Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I thought it might be good to put this up here, since it is 14 years old, and itself reflects earlier discussion. From this you can see that we at BH have been considering this notion for quite some time. Clearly, the last word has not been said. — James…
Hopefully, my commentary on James will be out later this year. But here are a few chiasms for your consideration. I think the James 5 chiasm orginally came from Doug Jordan. The entire book of James is focused on how the pastors and leaders (“brothers”) of the church use their…
In my first post I noted that the parables of Jesus were not simply illustrative stories. They are really nothing like the kind of simple, homely illustrations that preachers often use to explain difficult concepts to their congregations. Just to be clear: there’s nothing wrong with illustrating one’s sermonic statements.…
Ephesians is often treated as a pure type example of the Pauline method that “the indicative preceds the imperative.” But what Paul does first is pray . Simply reading verse 3 and following involves readers in a prayer of thanksgiving to God–and much more so for those listening to the…
Yesterday, I took part with my oldest son in a church-sponsored city outreach project (not because I’m especially prone to such behavior but because my son has a Boy Scout requirement that this would help him meet). Before we were sent out on our various jobs, the leader gave a…
There is a scene in Prince Caspian , the second in C. S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia that helps explain why it is we have four Gospels, that is four accounts of the Good News of Jesus Christ—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. It is the account of Lucy’s longed-for experience…
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Once upon a time, Europeans believed that the order of the world was the result of God's providential guidance of all things. Along came Newton, who demonstrates that the world was a machine that operated by laws that could be described in mathematical terms. As Jonathan Sheehan and Dror Warhman…
The Ten Words (Exodus 20) are organized in two sets of five commandments, one pertaining to our relationship to God and the other our relationships with one another. James Jordan has argued that the two sets of five run in parallel. The five words about worship match the five words…
Thomas asks whether the Father delivered the Son to the Passion ( ST III, 47, 3). His answer is Yes, and he gives a proof text: Romans 8:32. But the way he explicates that affirmative answer is worthy of attention. He starts by emphasizing that Christ “suffered voluntarily out of…
Israel suffers the first cycle of plagues along with the Egyptians. Their water turns to blood; their homes are infested with frogs; the dust of Goshen clings to them in the form of gnats. With the fourth plague, Yahweh begins to make a distinction between Israel and Egypt: “I will…
The church has faced many challenges in her two thousand year history. Bishops and priests evangelized Romans and barbarians. Adventurous monks settled on the frontiers of Europe. Bold missionaries traveled to the remotest peoples on the planet. Never before, though, has the church been called to ministry in a society…
Isaiah prophesies that the Lord will bring Israel out of Babylon as He brought them from Egypt, in a new exodus. He draws on events of the first exodus to describe what will happen again. For example: “I will open rivers on the bare heights, and springs in the midst…
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