Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Paul writes to Jews, “You who abhor idols, do you rob temples?” (Romans 2:22b) The English translation “rob temples” makes readers think of pagan temples. There was only one Temple for Israel, so robbing more than one would indicate other temples are in view. And if the Jews wanted to…
Two offerings Humanity’s first vocation involves guarding and serving the trees that emerge from the ground (Genesis 2:15). God provides these trees to humanity for food. A serpent appears and tempts the couple to eat from a special forbidden tree, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Humanity…
At the outset of the Torah (as Christians understand it), a triune God creates the heavens and earth over the course of a seven-day week. Why? What’s the connection between the three and the seven? Could a triune God have created the world over any period of time he chose?…
How relevant to the modern reader are the flying axe head of Deuteronomy 19:5 and the roof parapet of Deuteronomy 22:8? Indeed, how relevant were they to the daily lives of Israelites thirty-five hundred years ago? Suppose that accidental falls from rooftops were exceedingly uncommon in ancient Israel, or that…
1 For most of my life, the standing of the American church as a source of national social and political order was measured by reports from the front of the so-called “culture wars.” 2 Memory brings to mind battles over feminism and the ERA, so-called gay rights, the breakdown of…
But when Herod died, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt, saying, ‘Rise, take the child and his mother and go to the land of Israel…’ And he went and lived in a city called Nazareth, so that what was spoken by the…
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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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