Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Where do we go from here? Depending on one’s perspective, the American story can plausibly be interpreted in different ways. Looked at from past to present , we can see a great deal of continuity from medieval Christendom and the Reformation to America’s founding. The War for Independence, after all,…
Click HERE for Part 1 Civic Religion: American or Christian? We have already traced out the basic contours of the shift in America from an ecclesiocentric, theocratic social order to a secular one. Building on Locke and Hobbes, the Enlightenment accomplished an astonishing coup of Christendom. That victory for the…
Author’s Introductory Note: Engaging in broad historical interpretation as I am about to do is always risky. Necessarily, one “stylizes” history by simplifying, over generalizing, and stereotyping. But the narrative qualities of history are not simply due to the imposition of human rationality upon brute facts; rather history is always…
A. Repentance to life involves endeavoring to believe real hard that you’re saved. reject infant baptism. stop watching Buffy the Vampire Slayer. walk with God in all the ways of his commandments. B. What is necessary so that no sinner may expect to be forgiven unless he does it? Only…
The machine works mechanically and it is flawless. Slander/libel a group of Presbyterian ministers as “Romanist” because robes and James 2 are no worse than praying to Mary or relying on purgatory to pay for unconfessed sins. Drive off anyone who disagrees. Of that number, there may be a tiny…
If we take as a starting point the Tribal / Monarchical / Empire model, we can then add to it the Late Empire Phase. The particular ‘marker sin’ of Empire is false intermarriage, which signifies pluralism and syncretism. Empires by definition are “cosmopolitan” dominated by cities, high culture, many cultures,…
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In his monograph on Divine Simplicity , Steven J. Duby discusses the relation between metaphysics and dogmatics. He writes, "In addition to Thomas's metaphysics, the metaphysical works of Bartholomaus Keckermann, Johann Alsted, and Johannes Maccovius provide guidance here. For Keckermann, metaphysics is 'the science of being [ entis ], or…
Wesley Bergen's Reading Ritual explores Leviticus through the lens of contemporary popular culture. Instead of treating Leviticus as "religious" ritual in opposition to daily life, he tries to de-de-familiarize Leviticus ritual by finding parallels with contemporary culture. In the first chapter, he examines the ritual dimensions of a meat-packing plant,…
In the third volume of his magisterial Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics , Richard Muller offers a helpful summary of pre-Reformation discussions of divine simplicity. Today, simplicity is making a comeback, taken as essential to orthodoxy. Muller's discussion is a healthy reminder that "the doctrine of divine simplicity has not always been…
In Can We Trust the Gospels? , Peter J. Williams, Principal at Tyndale House, Cambridge, doesn't aim to prove that the gospels are true. He wants to show rather that "they can be rationally trusted" (120). If successful, this demonstration is a big deal, as Williams says on the closing…
Literally, woodenly translated, the 9th Word is: "Thou shalt not answer ( 'anah ) with/against your neighbor a false witness." The verb 'anah is of interest, mainly because it is such an uninteresting word. Of the 300+ times it's used in the Old Testament, the KJV translates it as "answer"…
Children provide a test case for psychological and epistemological theories. Many theories fail: They do not suffer the little children to come to them. That's part of the point of Vasudevi Reddy's fascinating How Infants Know Minds . The title contains the thesis: Infants know other minds. They don't act…
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