Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
What happens at the Table of the Lord? If Christ is really present, then how is this so? The witness of the Church throughout history has been that Christ is present in the Eucharist through the operation of the Holy Spirit, and in the practice of the Church, prayers at…
In the power of the Spirit, the gospel forms a society in which there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, a society that is characterized by unity, long-suffering, patience; love. The gospel forms a culture whose participants do not steal but labor and give, who are not angry…
At the 1997 Biblical Horizons Summer Conference, the Rev. Jeffrey Meyers presented a series of remarkable lectures on the gospel of Mark. Among his many insightful comments, he suggested that the second gospel continues where the first gospel ends; Matthew ends with Jesus saying "Go" (Matthew 28:19), and Mark’s shows…
On October 25 at Avondale Brewery , Theopolis will be co-sponsoring the 2nd Annual Birmingham Life and Culture Series. This year's event will feature author Joseph Bottum. Joseph is known for his writings on literary criticism, religion, and his short stories. Essayist and reviewer Mary Eberstadt has said that "his…
One of the curiosities of the New Testament revelation is its focus on Galilee. The region of Galilee was given to Asher, Zebulun, Naphtali, and Issachar, and the events of Judges 4-8 occurred there, so it had some importance in Israelite history. But when the tribe of Ephraim led the…
In a recent post , Ian Paul discusses the practice of allegorical interpretation, reflecting in particular upon a conversation he had with someone concerning the reading of the story of Rahab. Paul’s interlocutor argued strongly for an allegorical reading of the Rahab story, writing: “Joshua is a type of Christ…
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Biblical writers often use "text painting": the form of the text portrays the topic of the text. The first half of the flood narrative describes the rising waters, steadily raising the ark toward heaven. The second half describes the descending waters. At the center: "Yahweh remembered Noah" (Genesis 8:1). Rise,…
A response to Jordan Ballor’s review of my Creator , which was published at Acton.org on August 12. 1. Ballor says that, to avoid pantheism or panentheism, God’s identity as creator must be “relative, secondary, or conditional.” He rightly says that I argue the opposite: “God is Creator” is the…
Jonathan Edwards didn’t think the world is a machine. At the heart of the mechanistic interpretation of Newtonian physics, he discerned, was the notion that “bodies” are (in Robert Jenson’s words) “the sort of thing that either can or cannot act ‘properly by themselves.’” The mechanistic world picture involved an…
Joshua Jipp argues that Paul's Areopagus address contains both critique and propaganda, critique of Athenian superstition, lust for novelty, and idolatry, and propaganda in favor of Christian faith as a more consistent fulfillment of the aspirations of Hellenistic philosophical theology. Much of the critique, Jipp shows, is drawn from Isaiah's…
Cobbling together some notes for a lecture series, I was reminded of Seamus Heaney's little poem, " Anahorish ." The Gaelic name means “place of clear water,” as the first line indicates, and the etymology suggests a place of purity and innocence. Anahorish was near Heaney’s childhood home in County…
In an article in the Harvard Law Review from the early 1980s, Robert cover explores the relation of legal structure and narrative. His analysis has wide-ranging legal, political, and even theological import. Cover states the thesis early: We live in “normative universes,” social worlds that distinguish between right and wrong,…
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