Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Genesis 3 ends on a decisive, and decisively negative, note. Yahweh “drove the man out” of the garden, and, in addition, “at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim, and the flaming sword which turned every direction, to guard the way to the tree of life.”…
When she died in 2005 at the age of 72, Anna Haycraft, the author who published under the name Alice Thomas Ellis, was a celebrated writer in Great Britain. While working at Duckworth Publishers(which her husband owned), she produced a dozen novels, a collection of short stories, a cookbook, volumes…
Some have suggested recently that my "project" is postmodern. To clarify my views on postmodernism, I'm re-posting something I wrote in 2005, with a few modifications. For a fuller discussion, you can check out my Solomon among the Postmoderns (Canon, 2008). First, it is helpful to distinguish, as many writers…
Calling Jerusalem the "holy city" comes so naturally to Christians that it comes as something of a surprise to realize how infrequently the phrase is used in Scripture. Not only is Jerusalem rarely called holy, but in the Old Testament this classification is found only in texts that refer to…
Asking why the church doesn’t sing hymns or even why men don’t sing in church is a bit like lamenting over the lame man who can’t waltz on the dance floor. While it is a valid question, the more immediate question would seem to be, “why doesn’t the lame man…
The theme of 1 Timothy is the distinction between the true children in the Household of God and false children who really belong to the household of Satan. This is seen in the fact that in the chiastic structure of the Epistle, heresy is the subject in the center (…
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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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