Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When a certain Samaritan village refused Jesus’ attempt to visit, James and John asked Jesus if they should call down fire from heaven upon it. The allusion to the story of Sodom and Gomorrah is evident, but, as the story shows, James’ and John’s thinking was entirely warped. Jesus rebuked…
In the first part of this essay, I considered paideia (formation)and mimesis (imitation) in the context of Aristotle’s virtue ethics and that of the New Testament. The overall concern is to realize how relevant is Aristotle’s ethics both to diagnosing our current malaise and to enculturing our children, though we…
In these posts I am inviting you into my philosophical reflection about integration , the absence of which we feel palpably in our fragmented world. My hope is for us to understand it more deeply, and to be ourselves reintegrated in the process. At this point in this extended inquiry…
It’s hard to imagine someone, centuries from now, mistaking our culture for a moral highpoint in the history of the West. Increasingly the news is dominated by school shootings, abusive policing, sexploitation of women, and increasing rates of suicide, addiction, and divorce. In response, the Left calls for regulations, surveillance,…
“The righteous cry out, and the Lord hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. The Lord is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves such as have a contrite spirit.” (Ps. 34:17-18) God is listening. He is listening when we ask Him for financial provision,…
The allusions to Mt. Sinai in the transfiguration story point to Jesus as a new Moses and even more as Yahweh, the God who met Moses and Elijah on the mountain. The fact that Jesus, Moses, and Elijah spoke of Jesus’ “exodus” suggests that the mountain of transfiguration was intended…
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Wesley Hill argues in Paul and the Trinity that recent discussions of Pauline christology are locked into a misleading hierarchical framework in which the main question is whether the Christology is high or low. Hill wonders whether the category of “relationality,” especially “mutual relationality,” so prominent in recent Trinitarian theology…
The trinity of dragon, beast, and false prophet “breath” out three demon spirits that look like frogs (Revelation 16:13). Why frogs? Frogs are an Egyptian plague (Exodus 7-8; Psalm 78:45; 105:30). So a plague of frogs keeps us in the exodus-Egypt framework. Frogs are unclean creatures. This is somewhat tricky…
Neil Young's forthcoming We Gather Together is a pre-history of the Religious Right. It is also a history of the contested ecumenism of the anti-ecumenical churches. The two histories go together. How did the Religious Right so rapidly put together a coalition for family and traditional values? Young shows that…
In his TLS review of Sam Harris's Waking Up , John Cottingham summarizes Harris's worldview: “a reality where there are no true substances and there is ultimately nothing but an impersonal flux of conditions that arise and pass away.” Harris is opposed to religion but in favor of spirituality, and…
Revelation 16:12-16 is a chiasm, and recognizing that fact will illuminate the contents of the passage. A. Sixth bowl poured on Euphrates. B. River dried up for kings from the sunrising. C. Three frogs from mouths of dragon, beast, false prophet. D. Frog are demons performing signs. C’. Kings of…
There were Gentiles living in the land that were not part of Israel. They did not necessarily share the faith of Israel; they were not circumcised; they were not ethnically related to Israel. Yahweh insisted that they were not to be grudgingly tolerated, but were to be treated with respect…
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