Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
[This essay was originally published in 1988. Given the situation that our new national socialists are getting the world into, I thought it might be useful to reprint it here. – JBJordan] The Bible has quite a bit to say about gold, silver, and precious stones, and the Bible always…
I wrote this elsewhere and was encouraged to put it here. It is a comment on what a pastor is. Today, this is not very well understood, and God’s people suffer because of it. There are four professions: medicine, education, law, and religion. Each of these, when done at a…
James Jordan recently pointed out in private conversation how appropriate it is, in John’s Gospel, that Nicodemus is present both to ask Jesus about being born again, and to see Jesus re-enter the womb of the mother. Nicodemus rhetorically asks, “How can a man be born when he is old?…
This is a problematic and much discussed passage. I’ve been discussing it in another forum, and have decided to move it here and present some very preliminary observations about it. One large question is this: Who is the speaker here and what is his situation? Traditionally, the speaker is seen…
1. The current issue of The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction includes a good fantasy novella by John C. Wright, who since his conversion has been writing Christianly. This is a fine fantasy with nods to C. S. Lewis and Antoine de Saint-Exupery, and probably Gene Wolfe as well.…
“It is an experience of our days that the spoken name of Jesus alone exercises an unforeseen power; and the effort which it cost to speak this name is perhaps connected to some faint apprehension of the power which is inherent within it. Wherever the name of Jesus Christ is…
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Charon Ross offers a brilliant analysis of rock concerts as ecstatic experiences ( Gifts Glittering and Poisoned , 132-4). The concert is a carefully orchestrated symbolic constellation “designed to enable the spectator to have experiences of ecstasy so wonderful and powerful that they are difficult to capture with words. Euphoria…
What Do Pictures Want? seems an odd title for a book on picture theory. WJT Mitchell intends his title to highlight the “double consciousness” that we have toward images. “why is it that people have such strange attitudes toward images, objects, and media? Why do they behave as if pictures…
Detached from the Eucharistic liturgy, preaching is at sea. Preachers announce the gospel and call our people to faith. We also want to give them something to do. There are dangers on both sides: We may so much emphasize the grace of God that we provide sophisticated excuses for passivity…
A year ago, Sarah Ditum wrote a piece for The New Statesman that compared abortion with organ donation, pointing out that the demands on a pregnant woman's body are far greater than the demands laid on organ donors: “giving away a bagful of gore or a chunk of liver that…
According to Fintan O'Toole's NYRB review , James Shapiro's The Year of Lear helps to unravel some of the mysteries of that most haunting of Shakespeare's tragedies. O'Toole nicely captures why the play is so haunting: “King Lear is not apocalyptic, it is far worse. Instead of deserved damnation and…
Geert Buelens's Everything To Nothing offers a European-wide review of the poets writing before and during World War I. It is a tour de force , recalling forgotten poets to vivid life and setting better-known poets in a new European context. The poets, he argues, were not only observers but…
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