Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Failure of the Church Yet a third factor played an important role in this historical development, in addition to the imperial adoption of icons and the rise of the icons of the holy man. Brown writes: "The great Christian basilicas of the previous centuries tended to stand empty, except…
The three large patriarchal narratives of Genesis concern the three aspects of the cosmos: matter, space, and time. Over these three is man given dominion. Lucifer was originally appointed to train man in this dominion, but he chose to lead man into rebellion instead. Thus, the Angel of Yahweh replaced…
Part 6: Living in a Dying World (continued) The "Trivium" (continued) The five stages of education are simply the five stages of the covenant as God administers it in human life and history, and in the liturgy of covenant renewal: First, God announces Himself. "I am Yahweh Your God." He…
The following essay is tentative and exploratory, offered for your consideration. It seems to me that the ritual of the Ascension Offering (incorrectly translated as Burnt Offering) of Leviticus 1 is a symbolic recapitulation of Genesis 1, which thereby portrays the sacrificial ritual as way of moving from a fallen…
Just as the vast majority of evangelical Christians in America today are Arminian and Baptist, so the vast majority do not believe in a creation around 4000 BC. I don’t expect any of these three situations to change anytime soon. Powerful presuppositions are at work in all three instances, along…
The Iconoclastic Controversy Continuing Pagan Influence How did images creep in? To begin with, there was in the post-Constantinian Church a concerted effort on the part of the semi-pagans to interpret Christianity in essentially pantheistic terms. The heretics put God and man on a continuum of "being," so that God…
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For aspiring writers, I offer five key stages of writing a book. My plan applies best to non-fiction. Fiction, I’m sure, has its own rhythms. Stage 1: Ambition. You want to write the definitive yet wildly popular book about everything. This stage is marked by long periods of dreamy reflection,…
Writing about the church of England’s rejection of female bishops in The New Yorker , Jane Kramer notes that “there are already calls for the disestablishment of the Church of England.” She doesn’t see that as a realistic possibility, but does think that there will be consequences: “there is some…
“Though He slay me, I will hope in Him,” Job says (13:15). But hope is not inconsistent with complaint. In hope, “I will argue my ways to His face,” he immediately adds. Job argues with the Lord not in spite of hope, but because of hope. He’s like an attorney…
I’ve argued in various contexts that the sheer existence of the church forces a choice on political powers. They can try to suppress the church, they can accommodate and make room, they can try to bound off the church and keep it safely private. But once the church exists, and…
In his contribution to The Word Leaps the Gap: Essays on Scripture and Theology in Honor of Richard B. Hays , John Barclay highlights the creativity of Paul’s notion of reciprocity in the church. Reciprocity as Paul conceives it “has the capacity to complicate power relations, and to work against…
Residing as we do in a monetary economy, we immediately and thoughtlessly translate biblical warnings and cautions about debt into financial terms. “Owe nothing to anyone” (Romans 13:8) means “don’t take out a thirty-year mortgage.” It’s much more likely that Paul has social debts in mind. This might include indebtedness…
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