Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b) The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to…
Two offerings Humanity’s first vocation involves guarding and serving the trees that emerge from the ground (Genesis 2:15). God provides these trees to humanity for food. A serpent appears and tempts the couple to eat from a special forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity…
At the outset of the Torah (as Christians understand it), a triune God creates the heavens and earth over the course of a seven-day week. Why? What’s the connection between the three and the seven? Could a triune God have created the world over any period of time he chose?…
How relevant to the modern reader are the flying axe head of Deuteronomy 19:5 and the roof parapet of Deuteronomy 22:8? Indeed, how relevant were they to the daily lives of Israelites thirty-five hundred years ago? Suppose that accidental falls from rooftops were exceedingly uncommon in ancient Israel, or that…
1 For most of my life, the standing of the American church as a source of national social and political order was measured by reports from the front of the so-called “culture wars.” 2 Memory brings to mind battles over feminism and the ERA, so-called gay rights, the breakdown of…
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…’ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the…
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T he literary world is atwitter this week with the revelation of the real identity of Elena Ferrante, the pseudonym used by the author of the acclaimed Neopolitan Quartet. Italian journalist Claudio Gatti reported on his months-long investigation in the New York Review . Gatti’s conclusion, based on real estate…
J ohn Milbank and Adrian Pabst ( Politics of Virtue , 17) claim that “politics should revert to its ancient character as a ‘politics of the soul,’ concerned above all to nurture virtuous citizens, just as parents are concerned above all with the character of their children, precisely because they…
J ohn Milbank and Adrian Pabst ( Politics of Virtue , 47) observe that the liberal state claims to release “the economic and social spheres to be pre-politically themselves as natural, meaning true to human biological needs and inclinations.” In fact, however, it “politically produces this sphere of man as…
S carcity is one of the central premises of economic theory. John Milbank and Adrian Pabst see the premise of scarcity as one of a triad of pessimistic assumptions that found liberal order - the other two are “ontological violence and natural egoism” ( Politics of Virtue , 48). They…
M atthew Crawford ( The World Beyond Your Head ) observes that we can do simple mathematics in our heads. We can even multiply bigger numbers by breaking them down into smaller ones. At some point, though, most of us lost track: “If one has to multiply 356 by 911,…
1 Chronicles 17 is the Chronicler’s account of the Davidic covenant, Yahweh’s commitment to the Davidic dynasty. In his response to the Lord’s pledge, David summarizes the aims of the exodus (v. 21). Following the Hebrew word order, we can see a somewhat irregular chiasm: A. And what one nation…
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