Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The god of Israel was not just any god. Two thousand years of Christian history, with it’s besetting philosophical temptations, and full-blown deist and transcendentalist and universalist problems, have obscured the fact that, in itself, the identity of the true god (or gods) cannot be predetermined, any more than the…
Jacob and Solomon God gave wealth and possessions to Jacob, and then threatened to take them all away at Peniel. Jacob wrestled with God, and through prayer Jacob saw through the crisis by faith and was made victor (Hosea 12:4). The Kingdom period in Israel concerns the same themes. We…
In our study of the historical impact and unfolding of the Ten Words of God, we now arrive at the Third Word. The Third Word prohibits hypocrisy, and when we realize this, we can see right away that disobeying the Third Word is closely tied to the situation of Israel…
Abraham and Joshua In our previous two essays, we considered aspects of the lives of Abraham and Jacob, as these display how God works with men in history. These two men carry in themselves all the future of Israel, so to speak, and their lives at the individual level correspond…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World (continued) Physical Training Though it is seldom recognized any more, the fact is that no liberal arts and no science is possible apart from peace, and peace is only possible if there is a strong military presence that protects a nation.…
Last month, in our essay " Patriarchal Dominion ," we observed the flow from Abraham to Jacob to Joseph. Our concern here is to advance our understanding of that narrative flow. I should mention that I am assuming much that is found in my book Primeval Saints: Studies in the…
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Milbank sums up Victor Turner by saying that “the sublime is no longer outside the social, at the margin of individuality [as in Weber’s charisma], and nor is it the social whole [as in Durkheim]: instead it is situated within society in the constant negotiation of dangerous passages. Paradoxically, it…
City of God 10.6 is a rich and important, though obscure, explanation of what might be called the sociology of sacrifice. At the beginning of the chapter, Augustine defines sacrifice as any act we perform in order to be united to God in holy society. Acts of mercy are sacrifices,…
Dodaro again: “Only when it is understood by believers that God mediates goodness to human beings directly, without intermediary spiritual beings such as angels - and certainly not through priests - is it possible to put an end to spiritual rivalries.”
The Donatists are usually seen as the sectarians of the early church but Robert Dodaro points out that for Augustine their sectarianism derived from their clericalism: “Augustine explains that cultic acts which remit sins, such as baptism, are in reality performed by Christ, who acts through Christian priests. Augustine’s frequent…
INTRODUCTION Like Moses (Numbers 27:17), Jesus sees that Israel is like sheep without a shepherd (Matthew 9:36), a field white to harvest. Moses gave authority to Joshua to lead Israel in and out in conquest; Jesus gives authority to the Twelve to carry out another conquest (10:1). THE TEXT “And…
Matthew 9:36: And seeing the multitudes, He felt compassion for them, because they were harassed and thrown down like sheep having no shepherd. I mentioned in the sermon that the phrase “sheep without a shepherd” appears in the prophecy of Micaiah who warns Ahab that he will die if he…
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