Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Part 1 We do not understand the role of women in ministry because we do not understand the role of men in ministry. We do not understand the role of men in ministry because we do not understand the church. We do not understand the church because the consumer culture…
1. One structure The Creation account (G1:1-2:4) conspicuously conveys meaning using the literary shape of the text. The narrative is told with formulaic patterns, repetitions, and parallelism. The Garden account is different. It is viewed as a separate text, with its own author, employing its own structure. This second account’s…
I was reading James Jordan’s Creation in Six Days while also preparing for Trinity Sunday in which the gospel reading is John 3:1-15. As providence would have it Jordan dropped an easter egg for me along the lines of baptism. In chapter 5 he points out, “ On the second…
It's true. There is no verse in the New Testament that commands or records an infant baptism. This poses a problem for some Christians. Those who only look for explicit commands, or those whose theology is limited to the New Testament, will conclude that infant baptism is not biblical and…
1. Goal This paper’s goal is to identify and describe a literary strategy employed by scripture, namely using two episodes that cover similar territory or themes using details drawn from opposite ends of a number of spectrums. Once described the reader may recognize numerous other instances of this strategy in…
Numbers 14 records the tragic story of Israel’s decision to rebel against Yahweh and Moses. Twelve spies had been sent into the land to bring back a report to Israel. All twelve spies agreed: “We went to the land where you sent us. It truly flows with milk and honey”…
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Malcolm Gladwell’s lengthy essay on the Branch Davidians normalizes and humanizes a group that even to American Christians was a strange, unnerving cult. Gladwell presents a damning indictment of the FBI response to the extreme Adventist community that was destroyed near Waco in 1993. Gladwell argues persuasively that the government…
Trevaskis ( Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus ) proposes a chiastic outline of Leviticus 21-22: Priestly defects (Lev. 21.16-24) A. [4 defects] blind, lame, disfigured, an ‘overgrown limb’ ( ???? ) (v. 18) B. [2 defects] impaired leg, impaired hand (v. 19) C. [6 defects] hunchback, withered member, a…
Van Ruler is an advocate of “theocracy,” but he at the same time insists that toleration is “an absolute necessity in the state” ( Calvinist Trinitarianism and Theocentric Politics , 186). It is necessary because every people is religiously mixed, because intolerance invariably leads to coercion, because of the reach…
Bad question, says Justin Barrett ( Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology , 26): “No aspect of our biological development, let along our cognitive development occurs without important contributions from both our biological endowment and our environment. Cells don’t divide and multiply without a steady stream of chemical nourishment from their…
I review Leigh Trevaskis’s Holiness, Ethics, and Ritual in Leviticus at the Trinity House site. Click here .
Donald Rayfield reviews two recent essay collections on cultural relations between England and Russia in the TLS : Anthony Cross, A People Passing Rude : British Responses to Russian Culture and Russia in Britain, 1880-1940 , edited by Rebecca Beasley and Philip Ross Bullock. The links are broader and deeper…
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