Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Place names become fraught with meaning by association with people and events. The name “Wittenberg” calls to mind Luther and the Reformation for Protestants and Catholics alike. Geneva has a wider range of associations, but the Reformation Wall, with its four main statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza,…
“…a mystery without a solution, a horror story without savagery, a nightmare in which all the watches stop at noonday…” The Bestial Gardens of Men Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (Luke 23:30) The following lines by Edgar Allan Poe,…
2 Samuel 11-12, which record David’s sin with Bathsheba and its aftermath, is structured chiastically: This arrangement highlights several things about the episode. It reinforces what is obvious from even a casual reading, that the transition in the story occurs with Nathan’s confrontation of David’s sin and David’s confession. Up…
Medieval bestiaries are packed with quaintly inaccurate information about animals, birds, and other created things. Foxes and snakes are devilish critters; stags, pelicans and elephants are Christlike in their various ways. Of course, the medievals picked this up from the Bible, where bestiary observations are fairly common. “Go to the…
What do Reformational Catholicism and craft beer have in common? The question seems to beg for a punchline. Better yet, it would be pretty good clickbait for an article on Katharina von Bora’s “spirited” contribution that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. Well, this is no joke and I am certainly…
Suffering Defined Suffering happens. We witness it all around us and experience it in our lives. It often comes from forces beyond our control. Suffering is inscrutable; it strikes unexpectedly, on a bright summer day or a cold winter night. We lament and are bewildered by suffering. But we are…
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As Markus Barth saw it, Bultmann was Protestant accommodation gone to seed: “Bultmann’s conception rests on the thesis that visible miracles (signs) are only a concession to man’s weakness, and that the appearances of the risen Christ are, likewise, a concession to the weakness of the Apostles. But . .…
In his commentary on the Sentences, Thomas says that “The science [of theology] develops from these first principles [of faith] and also includes the universal [natural] principles. It possesses no means to prove them, but only to defend them against detractors.” It’s the comparison that’s arresting: “Just as no artist…
My son had a dream last night. There was some mayhem and some police action, and the dream ended with him hearing a police siren. He woke up and his alarm was going off. What happened? Two possibilities, as far as I can see. The first is that he had…
When Rebekah sends her younger son to her husband, she clothes him in goat skins (Genesis 27:15-16). To this point in Genesis, the only other people to be clothed were Adam and Eve, clothed with skins as they left Eden (3:21). Rebekah stands in the place of Yahweh to “invest”…
Leviticus 8-9 are organized by repetition of phrases about Yahweh’s commandments. Everything in the ordination rite is done “as Yahweh commanded Moses” (8:5, 9, 13, 17, 21, 29, 36; 9:6, 7, 10, 21). It works: When Israel does as Yahweh commands, the glory appears and eats the ascension and the…
Evan Almighty is amusing in spots, but often cheesy, preachy, and predictable. But it does have one of the best put-downs of liberal theology I’ve seen anywhere. On God’s instructions, Evan Baxter has built a gigantic ark in the empty lots near his new DC-area home, endured the ridicule of…
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