Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Therefore, putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness, in humility receive the word implanted, which is able to save your souls (James 1:21). James hooks the different sections of his epistle together by using the same or a similar word at the close of one section and…
Deuteronomy 8 is organized as a new chiasm: A. Remember and do commandments, 8:1-2 B. Manna and clothing in the wilderness, 8:3-4 C. Know in your heart that Yahweh disciplined you, 8:5-6 D. The good land, 8:7-10 C'. Do not be proud in heart, 8:11-14 B'. Manna and water, 8:15-17…
Should we use the category of "nature" in our theology? Start, as ever, with some Bible-thumpin': If someone were to construct a "metaphysics" or view of reality from the Bible alone, the category of nature would not be a prominent one. Here and there, the Bible uses this word and…
The doctrine of the Trinity is woven into our worship every week. We are called to worship in the Name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit. We confess the Trinity in the Nicene Creed. We are blessed in the Name of the Trinity. Pervasive as it is, the…
Eight students from five states and seven different churches attended the Trinity Term course, our first intensive course for the 2014-15 year. Two pastors were in the class, along with five pastoral students and one layman. James Jordan lectured through the book of Genesis, and Peter Leithart added several lectures…
The world seems to be coming apart at the seams. A jihadist uploads a video showing an American journalist being beheaded. Ferguson, Missouri, endures night after night of demonstrations that turn into vandalism. Russia is meddling with Ukraine, ISIS is on the move in the Middle East, illegal immigrants (we're…
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A web summary of Lacan’s negative account of desire says, “In constructing our fantasy-version of reality, we establish coordinates for our desire; we situate both ourselves and our object of desire, as well as the relation between. As Slavoj Zizek puts it, ’ through fantasy, we learn how to desire’…
“I am my beloved’s, and his desire is for me,” says the bride in the Song of Songs (7:10). “Desire” is the same word used in Genesis 3:16 and 4:7, both of which describe a desire for authority, domination, rule, a threatening desire.  The bridegroom of the Song reverses the…
We’re all deists.  The design of the universe shows that a Great Intelligent Something is responsible for it. No, says Athanasius.  The design of the universe is the impress of eternal wisdom on the creation.  The cunning of creation doesn’t manifest “God,” but eternal creative Wisdom, the eternal Word, whose…
Thomas writes that “to signify something by words or merely by the construction of images . . . yields nothing but the literal sense” and “poetic images refer to something other than themselves only so as to signify them; and so a signification of that sort goes no way beyond…
Denys Turner notes that the Song of Songs presented challenges to the “minority” of medieval theologians who argued for a more rigorous grounding of spiritual in literal senses.  For these, the text speaks literally, referring to specific events; and these events, as Thomas says, providentially typify future events. To qualify…
The distinction of image and likeness has been a common one in the history of theology, East and West, and in the West at least it overlaps with the nature/grace dualism.  Image for Bonventure “denotes a kind of ‘shape,’ that is, a quantitative feature of quality or a qualitative feature…
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