Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In my last essay, we saw how consumer culture has gutted the familial category necessary to understand the church. When a consumer visits a church, he expects another service-provider, such as a hospital or a restaurant. He doesn’t understand the role of men in ministry, and thus, not the role…
First time visitors to our church sometimes express their surprise that children, even the youngest, participate with their parents in the entire worship service. Many congregations created an expectation for the parents (and children) of Sunday School or Child Care being available during the entire worship service or during the…
Quantifying the Love of God “For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life” ~ John 3:16 This most beloved verse in all the Bible was spoken by the Savior himself to Nicodemus. As…
While The Lord’s Prayer enjoys wide recognition throughout the Church, its richness and depth may be unrealized due to a lesser familiarity with, what I will argue is, its primary inspiration: the Tabernacle. There, Christ’s intent can rightly be discerned. The Prayer’s methodological correction to the Jews and Gentiles wasn’t…
The Consumption of the Covenant Idea of the Church Last time we saw consumerism, having canalized its attitudes in our culture, shapes what the consumer sees when he or she steps into a church. Here, we’ll see how it has eviscerated the covenant and familial ideas necessary to understand the…
The ignoble Jayber Crow can stir your appetite for the noble. It’s the simplicity of a good ol’ Port William boy that builds the charm of the book. In fact, the elitists in Port William receive the harshest blows and severest outcomes, as they should. But before delving into the…
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One would not think Rosemary Reuther would have much in common with the John Birch Society. During an SBL seminar, though, she said “One of the first things we have to recognize is that we have been taken over.” I’m going to send the JBS her address, since she seems…
In the course of saying some interesting and true things about Rome and Roman empire, Richard Horsely raised this revealing question: What is it, he wondered, that made so many diaspora Jews join the church so quickly? What was driving them? Why were they looking for something new? The way…
John Milbank claims that Reformed theology has allowed Pelagianism to come in under the guise of a covenant theology that includes the covenant of works (especially when the Mosaic covenant is treated as a covenant of works). The problem with Reformed theology, Milbank argues, is its insufficient emphasis on the…
Brad Green of Union University gave a talk on Gunton’s Augustine, in which he got everything exactly right. He was respectful toward Gunton, but finally concluded that Gunton had not read Augustine correctly, that Augustine said all the things that Gunton denies he said and none of the things Gunton…
George Hunsinger used his lecture at the Bonhoeffer seminar to launch into the Iraqi war. It was truly dreadful. In the name of Bonhoefferian “truth-telling,” he said that 10,000 Iraqi civilians had been killed (an estimate that has been discredited); that 30,000 Iraqi soldiers died (which sounds preposterously high); that…
Interacting with NT Wright’s book on resurrection, Dominic Crossan says that what’s important for him is not whether the claims of the resurrection are literal or metaphorical. Either way, the claims forced a clash with imperial Rome, and that’s what really matters. He wants to say that we should read…
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