Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Where do we go from here? Depending on one’s perspective, the American story can plausibly be interpreted in different ways. Looked at from past to present , we can see a great deal of continuity from medieval Christendom and the Reformation to America’s founding. The War for Independence, after all,…
Click HERE for Part 1 Civic Religion: American or Christian? We have already traced out the basic contours of the shift in America from an ecclesiocentric, theocratic social order to a secular one. Building on Locke and Hobbes, the Enlightenment accomplished an astonishing coup of Christendom. That victory for the…
Author’s Introductory Note: Engaging in broad historical interpretation as I am about to do is always risky. Necessarily, one “stylizes” history by simplifying, over generalizing, and stereotyping. But the narrative qualities of history are not simply due to the imposition of human rationality upon brute facts; rather history is always…
A. Repentance to life involves endeavoring to believe real hard that you’re saved. reject infant baptism. stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. walk with God in all the ways of his commandments. B. What is necessary so that no sinner may expect to be forgiven unless he does it? Only…
The machine works mechanically and it is flawless. Slander/libel a group of Presbyterian ministers as “Romanist” because robes and James 2 are no worse than praying to Mary or relying on purgatory to pay for unconfessed sins. Drive off anyone who disagrees. Of that number, there may be a tiny…
If we take as a starting point the Tribal / Monarchical / Empire model, we can then add to it the Late Empire Phase. The particular ‘marker sin’ of Empire is false intermarriage, which signifies pluralism and syncretism. Empires by definition are “cosmopolitan” dominated by cities, high culture, many cultures,…
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God did not need to make the world. But once He’s made it, He cannot be a righteous God unless He deals righteously with sin (by punishing it) and righteously with His people (by justifying them). This is why Paul says the cross demonstrates God’s righteousness so that He might…
God did not need to make the world. But once He’s made it, He cannot be a righteous God unless He deals righteously with sin (by punishing it) and righteously with His people (by justifying them). This is why Paul says the cross demonstrates God’s righteousness so that He might…
Jim Jordan suggests that justification as forgiveness of sins always also includes glorification. The “robe” that covers us (imputed righteousness) is likewise a garment of glory and beauty, so that we are invested for office at the same time we are glorified. He wants also to relate this to the…
The story of the 10 lepers in Luke 17 is not just about Jesus demonstrating that He is powerful to save, cleanse and heal. He is powerful for all those things; He DOES have mercy on the unclean and the outcasts. But Luke tells the story of the healing almost…
Part of the Renaissance recovery of history was an emphasis on mutability and change. Few themes so dominate the poetry of Spenser or the sonnets of Shakespeare as the fear that Time will gobble up everything good. This was continuous with ancient (and medieval) conceptions of the world, since changeability…
“Movies,” writes Brian Godawa, a Christian screenwriter, “may be about story, but those stories are finally, centrally, crucially, primarily MOSTLY about redemption.” Godawa uses the theologically loaded term “redemption” intentionally, but he recognizes that many contemporary movies present a distinctly secular gospel of redemption. For some movies, redemption comes through…
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