Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Notwithstanding she shall be saved in childbearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with sobriety. (1 Timothy 2:15) Years ago, the wife of a prominent American theologian recognized that even in Christian circles mothers were under a kind of social pressure to justify the worthwhileness of their…
I caught my five year old washing his hands again. He had already washed them several times that hour, so I asked him if he was okay. He told me he didn’t want to get “the virus”. That was before I had told him anything about coronavirus, but we did…
Very early in life, I developed the habit of walking and thinking and meditating. I came from a rather strict home, and the only way I could get out of the house at night was to walk the dog. So, I did. I would walk the dog for miles and…
From lightning and tempest; from plague, pestilence, and famine; from battle and murder, and from sudden death, Good Lord, deliver us. The Fourth Deprecation from Thomas Cranmer's 1544 Litany 1 A deprecation, such as that above, is a prayer to be spared from disaster, its Latin root deprecari meaning to…
In the previous essay in this series, we saw that Jesus’ words about coming on the clouds were spoken on more than one occasion, first to the disciples on the Mount of Olives (Matthew 24:30; Mark 11:36; Luke 21:27), then, a few days later, to the high priest and Jewish…
The following is excerpted from an essay first published at Church Life Journal . We are grateful to the editors for permission to repost here. The word “science” at its root means “to know” and the word “theology” at its root means “to think about God.” Can we know anything…
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It’s common to compare baptism to marriage. But it’s not often recognized that the image is a biblical one. In expounding on the marriage analogy at the beginning of Romans 7, N.T. Wright ( Paul and the Faithfulness of God , 892-3) notes the link back to the baptism exhortation…
The TLS review of Vladimir Nabokov’s letters to his wife during her stay in an asylum ( Letters to Vera ) has some stunning passages. Nabokov can’t keep himself from writing poetry, even in ephemeral letters (or, was he writing in anticipation of future publication?). He describes a “charming borzoi”…
Starting today, November 4, 2014, Trinity House Institute of Birmingham, Alabama, takes a new name, the Theopolis Institute . The Theopolis Institute trains pastors and Christian leaders through intensive courses in biblical theology and liturgics, encourages unity in the church with its ecumenical Nevin Lecture series, and advances theological scholarship…
John sees demonic scorpions released from the abyss (Revelation 9). The description is intricately structured. Verse 5 gives an initial description of the scorpions: 1) Torment for five months 2) Torment of scorpions 3) Sting Verse 10 recapitulates this description in nearly exact reverse order: 1) Tails like scorpions 2)…
An Alex Ross New Yorker review of several recent books on Beethoven stresses the mark he left not only “on all subsequent composers” but on “entire institutions. The professional orchestra arose, in large measure, as a vehicle for the incessant performance of Beethoven’s symphonies. The art of conducting emerged in…
Wonder Woman is the subject of a lot of solemn discussion recently, pushed into highbrow prominence by Jill Lepore’s Secret History of Wonder Woman . According to Katha Pollitt’s NYTBR review, Lepore’s book highlights the setting for the creators of the comic, William Moulton Marston, his wife Elizabeth Holloway, and…
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