Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The story of Judges 19 and the subsequent chapters are some of the most shocking and appalling accounts in all of Scripture. The callousness of the old host and the Levite, and the monstrous brutality of the men of Gibeah, leaves us feebly scrabbling for words by which to surmount…
David has become king. He has conquered the capital city of Jerusalem. He has brought the ark of Yahweh into the city and placed it in a tent. He has stationed Levites at the tent to offer sacrifices of praise. An anomaly hits him: He has a cedar-paneled palace, and…
In Part 2 of this series we traced what we have of the development of the epiclesis in the liturgy of the Church. In this third and final part we’ll look at the theological implications of this and how we may apply what we’ve learned. As we saw in Part…
In a 2014 piece published in First Things , I offered a "wish list" for Protestant churches, a checklist for a future catholic Protestantism. The wish list doesn't cover everything. It doesn't mention those things that Protestants, especially Evangelicals, already do, often exceedingly well, things like missions and evangelism and…
In the first part of this series we examined the meaning of “blessing” in Scripture and its parallels in Jewish liturgical tradition, but did not find anything that we could properly call an epiclesis (an invocation of the Holy Spirit). We did find examples of invocation of Jesus to “come”…
When the Aaronic priests were ordained, the blood of the ram of "filling” was placed on the lobe of the right ear, the right thumb, and the right big toe (Lev. 8:22-24). Similarly, the cleansing rite for a leper included smearing the right ear lobe, thumb, and big toe with…
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Painter Wassily Kadinsky complained about the materialism of modern life: “Only just now awakening after years of materialism, our soul is infected with the despair born of unbelief, of lack of purpose and aim. The nightmare of materialism, which turned life into an evil, senseless game, is not yet passed;…
Pierre Boulez’s total serialism depended, in the words of Jeremy Begbie, “on the rigorous organization of music through the use of strict mathematical patterns.” The results were, Begbie says, “extremely dull, indeed, some of the most tedious ever written.” Around the same time, John Cage was composing “chance music,” made,…
Calvin says “The whole world is a theater for the display of the divine goodness, wisdom, justice, and power, but the Church is the orchestra, as it were - the most conspicuous part of it.”
Calvin interprets Titus 3:5 as a baptismal passage. Baptism is a sign and pledge of God’s mercy that signifies and pledges this mercy by ingrafting the baptized into the church: “The train of thought of the passage is this: ‘God saves us by his mercy and he has given us…
In his recent book on image and word in Calvin, Randall Zachman describes Calvin’s shifting views on ordination. Early on, he sarcastically rejects the notion that the laying of hands in the Roman Church constitutes a sacrament. By 1543, however, he has changed both his tone and his position. He…
Idols have mouths, but don’t speak. But the fear of the prophets is that Yahweh might be the same. Evil abounds in Israel and the nations, yet Yahweh does nothing and says nothing. If Yahweh is silent in the face of evil, how does he differ from the gods of…
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