Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
That there is something wrong with the world is obvious. It does not take much time or brilliance to notice it. Once we get the feeling that we could imagine a better world, we are tempted to fix it or, if we cannot, to escape it. For both the world-fixers…
“Our Father in heaven,” what is man that we should be called your sons and daughters, beloved children of God Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth, Yahweh of Hosts, the Ancient of Days. You are not a father preoccupied with work or engrossed in your smartphone; you are a present…
The Son of God took on human flesh and entered into the sin and suffering of our world. His life and teaching and suffering from His conception to His suffering on the cross teaches us a lot about how the good news enters into the world. Recently, I was teaching…
There is an unspoken rule about typology that permeates Evangelical thinking. It goes something like this: “If the New Testament authors don’t use an Old Testament character as a type, we don’t either.” There is a soundness in this reasoning, at least in a preliminary sense. There is no better…
In The world of Silence, Max Picard writes, “There does not seem to be any space left where there could possibly have been anything but noise. We take it for granted much as we take the air itself for granted. Everything begins and ends with noise.” Is it fair to…
God is Not There God is not in the book of Esther. Do a word search and you will get 0 results. Also try Lord, Yahweh, Prayer, Temple, or Sacrifice. Even names with God’s name in them, like Elijah, Jeremiah, or Daniel are missing. The fool says in his heart,…
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Stephen Holmes’s The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History and Modernity is a learned, sharp challenge to the “Trinitarian revival” of the 20th century. One of his central criticisms is that recent Trinitarian theology, in contrast to patristic theology, focuses almost exclusively on the New…
I’m still absorbing parts of NT Wright’s recent JSNT essay, “Paul and the Patriarch: The Role of Abraham in Romans 4.” A couple of his points are very compelling. First, he disputes what he calls a “customary” way of understanding Paul’s reference to “justification of the ungodly” in Romans 4:5.…
Since Deleuze’s Fold: Leibniz and the Baroque , the fold and its use in Baroque art, music, and philosophy have become a leading trope for postmodern thought and culture. Deleuze describes the significance of the Baroque in opposition to the clarity of Cartesian straight lines: “The Baroque refers not to…
Isaiah charges that the people of Judah ascend mountains to sacrifice sacrifices (57:7; lizboach zavach ). That’s normal: Every ancient people ascended toward heaven for worship. The furniture that Judah sets up on the mountain is, however, unusual. They set up a bed , not an altar, on the high…
In one of His most intense exchanges with His enemies, Jesus says that they “do the deeds of your father” in seeking to kill Jesus. He means that the devil is their father (John 8:39, 44). They protest that they are children of Abraham and sons of God (vv. 39,…
Isaiah condemns the people of Judah as “sons of a sorceress” (57:3). “Sorceress” translates ‘anan , which is derived from a verb “to cover” and sometimes refers to the gathering of clouds (Genesis 9:14). This particular form of the verb is typically used for the “dark arts” that take place…
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