Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
For many people Christmas comes on December 25 and is over December 26. The tree is taken down along with the lights and the other decorations, and everyone begins setting the house in order for the new year. No more Christmas hymns. No more celebrations (well, until New Year’s Eve).…
The Ascension and the Incarnation should not be disconnected in our Christmas thinking or celebrations. As N.T. Wright notes, the ascension is "a central and vital feature without which all sorts of other things start to go demonstrably wrong. . . . where the ascension has been ignored or misunderstood,…
“In the Word was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness.” Thus John describes the incarnation of the Son. He comes as the living and life-giving light of the world. That’s good news. In the beginning, God spoke and light shone…
Christmas is all about Jesus. The angels announce Jesus’ birth, shepherds and wise men come to see Jesus, Herod wants to kill Jesus. We occasionally think of the Father who sent the Son, but we keep returning to the Son made flesh in Bethlehem’s manger. Meanwhile, as always, the Spirit…
Christmas is about many things, but one of the chief things revealed in the gospel of Christmas is the humility of God. We don't often think of humility as an attribute of God. If God is glorious and exalted, we think, He must be haughty and proud and self-centered. We…
John famously begins his Gospel with a piece of theology: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Matthew starts with a genealogy. John celebrates Advent with a hymn, Matthew with a list. For John, Jesus is the Word of creation…
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A few random thoughts on the parable of the treasure in the field (Matthew 13:44) 1) The kingdom is like a man-finding-hidden-treasure-who-buys-the-field. The hiddenness of the treasure is crucial. In His parables, Jesus reveals things hidden from before the foundation of the world (13:35). Jesus is the new Solomon, the…
Stapert points out that in the same motet, Bach breaks off the last part of Isaiah 43:1 (du bist mein -you are mine) when the verse is first introduced. He saves is “until the point where he could introduce them as part of a brief dialogue during the chorale/fugue.” “Dialogue”…
The second half of Bach’s motet “Furchte dich nicht” (“Fear you not”) consists of a Paul Gerhardt chorale, sung over a fugue drawn from Isaiah 43:1. The fugue repeats its subject - ich habe dich erloset, “I have you redeemed” - 33 times. The Redeemer is associated with the number…
Victor Zuckerkandl contrasts post-polyphonic Western music with Gregorian chant. In both there are longer and shorter tones in a succession in time. But in “our music,” another layer is added: “the succession also gives rise to the metrical wave, whose uniform pulsation is perceptible through all the changes of the…
Jesus’ parable of the treasure in the field looks straightforward: It’s about the value of the kingdom (Matthew 13:44). When we probe the behavior of the man in the parable, and the implied behavior of the seller, we find there are more intriguing things going on. Commentators commonly question the…
For the next several weeks, the Christian Century is publishing brief lectionary essays of mine on its blog. You can find a meditation on the readings for June 1 here: http://www.theolog.org/blog/2008/05/blogging-towa-3.html.
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