Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are. Much shorter. 100 hymns at most, let’s say. I imagine that this will be a hard one to swallow for most of my readers, so I will attempt to bolster my argument as best I can. I can’t think of any…
Joshua is never called a king in the Bible. Yet while lacking the title, Joshua possesses the trappings of biblical kingship to a degree that it seems warranted to consider him a royal figure. There are lots of reasons for thinking this. In a 1981 Journal of Biblical Literature article,…
God speaks. He is not silent. He has designed humanity for reception of such communication and also to speak on His behalf. This speaking is not simply happenstance. It is not just a curious quirk about humanity. It is intrinsic to who we are that we speak and shape the…
One evening, years ago, home from college for Christmas break, I dreamt that I was playing the piano, passionately and well, in the church sanctuary beneath the parsonage in the renovated mansion in rural New Hampshire where my father was the minister. It was something of a lucid dream because…
I’m a big worrier. Always have been. Some of my earliest memories are of being anxious to the point of getting sick, sometimes for trivial reasons. My mind moves a million miles a minute, wondering what will happen in 5 minutes, or tomorrow, or next week, or in ten years.…
“The sun had gone up on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD from heaven, and he devastated those cities and the whole valley and all those dwelling in the cities and the growth of…
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Yahweh does many things for the sake of His Name, to maintain a good reputation. This might sound self-focused, as if Yahweh were a particularly large version of the ancient hero. I think something like the opposite is the case. Yahweh shows mercy to Israel, refrains from judging them with…
Yahweh addresses Israel as the “house of Jacob” who is “named Israel” (Isaiah 48:1). They have Yahweh’s name in their mouths in oaths and commemorations (v. 1), but not in truth and righteousness. They have in fact become stiff-necked like the Hebrews who were brought from Egypt; they turn to…
INTRODUCTION Isaiah 48 closes out a section of the prophecy that began in chapter 40. It ends with the warning that “there is no peace for the wicked” (48:22), a warning echoed in 57:1 and again at the end of the book (66:22-24). THE TEXT “Hear this, O house of…
The genealogy of Levi is at the chiastic center of the genealogies of 1 Chronicles 1-9, and at the center of the genealogy of Levi is the description of the Levitical singers (1 Chronicles 6:31-32). Prior to this point, the genealogies move forward in time, from Levi to his sons…
In What Is Called Thinking? (14-15) Heidegger asks what it is that an apprentice cabinet maker learns from his master. He learns skills, but not only that. He gains useful information, but not only that either. Fundamentally, Heidegger says, the apprentice is supposed to learn to think , which means…
From Joseph Ratzinger in Communio: Vol. 1, The Unity of the Church (Ressourcement: Retrieval & Renewal in Catholic Thought) : “The true chance for ecumenism does not lie in revolt against the Church as it is, in a Christianity as free of the Church as possible, but in a deepening…
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