Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
“We have a God who hides things because He loves to be sought out, chewed out and found out.” As Christians, we are rightly taught that we must not question God’s Word. The problem is that the Scriptures record many things which appear to have been given to us for…
The book of Revelation is a liturgy. John begins “in the Spirit” on the “Lord’s day” (1:10). Jesus appears, and Jesus tells him to record messages to seven churches, words of encouragement and rebuke, like the call to worship and confession at the beginning of a Christian liturgy. In chapter…
In my previous posts, I looked at the theme of creation as it is found in a sequence of psalms devoted to Yahweh’s Kingship (Psalms 93-100). Among other matters, these psalms declare that when the Kingdom of Israel’s God comes, it is the Kingdom of the world’s own Creator .…
The church in Corinth was a pastoral nightmare. Factionalism, sexual immorality, incipient syncretism, using the church as a stage for self-promotion, and denial of the final resurrection were just some of the problems. In Paul’s first letter to the Corinthian church, he confronts each of these problems directly and in…
The first chapters of the Word of God have a poetic rhythm. This is used to discredit their accuracy as historical narrative, but the truth is that these same rhythms continue far beyond the book of Genesis. In fact, the later texts shed light on the frustratingly succinct account of…
Mr. Martian: What’s that there? Mr. Edison: (Edison holds up a standard, 60 watt lightbulb). It’s a lightbulb. Mr. Martian: A “lightbulb” you say? What exactly is a “lightbulb”? Mr. Edison: A lightbulb is an object used to illuminate a dark area, say a room. It’s made primarily of filament…
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S elf-transcendence is in various forms an essential part of modern moral theory. To be truly good, in a Kantian framework, is to transcend personal self-interest, self-love, in order to conform one’s actions to the categorical imperative. Halbertal ( On Sacrifice ) observes that this note of self-transcendence means that…
In both Christian and Jewish theology, charity was one of the forms of post-sacrificial sacrifice. Halbertal ( On Sacrifice , 40-1) observes that this is not merely a matter of substitution but of fulfillment. Sacrifice, he points out, always exists under the possibility of failure. A worshiper brings his gift,…
It’s a central thesis of John B. Judis’s new Truman, American Jews, and the Origins of the Arab/Israeli Conflict that there was a moment when the Arab-Israeli conflict could have been averted, but, under pressure from the Zionist lobby, the great powers, especially the US under Truman, failed to avert…
The Economist review of The Great Prostate Hoax by Richard Ablin observes that opposition to prostate testing has moved in from the margins. Ablin, who claims to have identified the protein widely associated with prostate cancer, questions whether it gives any useful information. As the review explains, “In some men…
Drawing on Howard Eilberg-Schwartz’s The Savage in Judaism , I argue that the ills of modern theology can be cured only by re-savaging Judaism. And Christianity.
The notion that American Indians are the ten lost tribes of Israel is quaint today, but during the age of exploration, Europeans thought they had plenty of proof. Thomas Thorowgood’s Iewes in America laid out dozens of resemblances between Judaism and Indian customs. As summarized by Howard Eilberg-Schwartz, these included:…
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