this is just what Jesus said was going to happen to Him. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that…
Some thoughts inspired by Joel Green’s commentary on Luke 22-23: Luke stuffs his account of Jesus’ trials with understated ironies. The soldiers mock Jesus’ prophetic claims by blindfolding and beating Him; but this is just what Jesus said was going to happen to Him. Jesus tells the Jewish leaders that…
Dana Gioia has a very sensible and positive review of Garrison Keillor’s Good Poems in the April 2004 issue of Poetry . Gioia admits that he at first reacted sniffily at the title and the editor of this anthology, but he says that over several months of reading the poetry…
Here are some slightly repetitive notes for a short talk I gave on The Passion on Friday, March 26. INTRODUCTION I want to discuss a single scene of The Passion , which will lead into both commendation for its strengths and criticisms of some of its weaknesses. The scene is…
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