Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Place names become fraught with meaning by association with people and events. The name “Wittenberg” calls to mind Luther and the Reformation for Protestants and Catholics alike. Geneva has a wider range of associations, but the Reformation Wall, with its four main statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza,…
“…a mystery without a solution, a horror story without savagery, a nightmare in which all the watches stop at noonday…” The Bestial Gardens of Men Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (Luke 23:30) The following lines by Edgar Allan Poe,…
2 Samuel 11-12, which record David’s sin with Bathsheba and its aftermath, is structured chiastically: This arrangement highlights several things about the episode. It reinforces what is obvious from even a casual reading, that the transition in the story occurs with Nathan’s confrontation of David’s sin and David’s confession. Up…
Medieval bestiaries are packed with quaintly inaccurate information about animals, birds, and other created things. Foxes and snakes are devilish critters; stags, pelicans and elephants are Christlike in their various ways. Of course, the medievals picked this up from the Bible, where bestiary observations are fairly common. “Go to the…
What do Reformational Catholicism and craft beer have in common? The question seems to beg for a punchline. Better yet, it would be pretty good clickbait for an article on Katharina von Bora’s “spirited” contribution that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. Well, this is no joke and I am certainly…
Suffering Defined Suffering happens. We witness it all around us and experience it in our lives. It often comes from forces beyond our control. Suffering is inscrutable; it strikes unexpectedly, on a bright summer day or a cold winter night. We lament and are bewildered by suffering. But we are…
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THE TRIPLE BODY OF CHRIST As Henri de Lubac pointed out, the history of Eucharistic theology and practice is largely a history of the changing relations among the threefold body of Christ. The threefold body is: the natural physical body of Jesus; the Eucharistic bread which is the body of…
The notes that follow in this and the following two posts are for lectures to be delivered in Brockton, Massachusetts this weekend. HE CAME EATING AND DRINKING If we want to discuss the Lord?s Supper adequately, we cannot disconnect it from concerns of ecclesiology and eschatology. In the Old Testament,…
James Wood is never more entertaining than when he intensely dislikes a book, and he intensely dislikes David Lodge’s widely reviewed, Author, Author , a fictionalized biography of Henry James. After savaging the opening paragraph of Lodge’s novel, he goes on to list some of Lodge’s cliches: “We encounter Henry…
Galen Strawson, philosophy editor of TLS , challenges the current widespread idea that human lives either are or should be narrative. He distinguishes between the “Psychological Narrative” thesis, which claims that “ordinary human beings experience their lives” in a narrative fashion, and the “Ethical Narrativity Thesis,” which claims that we…
Can God change a person?s ?legal standing?Ewithout changing his ?life situation?E It would seem not: 1) The life condition of someone who is not justified is a situation of being ?under the curse?Eor ?under the reign of Death and Sin.?E This situation is punishment from God for sin, Adam?s and…
Can God change a person?s ?legal standing?Ewithout changing his ?life situation?E It would seem not: 1) The life condition of someone who is not justified is a situation of being ?under the curse?Eor ?under the reign of Death and Sin.?E This situation is punishment from God for sin, Adam?s and…
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