Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
While controversies over the writings of Paul continue in various corners of the intellectual globe, the word of God given through Paul and his scribe and all of the church’s interpreters and translators over the last two millennia is still readily available to the lofty and the lowly. Paul, as…
The second in a series of studies in Deuteronomy. Deuteronomy 22:30: A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s wing (Hebrew: kanaf ). There are a number of unusual features in this law that mark it out from the previous context, indicating that it…
The texts of Christianity have been slowly at work, under the power of the Holy Spirit for 2000 years now. If we could be magically transported back into the world of two millennia ago, modern Americans would be shocked at the cruelty of that world. There was no concern for…
The Story of the Gadarene Madman is told in all three synoptic Gospels (Matthew 8:28-34, Mark 5:1-20, Luke 8:26-37). Jesus ventures into a Gentile area when He passes over the Sea of Galilee. Upon disembarking from his boat, he is immediately met by a demon-possessed madman. Upon meeting Jesus, he…
Part 1 of a multi-part series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. Eric Auerbach, in his classic work on Western literature, devotes his first chapter to contrasting Homer with the Bible. Of Homer, he writes of the “need of Homeric style to leave nothing which it mentions half in darkness and…
Trinity House Fellow James B. Jordan will be a speaker at an International Conference on Biblical Symbolism that will be held in Seoul on Monday, May 27 in 2013. He will address "The Importance of Biblical Symbolism and Symbolic Interpretation of the Bible." The conference will have three other speakers…
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God rests from his labor because He has completed it ( kalah , used in Genesis 2:1-2). He rests because there’s no more to do. Yahweh’s rest is satisfaction in work done, work that He pronounces “very good.” The rest God enters isn’t simply cessation, but satisfaction, happiness, completion. Reformed…
Andrew Kuiper offers a superb, exhilarating summary of Sergei Bulgakov’s Philosophy of Economy . Kuiper begins by summarizing Bulgakov’s case against “economism,” the assumption shared by free marketeers and Marxists that human beings are motivated above all by economic drives. For both, man is homo economicus . Bulgakov had read…
The description of the rite of the ascension offering for herd-animals (Leviticus 1:3-9) includes twelve verbs that describe distinct actions. Verse 3 uses the verb qarav (come near; bring near in hiphil) twice, but these two uses describe the same action, namely, bringing an animal near to the tent for…
Terry Eagleton's sharp critique of Rene Girard ( Radical Sacrifice , 54-58) is worth a look, especially for those (like me) who appreciate Girard. For starters, Eagleton points to the discrepancy between Girard and "the clear endorsement of sacrifice to be found in Hebrews." In fact, Girard "issues a stern…
My recommendation to theologians: Be un-professional. That, I suspect, requires some clarification. I don’t mean, “Be sloppy” or “Be rude” or “Be vulgar.” I mean that theologians must resist the deadening pressures of professionalization. Jeff Schmidt’s Disciplined Minds examines these pressures, and the conformists that these pressures produce. Professionalization rewards…
In his recent collection of Essays, Slouching Toward Utopia , George Schialabba summarizes the work of Ivan Illich, including Illich's 1971 book, Deschooling Society . With that book, Illich entered a debate about the state of American schools, most of which centered on the disparity of resources between rich and…
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