Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Every attempt to understand the Christian sacraments makes use of comparisons or analogies with other rituals, events, or customs. Calvin and those who followed him, for example, spoke of the sacraments as “seals,” and compared them to the “seal of approval” that an official impresses on a document. Thinking about…
Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy has pointed out in his essay "Hitler and Israel, or On Prayer" (available for $2.00 from Biblical Horizons ) that it is God’s word "No!" that establishes in a culture the distinction between the Creator and the creature. The Bible repeatedly says "No!" to every human attempt to…
If you missed Gattaca at the movie theaters, you can probably check it out from your local video store now. And you should. This is one of those relatively rare thought-provoking movies that can stand being watched with brain in gear more than once. It is also poetic, sensitive, visually…
Part 4: The Nephilim Factor Western Civilization partakes of what I call "the Nephilim Factor." The Enoch Factor means that the pagans get there first. This is both a blessing and a danger. As a blessing, it means that they work out techniques of dominion over the lower creation that…
The Worship Service Then the one speaking with me took me by the hair and lifted me into the air in the middle of the great room. And as I watched, I saw people entering the room to the sound of the great bells outside. Then entered from all four…
Part 3: Philosophy (continued) If we realize that human beings are the images of God, and that man hates God, then we realize that all non-Christian political philosophy is founded on a fundamental hatred of other human beings, a hatred manifest in contempt. Rome, like Enoch, was founded on the…
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John's description of the harlot city (Revelation 17:4-5) that he sees in the wilderness is written in four clauses: She is clothed; she is gilded; she holds something in her hand; and she has a name on her forehead. These four clauses describe seven pieces of the harlot's attire and…
Robert Jenson grasps the attractions of antinomianism: “perhaps only on the edge of antinomianism does the true bite of the gospel appear” ( Ezekiel , 62). Yet Christians must stop short of the edge, because “falling over that edge is . . . the disaster of faith.” This is not…
When I published some articles on the German-American philosopher Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy (1888-1973) on the web a decade or more ago, I received an email from Norman Fiering, Director and Librarian Emeritus of the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University. A student of Rosenstock-Huessy’s at Dartmouth College during the 1950s,…
The verb porneuo and noun porneia are prominent themes in Revelation. Two of the seven churches of Asia are warned about factions that commit acts of immorality (2:14, 20), and the great harlot Babylon fornicates with the kings of the earth (17:2; 18:3, 9). The noun form, porneia , appears…
Not surprisingly, Robert Jenson spends a lot of time in his Brazos commentary on Ezekiel talking about Trinity and Christology and other topics that biblical scholars would tell him do not appear in Ezekiel's prophecy. He knows that his method will offend “the modern exegetical academy's chief dogma,” namely, the…
“Eschatology and violence are intrinsically connected,” writer Robert Jenson ( Ezekiel , 76). So much the worse for eschatology, one might say. It needs to be purged from Scripture and theology. The problem, Jenson says, is that when we purge the violence, “nothing is left” (76, fn 5). The violence…
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