Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
We lost Crimea. That is very clear. Putin proved he was not lying when he said he would place women and children ahead of his soldiers to storm Ukrainian military bases. Russian soldiers did exactly that with women (some who volunteered and some who were forced). Russia now occupies all…
Sound is an indicator of life and energy. “Sound signals the present use of power, since sound must be in active production to exist at all.” Things don’t have to be alive to make themselves visible, and “a primitive hunter can see, feel, smell, and taste an elephant when the…
In the most famous section of his best-known novel, Dostoevsky’s Ivan Karamazov brings forward his case against God. He opens with a horrific litany of outrages against children. Turkish soldiers make a baby laugh and then shoot a pistol into his face. A little girl is beaten, thrashed, kicked by…
At the heart of Esther Lightcap Meek's splendid Little Manual for Knowing is a concept she picked up from Michael Polanyi, "subsidiary-focal integration." The concept begins from the insight that all our knowing, all our experience, is double. We focus on something, but we are capable of "indwelling" that focal…
Jesus promises the overcomers of Pergamum "hidden manna" and a "white stone." The hidden manna is often linked with the manna stashed away in the ark of the covenant. The white stone has proved more elusive. Exodus tells us that manna was white (Exodus 16:31) and like bdellium (Numbers 11:7),…
Leviticus 23 begins with a reference to “Yahweh’s appointed times” ( mo’ade-YHWH ). Mo’ed is the common term for the feasts of Israel. A few dimensions to this term. First, it means “appointed time” or “designated time.” It is a time set by Yahweh. Yahweh has claimed certain times as…
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In the “how other people live” category: Hernando de Soto ( The Mystery of Capital: Why Capitalism Triumphs in the West and Fails Everywhere Else ) argues that the key obstacle to Third World prosperity is the invisibility of their assets, and the assets are invisible because property rights are…
How do we sense objects?  Our instincts tell us that objects are just there, waiting for us to come along to sense them. Augustine’s instincts were otherwise.  He admitted that “the sense does not proceed from the body that is seen but from the body of the sentient living being…
Augustine’s trinitarian account of love is often understood as a purely formal correspondence: Love requires three - the lover, the beloved, and the love itself - and, whaddya know?, there are three Persons in the God who is love. Augustine sometimes sounds like that: “Love means loving and something loved…
“Classical theism” is supposed to have given us a static, immobile God. On the contrary: One of Athanasius’ central complaints against the Arians is that they denied the inherent fruitfulness, generative power, and creativity of God.  If the Son is not eternal, “proper” to the essenceof the Father, then the…
INTRODUCTION Jesus goes to a garden to reverse Adam’s sin.  Instead of seizing fruit, the Last Adam submits to His Father and drinks the cup.  In the end, all His helpers – His Eve – flee, and He is left alone to face His accusers. THE TEXT “Then Jesus said…
When Jesus announces the betrayal by Judas at the Passover, He alludes to Psalm 41:9.  The one who dipped his hand with me in the dish, Jesus says, betrays Him; centuries earlier, David had written, “My close friend, in whom I trusted, who ate my bread, has lifted up his…
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