Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The idea of atonement is not a distinctly Christian, or even Hebraic, concept. It also makes an appearance in ancient Greek thought (among other places). The Greek tradition is by no means monolithic, so it isn’t possible to speak of a “Greek” concept of atonement. But there are certain commonalities…
As we know, there are seven deadly or capital sins. Prior to the list of the seven deadly sins there was a list of eight evil thoughts or demons. It was made by an Eastern monk, Evagrius Ponticus. When the list was transposed to the West, one evil thought was…
Paul’s letter to the Corinthians is one of those epistles in Scripture to which pastors and teachers resort to show the church everything that it shouldn’t be . There is, of course, good reason for this. The Corinthian church was filled with all sorts of problems. Personality cults (i.e., factions),…
Today is Ash Wednesday , and as many Christians of the Protestant formerly "low church" persuasion are reacquiring some of the good and ancient practices of the church, one question in particular comes to the front: to ash or not to ash? That is, while many of us are finding…
A murder of tweets. To observe Lent rightly, we have to be persuaded that we already stand in God’s favor. Ash Wednesday reminds us to number our days. It helps us gain a heart of wisdom (Psalm 90:12). We keep Easter to manifest and deepen our prior share in resurrection.…
Dale C. Allison, Jr., The New Moses: A Matthean Typology (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993). Dale Allison 1993 book is a superb case study in the New Testament's use of the Old. Though he focuses on only a single typology (Christ as a new Moses) in only a single gospel (Matthew), Allison's…
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P eter Suderman doesn't much like the Ben Hur remake , which he describes as purposeless, a lesser film in every way than its 1959 model. According to Suderman, “The new version bungles the story’s religious aspects. . . . The 1880 Lew Wallace novel was subtitled A Tale of…
D avid Goldman thinks Trump has a point when he accuses Bush, Clinton, and Obama of creating ISIS. Bush ended a millennium of Sunni rule in Iraq when he appointed “Nouri al-Maliki to head Iraq’s first Shia-dominated government.” The result, Goldman argues, was predictable: “the Sunnis—disarmed and marginalized by the…
C hris Deliso reports in the current issue of The National Interest on the “ global network of aristocrats, oligarchs, NGOs and leaders comprising a shadow network of influencers with access to senior religious and political leaders. This network function is becoming increasingly significant now that symbolic religious events are…
O n his web site , CJ Labuschagne analyzes the five books of the Psalter and each of the first 41 Psalms (Book 1). His analyses require a knowledge of Hebrew and get complicated and technical. The payoff is worth the effort. Where else can you find anything like the…
I n a 2008 essay in The Princeton Seminary Bulletin (since reprinted elsewhere), Oliver O’Donovan observes that understanding “difference as plurality” reflects an anxiety about difference. Not all difference creates anxiety, but only those differences of “practical principle” that form subcultures that “act on contrary assumptions and pursue divergent courses…
D avid's first effort to bring the ark of the covenant into Jerusalem was a failure. The set-up was wrong from the beginning; instead of appointing Levites to transport the ark on their shoulders, David placed the ark on a cart pulled by oxen. When the ark became unsteady, Uzza…
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