Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The “second Reformation” introduced Reformed liturgy and teaching into Lutheran Germany. This was seen by some as a continuation of the Reformation and a purgation of Catholic remnants. The effort to carry on “further reformation” led to disputes with Lutherans. As Bodo Nischan has put it, the hottest debate in…
In J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century , Tom Shippey observes that Bilbo is a member of the middle class, a bourgeois. Bilbo does not have any servants, but his hole is “the home of a member of the Victorian upper-middle class of Tolkien’s nineteenth-century youth, full of…
Idolatry has deprived Israel of her senses. This was one of the early messages to Isaiah (Isaiah 6). Yahweh sent him out to a people who had been deprived of their senses because of their commitment to idols. They become like the idols they serve. They still have eyes, but…
In the current climate of Trinitarian discussion concerning personhood, it's good to reach back to David Bentley Hart's treatment of the subject in his wonderful Beauty of the Infinite . Hart addresses the dangers of misreading Rahner’s rule, namely, the danger of dissolving the ontological Trinity into the economic. In…
Chris Kou is the oldest son of Chinese immigrants. Chris and his brothers run a branding and marketing business, Imagineering, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In his spare time, he takes online courses from Reformed Theological Seminary, and aspires to be a pastor. Chris is also one of our…
The following was delivered as the Solemn Charge and Exhortation to Theopolis students beginning the Easter term course on Architecture and Liturgical Space . As we will be reminded repeatedly throughout the week, the Bible has a lot to say about building and buildings. Long stretches of Exodus, Kings, Chronicles,…
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The history of the Omrides during the ministry of Elisha takes a curious turn. Instead of confronting the king with his sin, as Elijah generally did, Elisha instead repeatedly gives assistance to the son of Ahab (2 Kings 3; 6-7). Jehoram wavers, sometimes whining, sometimes hostile to Elisha, ultimately respectful.…
Dothan is mentioned in only two places in the Old Testament: Gen 37, at the beginning of the Joseph narrative, and 2 Kings 6, the place where the Aramean king attempts to find Elisha. Jacob sends Joseph to take food to his brothers, and he initially does not find them…
Jacques Ellul helpfully points out that God frightens away the Arameans in 2 Kings 7 by a mere sound, and it is a sound that has no physical cause. God overcomes things that are, Ellul says, through things that are not.
A critical issue throughout 1-2 Kings is the question of who provides bread. Early on, it’s Solomon, whose table overflows with good things and who rules an Israel that is continuously rejoicing and feasting. Kings continue to supply tables after the division of the kingdom, but they are often tables…
Iain Provan points to two entertaining puns in the story of the siege of Samaria in 2 Kings 6-7. The first puns on “lepers” (Heb. MISORAIM) and “Egypt” (Heb. MIZRAIM): The Arameans become frightened by the sound of an army, thinkin that Egyptians are attacking; it’s only lepers, though, scrounging…
In his recent Concordia commentary on Leviticus, John Kleinig gives a good summary of what I think is the best explanation of the blood prohibtiion of Lev 17: “many animists regard blood as the most potent of all ritual substances. The blood of an animal was either drunk or, more…
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