Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Inspired by the “Moscow Mood” Debate In a shocking 1961 study, Yale psychologist Stanley Milgram would don an official-looking white lab coat and tell a volunteer to administer increasing shocks to another “volunteer” in an adjacent room strapped into an “electric chair” just out of sight. The shocks were incrementally…
My title and the substance of the article are borrowed from a section of David Wenham’s excellent book, Paul: Follower of Jesus or Founder of Christianity? I am appropriating ideas from the pages in his book which address the question, “Why Does Paul refer to Jesus’ Life and Ministry so…
Some of us may be familiar with the notion that the epistle of James is like a New Testament version of Proverbs or other wisdom literature. According to this line of thinking, the epistle of James (together with the other wisdom literature) is basically a collection of timeless sayings without…
This summer I started walking a long trail that ran north from our home. On my best days, I would walk a total of five miles at a brisk pace. This trail follows the power lines that serve a significant portion of North Dallas and stretches far past the two…
I am an Australian. I went to the American Academy of Religion mega-fest last year to meet up with some friends, to present a paper at a ‘science and religion’ panel, and to marvel at the sheer scale of how Americans do things. It was quite a ride. Looking at…
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 We evangelicals do not often understand the roles of men and women in ministry. Because our consumerist culture has gutted the notion of family as it was historically understood, all Biblical passages about women in church ministry (a familial organism) are almost incomprehensible to…
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Peter Turchin offers a sobering analysis of the state of America in 2020. He thinks we're in a potentially revolutionary moment. Revolutions are products of structural instabilities combined with triggering events. America's structural dislocations are serious: “increasing popular immiseration (declining incomes, falling life expectancies, growing social pessimism and despair), elite…
The description of the rite of ordination ends with a brief notice of what the priests are to do at the altar as a “continuous” ( tamiyd ) daily offering (Exodus 29:38, 42). Verses 38-42 are arranged in a simple chasm: A. Continuous offering each day, v. 38 B. Morning…
In a recent Theopolis podcast, Alastair Roberts called attention to the chameleon quality of the apostle Paul. When the magistrates of Philippi want to send him away quietly, Paul reveals he’s a Roman citizen – news both to the magistrates and to readers of Acts (Acts 16:35-40). In Jerusalem, his…
All Levitical sacrifices are food rites. Sometimes, Yahweh alone eats from His altar-table (the ‘olah , “ascension offering”). Sometimes, He shares His bread with the priests (certain forms of the hattat , “sin offering”). Sometimes, the food gets split three ways, among Yahweh, priests, and worshipers ( shelem , “peace…
Matthew Bates argues in The Birth of the Trinity that Trinitarian theology emerged from prosopological reading of the Old Testament. This isn't the same as typology. In a typological reading, David, say, is “regarded . . . as a type or pattern for the future Christ, while at the same…
In the midst of the COVID pandemic, many today put their hopes in a vaccine. It’s a vain hope. Our capacity to control the world of viruses is very limited. Microbes are the most common forms of life on our planet, with “5 x 10 30 bacteria” and ten times…
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