Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
D. G. Hart’s The Lost Soul of American Protestantism vividly clarifies the differences between evangelical and Confessional Protestantism. In part the book is a manifesto for historians of American religion. Hart argues that historians of American Protestantism have operated with a simplistic binary contrast of evangelical/conservative v. liberal/progressive. At best,…
Dostoyevsky’s novel, The Idiot , like his other major works, is a complex evaluation of the human condition—a juxtaposition of the innate goodness and innate evil that resides within every human heart. There is much one can say about The Idiot . I am no specialist of Russian literature, or…
At risk of violating some secret handshake agreement on some important nuance to “natural law,” I will sum up what I understand in my own words. As far as I can tell natural law is supposed to be an area of knowledge that all people should be able to agree…
The first installment of this article may be found here . The Image of Man This brings us to a substitutionary atonement which we do understand, the fulfilment of the cruciform Tabernacle in the cross of Christ. Although Jesus’ execution was Physical and Social, it was primarily Personal . Beginning…
The first two essays in this series drew attention to the structure of the first part of Macbeth and to the way Shakespeare incorporates the Garden of Eden into his story. Macbeth , we saw, is a temptation story in which, compared to the Biblical story, the temptation itself is…
Revelation 19:6-9 Then I heard something like the voice of a great multitude and like the sound of many waters and like the sound of mighty peals of thunder, saying, “Hallelujah! For theLord our God, the Almighty, reigns. Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him,…
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The Servant comes, and the arm of the Lord is revealed (Isaiah 53:1). The Servant’s face and form are marred, stricken, pierced, crushed, chastened, scourged. It looks like the body that’s already there, the body of Israel: “Where will you be stricken again, as you continue in rebellion? The whole…
According to the NASB, Isaiah 53 says that the Servant has “no stately form ( to’ad ) or majesty ( hadar ) that we should look upon Him, nor appearance ( mar’eh ) that we should desire ( chamad ) Him” (v. 2). Two of those three terms appeared at…
Yahweh’s Servant prospers (or “deals prudently”), and so is raised, lifted, exalted greatly (Isaiah 52:13). But that exaltation is paradoxical, surprising, since the Servant that is lifted up is mangled and marred more than any of the sons of Adam (v. 14). The word translated as “astonished” ( shamem )…
The New Testament says several times that there is a day of accounting coming when all will be judged according to their deeds (Matthew 16:27; Romans 2:6; 2 Corinthians 5:10). In Romans 2 especially, this is an individual accounting: God “will render to every man according to his deeds” (Paul…
Self-obsessed egoism is not, Zizek argues ( Violence: Six Sideways Reflections ), the essence of evil, and the “true opposite of egotist self-love is not altruism, a concern for the common good, but envy, ressentiment , which makes me act against my own interest.” The true evil is (citing Freud)…
We are often told that we live in a “post-political” era or an era of “bio-politics.” Slavoj Zizek ( Violence: Six Sideways Reflections , 40-2) defines the post-political as “a politics which claims to leave behind old ideological struggles and instead focus on expert management and administration” and “bio-politics” as…
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