Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Stories, frankly all human stories are practically always about one thing aren’t they? Death. The inevitability of death. . . . “There is no such thing as a natural death. Nothing that happens to man is ever natural, since his presence calls the whole world into question. All men must…
Matthew is organized around 5 discourses, which trace out the history of Jesus as a recapitulation of the history of God and Israel in the Old Testament. Jesus first speaks as a new Moses, instructing His disciples on a mountain about a righteousness that surpasses the righteousness of the scribes…
The fall of the Sethites in Genesis 6 is the third fall of mankind, or the third degree of Adam’s original fall. Adam sinned in a Garden against his Father by stealing something he was supposed to wait to obtain. (“Every tree shall be food for you” Genesis 1:29.) Cain…
The recent fantasy film Noah and a slightly related blog comment by my friend Douglas Wilson have stirred up again the question of whether the “sons of God” in Genesis 6 who married the “daughters of men” were fallen angels or the priestly line of Seth. Doug argues for angels,…
The prophecy of Jude concerns apostasy. An illustration of apostasy and its consequences is found in verse 6, which the New American Standard Bible translates this way: "And angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, He has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for…
At His death, Jesus is surrounded by a Roman centurion and his cohort of Gentile solders. Matthew doesn't say that any disciples are there. But women are, and so is Joseph of Arimathea, identified as a “disciple” but, as John tells us, a “secret disciple for fear of the Jews,”…
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“In just about every case of a millenarian tyrant,” writes Waller Newell in his 2013 Tyranny , “we find a shattering experience in early life – failure to achieve a respectable career, distant or oppressive parents, shame and disgrace over the family name, a feeling of being excluded by the…
Paul's visit to Athens is nestled in the middle of a narrative sequence describing Paul's missionary journey. When Paul and Barnabas part ways because of their dispute over John Mark (15:36-39), Paul continues his missionary work with Silas. Together with Timothy, they visit Philippi (16:6-40), Thessalonica (17:1-9) and Berea (17:10-15).…
In ancient Israel, the vast majority of those circumcised were circumcised as infants. If one were developing a theology of circumcision, it wouldn't make sense to focus on the comparatively rare adolescent or adult circumcisions. What is normal in practice would naturally be the norm of theology. In the two-millennia…
In a 2010 article in The Other Shore , Rice University's Ewa Thompson argues that post-colonial categories are useful for explaining the experience of formerly Soviet-occupied areas of Eastern Europe, especially Poland. Many Poles, she admits, associate imperialism with European imperialism in Africa and link orientalism with the far east.…
Marjorie Garber's amusing summary ( Shakespeare After All ) of Shakespeare's Pericles captures the flavor of the play: “a man who woos a wicked, incestuous princess, solves a riddle, and flees her land—and who just happens to be shipwrecked on the shore of another land, where there is another princess…
In his recent biography of Charles Williams , Grevel Lindop summarizes Williams's essay on the cross, calling it Williams's “most powerful and honest theological essay.” Williams observes that the cross is “revolting to our sense of justice,” justifable only because it shows that God entered into our suffering. He challenges…
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