Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Blessing of the Father The narrative of the Exodus makes it clear that Yahweh is Israel’s Father. Moses is told to declare to Pharaoh that “Israel is my firstborn son, and I say to you, ‘Let my son go that he may serve me’” (Exodus 4:22-23). In contrast to…
When reading the Old Testament, the believer faces two dilemmas. First, there is a seemingly sharp discontinuity between the universal proclamation of the gospel to the whole earth and God’s singling out of the nation of Israel. Second, the New Testament says of Jesus that “there is no other name…
John 17 contains the longest prayer that we have from Jesus, and it shows us the intimate relationship between the Father and the Son in a way that few passages do. The prayer lays out the chiastic pattern noted by Athanasius (God became man so that man could become God),…
The following meditation on the incarnation is paraphrased and quoted from Karl Barth, The Doctrine of Reconciliation (Church Dogmatics, Vol. 4, Part 1) , pp. 185ff. In the incarnation, the eternal Son of God makes His way into a far country, and takes on the form of a servant. “But…
Peter says "baptism saves you" (1 Peter 3:21). Does the New Testament teach that "baptism justifies you"? I think the answer is Yes. That's a controversial answer, and demands some defense and explanation, but first some critical qualifications. No New Testament text states "baptism justifies you," so my argument will…
In his THI article “ Son of David, Son of Abraham ,” Peter Leithart notes that Matthew's genealogy “contains a summary of redemptive history.” This statement is only too true and one that deserves further elucidation. Biblos genese ō s. The first two words of Matthew's Gospel are usually translated…
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Theodore Beza's opening speech at the Colloquy of Poissy was a model of irenic Protestantism (Nugent, Ecumenism is the Age of the Reformation ). He stressed the creedal commonalities of Rome and the Reformed, and argued that the differences were “matters of interpretation” and unnecessary accretions” (97). As Nugent says,…
Way out in the Mojave desert is a phone booth. Some years ago, a resident of LA published a picture, which inspired Godfrey Daniels to start calling the phone. He was prepared to keep calling for years until someone picked up. A month later, Lorene Aiken, who worked at the…
To secular analysts, “Progressive Pentecostals” seem naively apolitical. In their study of Global Pentecostalism , Donald Miller and Tetsunao Yamamori agree that the “integral” or “holistic” Pentecostals that they study are not social gospellers or liberation theologians. They don't aim to “reform social structures or challenge government policies.” They are…
What do people do when social institutions go wrong? Albert Hirschman ( Exit, Voice, and Loyalty ) argues that there are two main alternatives: One withdraws (exit) or one speaks out (voice). He admits that these categories sound “suspiciously neat,” but defends them because they “reflect a more fundamental schism:…
Deuteronomy 25 begins like a law-and-order text. Judges are to condemn the wicked and justify the innocent. Convicted criminals are beaten, and beaten publicly “in the presence” of the judge, beaten as much as his crime deserves (v. 2). Verse 3 takes a slight turn: It places a limit on…
“Perhaps irenicism is the finest synthesis of Renaissance and Reformation,” writes Donald Nugent in his 1974 monograph on the Colloquy of Poissy, Ecumenism in the Age of the Reformation (4). The irenicists had roots in the late medieval conciliarism and in Cusa's efforts to unite contraries, but it was humanism…
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