Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
First John 5.16-17: If anyone sees his brother committing a sin not leading to death, he shall ask, and God will give him life–to those who commit sins that do not lead to death. There is sin that leads to death; I do not say that one should pray for…
A few years back I read Lesslie Newbigin’s little book Truth and Authority in Modernity . 1 I was particularly impressed with his argument in chapter 2 “The Mediation of Divine Authority.” Now, maybe this is old hat to many of you, but I don’t think I’ve ever heard it…
Baptism is not Christian circumcision. There’s a lot of loose talk to that effect in Presbyterian circles; but it’s not accurate. The old world rite of circumcision was fulfilled in the death and resurrection of Jesus. Baptism unites us to Christ and therefore makes us participate in the circumcision of…
In recent years I’ve observed a number of Reformed-type churches trying to institute corporate handraising in certain sung parts of worship. This often does not seem to work very well. Some people don’t do it. Some do it half-way. Some do it with one hand. Some dramatically stretch to the…
Most modern scholars recognize that behind Arius’s campaign to differentiate Jesus from God was the Hellenistic theological conviction that the high God cannot suffer. Rowan Williams argues that Arius had the right idea about divine suffering, but the wrong idea of God, which “puts the unavoidable question of what the…
Charismatics have been much maligned for constantly “praising the Lord.” They would say if you hit your finger with a hammer, you should instantly say, “Thank you Jesus that You let me hit my finger…” This of course, as we all know, is stupid. There was once a lady who…
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Jeannine Verdes-Leroux doesn't like Pierre Bourdieu, not one bit. In her Deconstructing Pierre Bourdieu , she calls him of offering a “con-artist's sociology” (22), a lazy evidence-free sociology based more on Bourdieu's personal experience than on research. Some of her complaints could be lodged against any number of intellectuals. Does…
In Making Good , Trevor Hart summarizes an earlier vision of artistry as craftsmanship: “a human activity of skilled making or forming” (22), and unpacks several dimensions of this definition. Craft is not “a mode of ‘making' linked primarily to the realization or gratification of an artist's burning individual vision…
Revelation 20 - the millennium prophecy - is divided into four sections with the repeated phrase “and I saw” (vv. 1, 4, 11, 12). The first section, verses 1-3, forms a neat chiasm of its own: A. Angel from heaven with key and chain, v. 1 B. Satan bound for…
Revelation 21:7-8 is set up as a chiasm: A. It is done. B. I am Alpha and Omega, beginning and end. C. I give water to the thirsty. D. Those who overcome will inherit these things and be sons. C'. Cowardly, etc. B'. Have share in the lake of fire.…
Michel Faber's 2014 novel, The Book of Strange New Things , may be the first of a new subgenre: The intergalactic epistolary novel. Syfy meets Pamela . Pastor Peter Leigh has been chosen by the mysterious USIC corporation for a unique mission - to serve as spiritual leader to the…
Every society has some over-arching religious structure, Will Herberg argues, echoing many social scientists ( Protestant, Catholic, Jew , 87-90). What unites Americans is clearly not our particular religious creeds. Rather, it is what Herberg calls the “American Way of Life.” He offers this splendid description: “It would be the…
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