Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…
Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…
The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…
Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…
Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…
When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…
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Critics say that Austen’s work is too restricted. But, as Julia Prewitt Brown says, if this is true, it’s hardly something that Austen would have been unaware of: “we must assume that Jane Austen was highly attuned to the unheroic implications of her subject from the beginning of her career.”…
In “What’s Wrong With the World,” Chesterton commented on the differences between eighteenth and nineteenth century fiction. Essentially, the eighteenth century was from Mars, the nineteenth from Venus. Austen developed her tastes and sensibilities in the eighteenth century, unfortunately often read as one from the nineteenth. “The Novel of the…
Kipling was a Janeite, writing not only a short story about British soldiers forming a secret Janeite society in the trenches but also several poems. Here is one called “Jane’s Marriage.” JANE went to Paradise: That was only fair. Good Sir Walter met her first, And led her up the…
INTRODUCTION Jesus ends the central teaching section of the sermon on the mount with warnings against hypocritical judgment and trusting in power. He again assures us of our Father’s kindness. THE TEXT “Judge not, that you be not judged. For with what judgment you judge, you will be judged, and…
Anselm compared the Trinity to the Nile. Water arises from a spring, travels as a river, and empties into the lake. As Dennis Ngien summarizes, “The spring is not the river nor is the lake; the lake is not the spring nor is the river. Yet the spring is the…
Richard poses a dilemma to unitarians: “if we say that in true Divinity there exists only one person, just as there is only one substance, then without doubt according to this He will not have anyone with whom He could share that infinite abundance of His fullness.” This lack might…
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