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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Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) notes that in 1750, India and China account for "three-quarters of the world’s manufactures." The East's dominance collapsed over the following centuries: "On the eve of the First World War their share had dropped to just 7.5 per cent. Economic historians called…
Way back in 1997, Peter Berkowitz published a review of David Walsh's The Growth of the Liberal Soul . It's a notable title, since one of the charges of post-liberals is that liberalism has no soul. But Walsh's thesis is worth revisiting now that there is widespread questioning of the…
Mention the "public," and you're liable to be greeted with lamentation and hand-wringing. Citizenship isn't what it used to be. No one participates in public events any more. Once upon a time, we were active citizens. Now we bowl alone and we participate in public life only as passive spectators.…
The following summarizes the structural analysis of Isaiah found in David Dorsey's Literary Structyre of the Old Testament . Like most of the books of the Old Testament, Dorsey finds that Isaiah is organized in a sevenfold pattern: A.Condemnation, pleading, promise of future restoration, 1:1-12: B. Oracles to the nations,…
The king of Judah is panicked, and all Jerusalem with him (Isaiah 7). Judah has been invaded by the combined armies of Pekiah, King of Israel, and Rezin, King of Aram. They have come against Jerusalem and are besieging it, but they cannot conquer it. But they’ve spooked the whole…
Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) can't quite believe he's saying what he's saying. It feels like heresy, treason. How can a convinced liberal bring himself to talk about liberalism's retreat or demise? "To a person whose life has coincided with the rise of democracy, the spread of…
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