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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Robert Weldon Whalen, Sacred Spring: God and the Birth of Modernism in Fin de Siecle Vienna . Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2007. Hardback, 339 pp. $25.00. Sacred Spring is part travelogue, part intellectual history, part art and music criticism. Whalen’s thesis is that Viennese modernism, the source of so much of…
One Axel Schmidt has written a book entitled: Die Suche nach dem rechten Lebens-Mittel. Harry Potter als Beispiel einer modernen praeparatio Evangelii . “Harry Potter” is part of the subtitle, of course, the Harry Potter that, for Schmidt, is an “example of a modern preparation of the gospel.” Harry Potter.…
Two notes about Babel: 1) What does it mean to construct a tower to heaven? Traditionally, this has been understood literally: They were trying to build a tower high enough to reach the sky. But were they really that naive? Surely they had climbed mountains and realized that the sky…
INTRODUCTION “Follow Me,” Jesus said as the new Moses, leading a restored Israel out of the old Egypt-Israel that was under the reign of Death. How do we follow Him? That’s what the Sermon on the Mount is all about. THE TEXT “And seeing the multitudes, He went up on…
Matthew 4:24: And the news about Him went out into all Syria; and they brought to Him all who were ill, taken with various diseases and pains, demoniacs, epileptics, paralytics; and He healed them. Jesus comes preaching, casting out demons, and healing. In doing all this, He fulfills the prophecies…
Jesus is the light of the world, the eternal radiance of His Father. When He comes into the world, He chooses to dwell in a place of darkness and gloom, a place under the shadow of death, the despised borderland of Galilee. Good for Jesus, we say. We’re happy He…
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