Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Job appears in the Bible as a true story and it is regarded as such in other Scripture: As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the…
Thanksgiving is warfare. Gratitude is a weapon. Wield it well. Give thanks for the preparation. The hustle and bustle, the messy kitchen, the endless cleaning, the extra chairs, and stained tablecloths sing the song of hospitality. God desires that we prepare a place for friends and strangers, feasting and laughing,…
We often hear that, along with Leviticus, Ecclesiastes is the “most peculiar book,” lurking in the Bible’s back alley. 1 But it is high time that we retire this old dirge. God has concealed much gold here, therefore much glory is ours if we are careful to read Solomon’s wisdom…
1 Do you know when the mountain goats give birth? Do you observe the calving of the does? 2 Can you number the months that they fulfill, and do you know the time when they give birth? Job 39 We have and we do, Lord God. Spring is calving season.…
For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day you shall have a holy day, a Sabbath of complete rest to Yahweh. - Exodus 35:2 The instructions for building the tabernacle end with a Sabbath command and the narrative about building begins with a Sabbath command, before…
High in the list of now forgotten sins is simony. It was not always so: the medieval schoolmen believed simony to be the worst of ecclesiastical crimes and waged a centuries long campaign to purge the Church of this financial and spiritual corruption. As the schoolmen robustly defined it, “simony…
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Nobody I’ve read much likes Salman Rushdie’s third-person memoir, Joseph Anton: A Memoir , because nobody much likes the author. Zoe Heller writes the following in the NYRB : “A man living under threat of death for nine years is not to be blamed for occasionally characterizing his plight in…
Naked and “unaccommodated” on a storm-shaken heath, Lear comes to see his failures as a king: “Poor naked wretches, whereso’er you are, / That bide the pelting of this pitiless storm, / How shall your houseless heads and unfed sides, / Your loop’d and window’d raggedness, defend you / From…
In a 2003 article in Perspectives in Religious Studies , Jason Whitlark gives this sharp summary of the classical Greek linkage between charis (grace) and reciprocity: “(1) Charis’s contextual environment was one of reciprocity, not only among humans but also with the gods. (2) Charis was often merited by the…
At the beginning of his treatise on sacrifice, Lucian satirizes a commercialized view of religious rites: “With the Gods, clearly, nothing goes for nothing. Each blessing has its price. Health is to be had, say, for a calf; wealth, for a couple of yoke of oxen; a kingdom, for a…
Tri-City Covenant Church in Somersworth, New Hampshire has been blessed throughout her forty year history by the support and encouragement of the leadership of Trinity Institute. The teaching ministries of the Trinity ministers have provided foundational Biblical teaching to our church and we look forward to supporting this new consolidated…
What is Jesus announcing when He announces the coming of the kingdom of God? It’s hard to come up with a concrete answer, an answer that keeps its feet on the ground. Let me propose: The kingdom of God is a new pattern of giving and gratitude, of sharing and…
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