Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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Two groups rush away from Jesus' empty tomb. Both of them have news. The women came to the tomb looking for Jesus, but now they have heard the angel’s announcement that Jesus is risen, and obey the angel’s command to go to the disciples and announce the resurrection to them.…
So Kobe's done, going out in grand style with 60 points as he led the Lakers to a comeback win. Few sports stars go out with as much fanfare, or do as well in playing up to the hype. But the debate about Kobe's greatness will continue, and his last…
America has a unique architecture, indebted to our unique religious makeup. In a 1982 article, Thomas Beeby notes that the communal experiments of early Puritans, and later of Quakers, Shakers, Moravians, and Pietists provided “paradigms of puritanical Protestant architectural thought” (essay reprinted in The Religious Imagination in Modern and Contemporary…
Patrick Gray's Paul as a Problem in History and Culture is a wide-ranging study of anti-Paulinism. Biblical scholars are familiar with anti-Paulists who charge that Paul betrayed the message and life of Jesus when he founded Christianity. But the attacks on Paul are ancient and medieval as well as modern,…
In his forthcoming, massive Reformations , Carlos M.N. Eire summarizes the conflicts between Philippists and Gnesio-Lutherans following Luther's death in 1546. Eire writes, “The most pressing issue in 1548 concerned how much accommodation to Catholicism any Lutheran should be willing to make. Melanchthon's response to the Augsburg Interim . .…
The genealogy of the priestly tribe of Levi (1 Chronicles 6) stands at the chiastic center of the genealogies of 1 Chronicles. At the beginning of that tribal genealogy is a list of the descendants of Aaron the first high priest, framed by references to the three sons of Levi…
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