Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
When might the Gospel according to Matthew have been written? Of course, any answer can only be speculation, but that does not mean we are reduced to groundless opinion. In this series of articles I point the way to an approach different from the general consensus among scholars today which…
In my first essay on “synopticity” I offered a rather rough definition of the phenomenon and important, though not exhaustive examples. In this essay, I want to introduce broader aspects of the phenomenon of “synopticity.” The first example that I have in mind is conventional stories, stories of different historical…
Since the judgment of Babel was followed by the initiation of the circumcision, the impending end of the circumcision in AD70 explains the significance of the first century miracle of foreign tongues. Except for a few Aramaic “teasers” in the book of Daniel, the Word of God was monolingual and…
To the best of my knowledge “synopticity” is not a word used in theology or Biblical studies, but it seems an appropriate word to describe the kind of phenomena associated with the Synoptic Gospels, Matthew, Mark, and Luke. These three Gospels tell essentially the same story with significant — sometimes…
Humor is a funny thing. It is altogether familiar yet also mysterious. What makes us laugh? Why do we find things funny? There are academic fields of study dedicated to discovering what makes things humorous. These academicians even have a journal entitled International Journal of Humor Research . No joke.…
Out of all the characters in Geoffrey Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales , the Pardoner has been called the “one lost soul.” The pious Parson, who closes out the collection of tales with a sermon on the seven deadly sins and how a sinner can absolve himself of them, connects the…
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Andrew Feldherr writes in the TLS that Romans were known by the way they died, as well as how they killed. Not only individual Romans either: “The Romans as a people ‘decline and fall’; and their collective role as the West’s memento mori continues in the stream of recent books…
John Joseph writes in the TLS that Saussure’s insight that language is “purely differential and negative in nature” was a commonplace of late nineteenth-century philosophy and “was a defining feature of British psychology.” And Saussure’s claim that meaning is arbitrary and conventional also has a long pedigree. Saussure’s “novel contribution…
In a recent book on the “suffering of the impassible God,” Paul Gavrilyuk defends the patristic consensus that God is impassible, focusing on the ways that the church struggled to maintain the tension of the incarnation between the God who is impassible and the suffering Jesus who is God. In…
DH Williams has a helpful article on justification by faith in Hilary, in a recent issue of Pro Ecclesia . He concludes, in part, “the basis of justification by faith was not at heart a matter of soteriology, but of Christology, especially when it came to interpreting the divine intent…
P.J. O’Rourke has a typically entertaining and sharp review of Taylor Clark’s recent Starbucked in the NYT book review. O’Rourke especially appreciates Clark’s honest in answering whether Starbucks is a “monster of capitalist rapine.” Some excerpts: “Clark is frank about his bias: ‘Starbucks diminishes the world’s diversity every time it…
INTRODUCTION Micah addresses an Israel filled with injustice, ruled by cannibal kings. And he prophesies that Jerusalem will be reduced to ruins (3:12). Yet, the heart of his prophecy is a message of hope – hope for the restoration of Jerusalem, hope for a king who will be peace (5:5).…
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