Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The resurrection stories in Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are among the strangest stories in all of the literature of the world, even among the strangest stories in the Bible. That is true of each Gospel’s accounts individually, but even more of the collection as a whole. On the one…
As a pastor, I’m interested in discipleship. Christians are called to be disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ. Discipleship has everything to do with the disciplines we walk by in our lives. Things like Bible reading, prayer, and fasting are hallmarks of standard Christian discipleship. The basic thrust is that…
Psalm 1 is justly famous among biblical texts. It opens the Psalter, it’s a paean to the life-giving power of the Law, and it beautifully describes righteous life as a stable, fruitful tree. It subtly weaves the contrasting threads of wickedness and righteousness into a succinct summary of biblical wisdom:…
No book is more quoted in Hebrews than the Psalter: there are quotations and allusions to psalms on virtually every page. And many of the quotations are not passing references but closely considered and repeatedly cited as the author of Hebrews develops his central arguments. Much of Hebrews is exposition…
Howard Bloom is a beautiful hypocrite. The author of books in as different subjects as Mohammed, scientific theory, and the cultural upheaval of the 1960s, he professes to be a “stone cold atheist.” Yet in spite of that profession, Bloom obviously writes as a Jew; that is, he writes with…
There may be some debate about who deserves the title “the King of American literature,” but, at least to my mind, there should be no debate over who deserves to be “the Queen” – let’s give the crown to Flannery O’Connor. She is, however, a very unlikely queen. Unlikely, not…
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Athanasius points out to Marcellinus that the Psalms cover every “eventuality.”  They are a mirror of the soul because they are a mirror of human experience - of suffering, of desperation, of exultation, of thanksgiving, of prosperity, of adversity, of garden and wilderness, of isolation and communion, and on and…
No one would dare, Athanasius writes to Marcellinus, to take the words of the patriarchs, or Moses, or the prophets as his own.  No one would dare imitate the prophets by saying “As the Lord lives, before whom I stand today.” The Psalms are different.  When someone reads, hears, chants,…
Paul ends 1 Corinthians (16:22) with a neat chiastic sign-off.  Anyone who does not love the Lord is declared “accursed” ( anathema ) and Paul follows this with the cry of maranatha (“the Lord comes”).  Anath-ma/mar-anatha . Substantively, it is a striking phrase.   Anathema speaks a harsh word of…
In his superb introduction to the New City Press edition of  Augustine’s de Trinitate ( Trinity, The (Works of Saint Augustine A Translation for the 21st Century) ), Edmund Hill offers a chiastic outline of the treatise: 1. Introduction, 1 2. Divine missions: exegetical, 2-4 3. Trinitarian language: philosophical, 5-7…
In Epistle 11, Augustine attempts to explain an apparent contradiction in the Catholic faith.  On the one hand, all of God does all that God does, since the Persons of the Trinity are inseparable and act inseparably: “For the union of Persons in the Trinity is in the Catholic faith set forth and believed, and…
David Garland comments that the first part of Matthew’s Passion narrative (26:2-56) begins with the plot of the priests and elders and then is divided into six scenes: 1. Anointing for burial, 26:6-13 2. Judas’ betrayal, 26:14-15 3. Preparation for Passover, 26:17-19 4. Last Supper, 26:20-30 5. Prediction that the…
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