Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
What is below is fairly self-explanatory. This is an exchange I had with a local liberal clergyman on the subject of abortion. The circumstances of the debate are included in the text itself. I initially e-mailed this out to a list of clergy in our city after a local (and…
The seemingly humdrum parts of the Bible often hide overlooked wisdom. Take, for example, the books of Ezra and Nehemiah. Their stories aren't exactly the most gripping or memorable. They are far less concrete than, say, the story of the Exodus. No one in Ezra is stricken blind or devoured…
For most of the past century, philosophical perspectives on life in the western world have been overtly grim and pessimistic. The optimism of the Enlightenment, generated by confidence in the scientific method and the potential of an increasingly civilized humanity to redress the evils of the world, was shattered by…
Chiastic structures are found all over the Bible, and in recent decades commentators have become more adept at spotting them. But identifying these literary structures is only part of the challenge. There remains the challenge of understanding what they mean. Part of the answer is found in the recognition that…
Part 1 can be found HERE . Clearly, more than just getting worship right is important in changing the world, but since worship is the central act of God’s people, performed on the first day of the week at the center of the world before the very face of God,…
“Blessed is the womb that bore you, and the breasts at which you nursed.” ( Luke 11:27 ) Arguing for Christian morality in a secular society is difficult. A culture which accepts evolutionary dogma has no intellectual place — or inherent desire — for absolute morality, since it believes morality…
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A couple of quotations from Hart’s biography of Nevin: “The force of the question in the end is nothing less than this, whether the original catholic doctrine concerning the Church, as it stood in universal authority through all ages before the Reformation, is to be received and held still as…
John Milbank’s opening essay in the recently-released Radical Orthodoxy and the Reformed Tradition (edited by James KA Smith and James Olthuis) is a challenging critique of Calvin and the Reformed tradition, one that I hope to interact with more in the future. One particularly striking passage had to do with…
Yahweh is the trickster God of 1-2 Kings. He tricks the Moabites into thinking that the three kings have slaughtered each other (2 Kings 3), and Israel rises from their camp and slaughters them. He tricks the Arameans in the opposite way: chasing them away from their camp so that…
Why the delay of judgment throughout 1-2 Kings? Two reasons: First, judgment is passed, but Yahweh waits for the sin of the Amorites to come to completion, for sin to ripen to be utterly sinful. Second, Yahweh gives time for the declaration of judgment to work repentance among a remnant.…
Another aspect of the “satire” of royal power in 1-2 Kings comes out when we examine scenes of womena appealing for help before an authority. Early in Kings, women appeal to Kings and receive what they need (Bath-sheba and David; prostitutes and Solomon). Sheba is overwhelmed by Solomon’s kingdom. For…
Why does Yahweh send two prophets to the Omrides? Two witnesses no doubt. But their ministries are so similar in many respects; why double it? And what, if any, are the differences between them? One difference is geography. Elijah spends a good bit of the narrative on the far side…
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