Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
My good friend, Jason Ewert, recently posted a review of Pastor Douglas Wilson’s book, Against the Church . Jason correctly notes that Pastor Wilson’s main pastoral motivation in writing this book is to combat dead orthodoxy. Dead orthodoxy is a real problem in Reformed churches that celebrate the primacy of…
At the church I pastor, we have four servers who distribute the communion elements to the congregation, and I distribute the elements to those in the foyer and nursery. The servers and I do not partake of the bread and wine until the congregation is served first. As this has…
We at Trinity House believe that the church ought to raise and train her future pastors. Part of that training may be carried out by specialized institutions like Trinity House, but the church and her leaders are ultimately responsible for that training. To encourage churches to assume that responsibility, Trinity…
Sandra Jacobs's The Body as Property examines the role of physical disfigurement in the Hebrew Bible, with focus on the Torah, and more specifically on the (fictitious) Priestly document, P. After an introduction laying out a rationale for the comparative method that guides her research, she explores circumcision, the use…
Yahweh saves. That’s what Isaiah’s name means, and that’s what Isaiah’s prophecy is about. Yah saves Judah when Aram and Israel pressure her. He saves Jerusalem from the Assyrian siege. He brings Judah back from the grave of Babylonian exile. But this triumphant message of Isaiah fizzles. The last few…
Are apostasy and assurance mutually exclusive? Some seem to think so. But let’s consider this a bit: No Reformed man would ever say that a man who is “saved” today will be safe forever no matter what . Rather we say, “your sins are forgiven, now, walk faithfully, glorify the…
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Before Yahweh is an object of worship, He is a teacher, issuing an invitation to Adam to eat from the fruit of the garden but prohibiting the fruit of the tree of knowledge (Genesis 2:16-17). After He forms Eve, though, He disappears from the narrative, leaving Eve and Adam to…
Rex Koivisto ( One Lord, One Faith ) argues that the problem of church unity has less to do with denominational structures and more to do with a sectarian spirit. Denominations weren't sectarian in origins, but an attempt to retain catholicity in a diverse theological setting. All true, but his…
K ent Dunnington ( Addiction and Virtue ) observes that what Peter Berger called “the heretical imperative” sharpens questions about the “right ordering of the goods and activities of our lives.” Our diverse world doesn't direct us to any particular ends; it deliberately refuses to do so. As a result,…
M arion Gibbs and Sidney Johnson present a sensitive analysis of the poetry of Gottfried of Strassburg's Tristan in their introduction to Medieval German Literature . In the Prologue to the poem, Gottfried captures the contradictory qualities of love with a rich series of antitheses: ir süeze sur, ir liebez…
“Mouth” ( stoma ) appears 22 times in Revelation. Mostly, things come out of mouths, rather than going in. The book is framed by double references to the sword that comes from the mouth of Jesus (1:16; 2:16; 19:15, 21). Jesus' mouth-sword is the ideal: A word that slays and…
Some of the churches that Duncan Stroik discusses in The Church Building as Sacred Place sound and look like wretched spaces. The parish church in Tor Tre Teste, thirty miles outside central Rome, for instance, is designed to disorient and decenter: “The nave is conceived as an asymmetrical space in…
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