Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Place names become fraught with meaning by association with people and events. The name “Wittenberg” calls to mind Luther and the Reformation for Protestants and Catholics alike. Geneva has a wider range of associations, but the Reformation Wall, with its four main statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza,…
“…a mystery without a solution, a horror story without savagery, a nightmare in which all the watches stop at noonday…” The Bestial Gardens of Men Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (Luke 23:30) The following lines by Edgar Allan Poe,…
2 Samuel 11-12, which record David’s sin with Bathsheba and its aftermath, is structured chiastically: This arrangement highlights several things about the episode. It reinforces what is obvious from even a casual reading, that the transition in the story occurs with Nathan’s confrontation of David’s sin and David’s confession. Up…
Medieval bestiaries are packed with quaintly inaccurate information about animals, birds, and other created things. Foxes and snakes are devilish critters; stags, pelicans and elephants are Christlike in their various ways. Of course, the medievals picked this up from the Bible, where bestiary observations are fairly common. “Go to the…
What do Reformational Catholicism and craft beer have in common? The question seems to beg for a punchline. Better yet, it would be pretty good clickbait for an article on Katharina von Bora’s “spirited” contribution that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. Well, this is no joke and I am certainly…
Suffering Defined Suffering happens. We witness it all around us and experience it in our lives. It often comes from forces beyond our control. Suffering is inscrutable; it strikes unexpectedly, on a bright summer day or a cold winter night. We lament and are bewildered by suffering. But we are…
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J. Todd Billings compares Milbank’s theology of gift with Calvin’s theology of grace in a 2005 article from Modern Theology . He focuses attention on Milbank’s criticism that the Reformation put such emphasis on the unilateral character of grace and so highlighted the passivity of the reception of grace that…
Stephen Webb has an illuminating discussion of Derrida’s views on giving in his book The Gifting God . Webb begins by saying that “deconstructionist has always been a critique of the event of the gift.” Derrida’s musings on the gift parallel his discussions of the history of metaphysics. According to…
John Zizioulas summarizes his “ontology of personhood” in an article in Christoph Schwobel’s volume, Persons – Divine and Human . Zizioulas begins with the question of the relation between being and personal identity: “It is all too often assumed that people ‘have’ personhood rather than ‘being’ persons,” so that personhood…
Barth has a stimulating discussion of Israel’s double-knowledge of Yahweh in the first volume of the Church Dogmatics. He begins with a discussion of what he calls the “hypostases” of God, a usage he takes from “religious science” rather than dogmatics per se. In this context, “hypostases” are anthropomorphic descriptions…
Barth says that non-Trinitarian theology inevitably deny either the unity of God or His revelation. If it maintains the unity of God “it has to call revelation in question as the act of the real presence of the real God. The unity of God in which there are no distinct…
Barth’s influence continues to grow, among evangelicals no less than others. David Gibson and Daniel Strange have edited a new book, Engaging With Barth (IVP, UK), that collects critical essays on Barth’s theology. The publicity information says, “This volume engages critically and courteously with Barth on a range of vital…
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