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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Harold Stahmer traces Rosenstock-Huessy’s notion of a “Johannine” age to Schelling: “In Schelling’s Philosophy of Revelation . . . the millennarian idea of the successive ‘ages’ of the world - the Petrine, the Pauline, and finally the Johannine - is developed at length. These ages were linked by schelling to…
Markus Barth describes Ephesians 5:22-33 as a lover’s song, but distinguishes the love expressed there, the love of Jesus for His bride, from all other loves: “The vision of love described by Paul is sui generis . Though Christ’s love includes features found in many a strong, wise and devoted…
Markus Barth gives a thrilling summary of Paul’s description of Christ and the church in Ephesians (I’ve left out the texts Barth refers to): “Christ was called the beloved Son; the church, the chosen people, God’s children. He, the administrator; they, the heirs. He, the risen; they, those raised with…
Ephesians 5:31’s description of marriage, Calvin argues, refers to the Supper, a seal of our union with Christ: “As Eve was formed out of the substance of her husband, and thus was a part of himself; so, if we are the true members of Christ, we share his substance, and…
Ephesians 5:31’s description of marriage, Calvin argues, refers to the Supper, a seal of our union with Christ: “As Eve was formed out of the substance of her husband, and thus was a part of himself; so, if we are the true members of Christ, we share his substance, and…
Calvin interprets the “washing of water” in Ephesians 5:26 as a reference to baptism, and goes into a little digression on baptism. Paul is telling us “that we are washed by baptism,” and by this he means “that God employs it for declaring to us that we are washed, and…
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