Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The doctrine of justification is precious among Protestants. And it should be. The fact that God has declared our sins forgiven and that we have a righteous standing in the sight of God united to Christ is comforting and brings great joy. Unfortunately, the biblical teaching on justification is, many…
The Old Testament priests were given a number of seemingly disparate duties. As everyone knows, the priests led the sacrificial worship of Israel; only the priests could sprinkle blood on the altar or within the tabernacle, and only they could approach the altar to turn sacrificial animals into smoke. But…
M issional ecclesiology is all the rage these days, but for many being “missional” means downplaying or even eliminating concern for the “internal” life of the church, particularly its liturgical life. Missional and liturgical, mission and communio , are locked in zero-sum combat. That cannot be right. The liturgy is…
An old friend of mine, now passed into Heaven, started to say this in relationship to his sometimes troubled family, in the last quarter of his life, "I just had to take responsibility for the whole thing..." That was the seed for a new reading of the Gospel for me,…
She departed the port, dressed in her best ceremonial regalia, with tassels and flags fluttering from her mast and rigging. She stood tall, robed in mist, crowned in white, and backlit by the rising sun. There she sat, shimmering and spotless; with a perfect ragtop, and a full tank of…
John the Baptist is presented in the gospels as the fulfillment of the Old Testament promise that God would send His messenger to prepare the way for the coming of the glory of the Lord (Is. 40), and the promise to send Elijah before Him to turn the people to…
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B rad Littlejohn presents a number of criticisms of my account of penal substitution in Delivered from the Elements of the World . I won’t attempt to address all of them, but focus—at once too briefly and at tedious length—on Brad’s central substantive question, which concerns guilt and Jesus’ guilt-bearing.…
I ’ve been reading commentaries on Revelation 1:12–20, learning a great deal, but getting increasingly frustrated. Even the best commentators sometimes fall into the twin faults of contemporary interpretation—atomization and abstraction. Let’s take the “robe” that Jesus wears. Many have suggested that the robe designates Jesus as a priest, but…
I n his Anchor Bible commentary on Revelation , Craig Koester says this about John's initial vision of Jesus: “ The figure’s appearance defies easy description: hair that is white like wool or snow, eyes like a flame of fire, a voice like rushing water, a face like the sun.…
I n a contribution to Harold Bloom’s collection of essays on Macbeth , Robert Lanier Reid observes that ” Interpreters of Macbeth have focused almost exclusively on the first murder, the killing of a king in Acts 1–2, as the basis for understanding the play—its social, psychological, and metaphysical meanings.…
“W hat purpose do the Weird Sisters have for confronting the hero—or what is their masters’ purpose, if they in fact have such masters?” asks Susan Snyder in her contribution to Macbeth . She doesn’t think the play gives a clear answer, and she adds that the play doesn’t explain…
P eter Milward writes of “meta-drama” in Hamlet and Macbeth in his contribution Shakespeare’s Christianity . He argues (unconvincingly) that Shakespeare had in mind the situation of recusant Catholics in England. Milward’s analysis of the biblical features of the play is more compelling. He notes that “already from the opening…
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