Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek…
INTRODUCTION Though MSND is set in Athens, there is little in the play that is specifically Greek or Athenian. Theseus is ruling Athens, but he bears little similarity to the Theseus of Plutarch, and he is even anachronistically described as the ?Duke of Athens.?E Bottom and company have nothing Greek…
ELIZABETHANS AND GREECE Today, many view ancient Greece, and especially ancient Athens, as the fountainhead of Western civilization. This was not the case for medievals, who knew Greek literature in Latin translations. Though Chaucer set some of his works in ancient Greece (?The Knight?s Tale?E Troilus and Criseyde ), he…
Gilbert Highet has a wonderful chapter on translation in the Renaissance in his book, The Classical Tradition . He says that the first translation that we know of was made about 250 BC by the Greek-Roman poet Livius Andronicus, who translated the Odyssey into Latin. This was about the same…
I suggested in Against Christianity that worship can be understood as a sequence of postures: We kneel for confession, stand for absolution and service and to hear the word, sit enthroned to eat and drink in God’s presence, then stand to walk out for ministry. It occurs to me that…
Lk 9:10-17 The Lord?s Supper has been celebrated in many different ways through the centuries. In many churches, the people come forward and kneel to receive the elements. In the Roman Catholic church, the elevation of the Host has been nearly as important as the communion meal. Some Reformed churches…
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