Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. (1 John 1:8) O God the Father, creator of heaven and earth, Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, who inspired Creation with the breath of your nostrils, who placed Adam in the…
For nearly a half-century, Sodom has been a key symbol in the American culture wars. On the one side, we have an aggressive movement among homosexuals that has first decriminalized homosexual conduct, then to force cultural and legal recognition of homosexuals as a minority and to normalize homosexual behaviors, finally…
Speaking of the Church, Romans 11:16-17 says, "And if the root be holy, the branches are also. But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the root of the fatness of the…
At the end of Isaiah 61, Yahweh's Servant rejoices because the Lord clothes Him with salvation and righteousness. He decks Him like a bridegroom with a garland on His head. He wears jewels like a bride. He is a new bridegroom in a new garden of Eden, a garden of…
Before anything else, a word about “Torah” may be in order. I have been persuaded that “law” is a bad translation of “Torah,” even though it is evident that what is called “Torah” does have commandments, statutes, and ordinances in abundance. Why not “law?” “Law” as a translation for “Torah”…
Few novelists seem as innocent of the temptation to punditry as Jane Austen. Though living through a period that witnessed the birth of an independent United States, the French Revolution and the Terror, the Napoleonic wars and the rise of revolutionary romanticism, and the upheavals of the Industrial Revolution, she…
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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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