Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Why there is more to Jephthah than meets than eye It was not that long ago that I realized the Jephthah-story and the Jesus-story were basically the same story. Sounds crazy, I know. But here is a one-paragraph synopsis of both: The people of God have gone their own way,…
G.K. Chesterton famously said that the Gospels don’t reveal Jesus’ mirth. It’s true we never catch Jesus laughing. But can we believe He never did? I don’t think so. Laughter is human, and Jesus was fully human. Jesus promised that those who mourned would laugh. He mourned; would He not…
Matthew 2 has all the elements of an exodus story. There’s a murderous king, who slaughters Jewish babies. There’s a infant who will be Israel’s future deliverer, saved from the murderous king so He can later return to save His people and lead them to the Promised land. There’s an…
The calendar of Israel was primarily theological, centered on commemorating the salvific acts of God, but also agricultural, celebrating the creation-restoring effects of those salvific acts. The feasts of the first month celebrated the reviving of the world in the Spring, and typified the cutting off of the Savior in…
The chiastic shape corresponds to the shape of human life. This should not surprise us, because we are made in the image of God, and God is manifest in Word and Spirit. If we are living epistles, our lives will look a bit like the literary shape of the books…
Back in January, Venkatesh Rao wrote a fascinating post on the Ribbonfarm blog, discussing different forms of models of narrative. Engaging with Ursula LeGuin’s talk ‘The Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction’ , Rao explores her contrast between the (male) ‘hero narrative’ and the (female) ‘carrier-bag story’, and suggests a third…
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One of the unique features of film, argues Leo Braudy in his classic The World in a Frame: What We See in Films, 25th Anniversary Edition , is its once-for-all quality: “In theater and music, there is always a text, a form to which every performance exists at least as…
The second part of Jeff Meyers’ Lenten meditation on John’s Passion narrative is up at the Trinity House site .
Trinity House just sent out its second edition of our e-newsletter, In Medias Res. It includes an essay by Pastor Steve Wilkins, “The Church Transformed and Transforming” and James Jordan’s analysis of Psalms 9-10, along with news about Trinity House. Sign up for the newsletter here .
In his new Imagining the Kingdom: How Worship Works (Cultural Liturgies) , James KA Smith provides this deft summary of Merleau-Ponty’s description of our “interinvolvement” with the world (p. 44): “We build up a habitual way of being-in-the-world that is carried in our body, one that is ‘known’ on a…
After all his polemics against nomos in Galatians, 6:2 comes as a shock: “So fulfill the nomos of Christ.” Paul plays similar tricks with the word elsewhere (Romans 3:27; 8:2; 1 Corinthians 9:21). Paul wants the Galatians “under law,” provided it is the law of Christ. (Note too Paul’s sudden…
Jesus reads Isaiah 61 in His first sermon at Nazareth, and says that He fulfills prophets’ promise of an anointed Servant to preach good news to the poor (Luke 4). It is a programmatic sermon for Luke’s gospel, who highlights Jesus’ ministry among the marginal and weak. In the ensuing…
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