Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Continuing through The Worship of the English Puritans by Horton Davies: The author gives some of his own appraisals rather than immediately quoting Durel, even though that is how he began his chapter. In Davies’ opinion, while the Puritans would invoke their own interpretation of Scripture in order to condemn,…
What follows are from a couple of posts on my blog. I hoped to do a series. If I do follow up, I will probably want to do it here on the BH blog rather than my own. Feedback welcome: It is no secret that some have been scathingly critical…
Jeremy Sexton wrote this in an earlier line of discussion: “Along those lines, I think what we most often miss in our theology of baptism (though Calvin didn’t miss this) is that Christian baptism — if it “is” anything that came before — is Jesus’ water baptism. In our baptism,…
Jeff pointed out that baptism is not Christian circumcision . Looking at the comments, I think it might be helpful to point out that Israel was not the Church . In the new creation, the idea of an “unbaptized Christian” is either very temporary or an anomaly. Those who came…
Once a upon a time, one Sunday morning, a pastor mounted his pulpit for the sermon and said the following: A troubled young man walked into a downtown high-rise building. As he approached the directory on the wall, he took out a small booklet and looked back and forth from…
If you are, say, leading a Bible study in Genesis, you might notice that right after the covenant is renewed and circumcision is established (ch 17) that we see Abraham eating and drinking with God (ch 18). After that meal, God makes a point of saying the he should share…
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I’ve summarized some of David W. Noble’s analysis of Moby Dick ( The Eternal Adam and the New World Garden ) in the past, but the notes below highlight Noble’s take on the religio-political themes of Melville’s novel. Ishmael, he notes, begins the novel looking for redemption in the sea.…
Tertullian ( Against Marcion , 4.16) offers an interesting explanation of the consistency of Jesus’ teaching with that of the lex talionis : “He who counselled that an injury should be forgotten, was still more likely to counsel the patient endurance of it. But then, when He said. ‘Vengeance is…
Catherine Pickstock, describing view of modern Catholic liturgical reformers, writes, “The mediaeval Latin liturgy seemed to consist in disorienting ambiguous overlappings between the stages of advance toward the altar of God, and a lack of clarity in the identification of the worshipers and the priest. Its repeated rites of purification…
The name “Mass” comes from the final dismissal: Ite, missa est: Go, it is a dismissal. Jungmann explains: “it is puzzling indeed that, as a matter of fact, it has been designated by a separating , a going apart . Such, however, appears to be the case in regard to…
In his recent Worship as a Revelation , Laurence Hemming rightly says that the early church took its liturgical cues from the temple (citing Margaret Barker’s books). But then he adds: Not only because of persecution, but also because “what was so sacred was not to be publicly spoken of…
New Testament metaphors of the church-as-temple are often confusing because they envision a growing building, a building that acts a lot like an organic body: “growing into a holy temple in the Lord” (Ephesians 2:21); “living stones” (1 Peter 2:5). The conflation of organic and architectural imagery has an Old…
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