Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…
Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…
The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…
Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…
Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…
When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…
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In an article on Taming of the Shrew , Carol Rutter points out that most shrew plays end with the shrew silenced. Shakespeare’s play moves in the opposite direction. Kate speaks a lot early, but her conversation lacks poetry and wit. Her final speech, though, is elegant and wise. In…
In Natural Supernaturalism , M. H. Abrams notes the influence of the Bible on Romanticism: “A conspicuous Romantic tendency, after the rationalism and decorum of the Enlightenment, was a reversion to the stark drama and suprarational mysteries of the Christian story and doctrines and to the violent conflicts and abrupt…
All the English Romantics were admirers of Milton. Blake wrote a quasi-epic poem in which Milton was the title character. Wordsworth took up Milton’s prophetic mantle, and was regarded by Coleridge as the Milton of his day. Keats conceived his own poetic mission as one of surpassing Milton, and the…
Sayyid Qutb was one of the architects of jihadist Islam, and his stern opposition to the West was forged during a visit to the United States in 1949. Attending a church social in Greeley Colorado, he found, in the words of Lawrence Wright, “The room convulzed with the feverish music…
Weigel again, quoting a 2002 study of Arab development: “the Arab world translates about 330 books annually, one-fifth of the number that Greece translates. The accumulative total of translated books [into Arabic] since [the ninth century] is about 100,000.’ More books are translated into Spanish in an average decade or…
Following Bernard Lewis, Weigel suggests that European expansion in the early modern period was part of “a great flanking movement in response to Islamic advances into the continent of Europe.” Lewis writes, “When Vasco da Gama arrived in Calicut he explained that he had come ‘in search of Christians and…
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