Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Understanding Shakespeare’s Biblical references is vital for the interpretation of many, if not all, of Shakespeare’s plays. For Othello , it is especially important, not only because the interpretation of the play is contested among various approaches — feminist, homosexual, post-colonial, Marxist, Freudian, new historical, and others — but also…
Mike Allen of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, scores some points in his review of The End of Protestantism . He lodges the fair complaint that my rhetoric sometimes outruns my evidence. He argues that more stress on the present reality of the church’s unity deepens the tragedy of division; divisions…
I begin with two observations. First, on any millennial view, the Christian account of history is progressive, moving from the garden to the city. It is eschatological not only in that there is an end, but that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. To…
The church is a new form of polity that erupts into the world as much as the Son of God comes into the world. It’s a real-world political alternative to the polities of the ancient world. It resolves many of the political dilemmas of the ancient world, though not simply…
In my last post , I explained how Baptists really have a “one-ordinance-one sacrament” ecclesiology. I said this: “what Baptists really believe, in modern parlance, is that there is one ordinance (baptism which is a sign or symbol only) and one sacrament (the Lord’s Supper in which feeding upon Jesus…
One of the most extensive and penetrating responses to the Yoder-Hauerwas attack on Constantiniansm is found in Oliver O’Donovan’s Desire of Nations , in a chapter entitled “The Obedience of Rulers.” O’Donovan defines the word “Christendom” as “a historical idea,” specifically “the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order,…
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The figure on the white horse in Revelation 19:11-16 is identified as the “Word of God” (v. 13) and as King of kings and Lord of lords (v. 16). This is the eternal Word made flesh, now made warrior and king. This Word is no passive Word, but a militant,…
Jesus speaks His final words to John in Revelation 22:16: I Jesus sent my angel to witness to you these things in the churches. I am the root and offspring of David, the star, the dazzling one of morning. It's a beautifully composed verse. Jesus begins with an emphatic ego…
In case you missed Hannes Stein's 1999 First Things piece on the return of ancient gods: Don't. It's more relevant today than when it was published. A few highlights: After describing human sacrifice among the Aztecs, Stein points out: “The Aztecs were not exceptionally cruel; and only a fool would…
John Rankin submitted an amicus brief in Obergefell v. Hodges , and posted a version online. It's a rare instance of an effort to give an overtly biblical argument against same-sex marriage, one that is simultaneously grounded in the founding documents of the American system. The argument, in a nutshell,…
Revelation 19-21:8 functions as a literary unit, broken up into subunits by the phrase “and I heard” (19:1; 21:3) and “and I saw” (19:11, 17, 19; 20:1, 4, 11; 21:1, 2). There are ten sections in all. The two “hearing visions” frame the section. In 19:1, John hears the loud…
David Martin ( Tongues of Fire , 165) cites a study of Mexican Pentecostal healing that highlights the anti-modernity of the Pentecostal movement. Like black culture and partly because of it, Pentecostalism is characterized by “an emphasis on the spoken as much as the written; the ‘telling' of faith and…
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