Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Paradosis Center at John Brown University in Siloam Spring, Arkansas, put on its first conference last week, it was a remarkable event. It was an ecumenical conference including Orthodox (John Behr, Edith Humphrey, others), Catholic (Rusty Reno, Michael Root, others), and Evangelical (Timothy George, David Lyle Jeffrey). Unusually for…
Naphtali Meshel observes in his new The "Grammar" of Sacrifice that scholars have been talking for decades about the "grammatical" character of ritual and sacrifice in general, but have never actually analyzed a specific ritual or sacrificial system grammatically. Some even talk about a "universal grammar" of sacrifice "even though…
Some Christians are rather breezy about the problem of evil. We shouldn't be. Do I need to remind you of the grisly beheadings that have taken place over the past few weeks? Do I need to remind you of the blood of innocents that’s been spilled in our own country?…
Have you ever been to a wedding where the heavens opened and a voice declared the couple “husband and wife”? Few of us have. Beautiful as they are, most marriages are quite mundane. Yet when Jesus talks about marriage, He describes it as something that God does: “What God has…
Jesus is the last and greatest of the Prophets. He is the Prophet that Moses predicted (Deuteronomy 18). That means He gives the final word, brings the blueprints for the final temple, speaks the final world into existence, and has complete and permanent access to the divine court, where He…
Paul stands against those who are “troubling” or “disturbing” the Galatians churches ( tarasso ; 1:7; also in 5:10). The reference seems to be two great troublers from the Old Testament. First, Achan is described as a “troubler” for the problems he causes in the aftermath of the battle at…
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Around 960, Joseph, Qaghan of the Khazars, wrote a letter explaining how his ancestor, Bulan, received the commission to build a tabernacle: “The angel appeared to him again, and said, ‘My son, the heavens and earth cannot contain me. Nevertheless, my son, build a temple in My name, and I…
Hamblin and Seely also describe in some detail the impact of Solomon’s temple on Christian architecture. Eusbius describes the consecration of a church in Tyre that picks up on multiple temple-related themes: “The bishop-builder is compared with Bezalel, Solomon, and Zerubbabel, builders of the Israelite Tabernacle and Temple . .…
In their fascinating and richly illustrated Solomon’s Temple: Myth and History , William Hamblin and David Seely take note of the architectural continuities between temple and synagogue: “Many elements of the architecture and visual imagery of the synagogue were intended to remind the people of the Temple. Rabbinic writings suggest…
In his book, Wiser than Despair , Quentin Faulkner traces the links between musical theory (musical speculation) and theological speculation. John Scotus Erigena’s views, for instance, were summarized by his pupil Regino of Prum, who wrote on music in a treatise on harmony, and the treatise has theological overtones throughout…
Robert Wilken emphasizes the biblically-centered character of early Christian preaching and thought: “Not only in sermons but also in theological works, in letters, and in spiritual writings the church fathers display an enviable verbal command of large sections of the Bible. In contrast to modern theological writings in which the…
What happened to Trinitarian theology between the Reformation and the eighteenth century. The closest thing I’ve found to an answer is Philip Dixon’s Nice and Hot Disputes, which summarizes some of the developments in seventeenth-century England. Here are some of his main points. 1) Because of Socinianism, Trinitarian theologians were…
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