Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are. Much shorter. 100 hymns at most, let’s say. I imagine that this will be a hard one to swallow for most of my readers, so I will attempt to bolster my argument as best I can. I can’t think of any…
Joshua is never called a king in the Bible. Yet while lacking the title, Joshua possesses the trappings of biblical kingship to a degree that it seems warranted to consider him a royal figure. There are lots of reasons for thinking this. In a 1981 Journal of Biblical Literature article,…
God speaks. He is not silent. He has designed humanity for reception of such communication and also to speak on His behalf. This speaking is not simply happenstance. It is not just a curious quirk about humanity. It is intrinsic to who we are that we speak and shape the…
One evening, years ago, home from college for Christmas break, I dreamt that I was playing the piano, passionately and well, in the church sanctuary beneath the parsonage in the renovated mansion in rural New Hampshire where my father was the minister. It was something of a lucid dream because…
I’m a big worrier. Always have been. Some of my earliest memories are of being anxious to the point of getting sick, sometimes for trivial reasons. My mind moves a million miles a minute, wondering what will happen in 5 minutes, or tomorrow, or next week, or in ten years.…
“The sun had gone up on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. And the LORD rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD from heaven, and he devastated those cities and the whole valley and all those dwelling in the cities and the growth of…
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A s soon as David becomes king (1 Chronicles 13), he wants to bring the ark of God into Jerusalem (1 Chronicles 14). His plan comes to an abrupt halt when Yahweh kills Uzza fir stretching out a hand to touch the ark. The ark disappears from view for a…
I t’s the puzzle of the 2016 Presidential race. It’s the question that’s dominating European politics in the aftermath of Britain’s exit from the EU and after a summer of immigration turmoil. Everything was going so swimmingly toward a global future. Everyone seemed so happy. Suddenly, so it seems, nationalism,…
I n Psalm 139, David says that darkness and light are alike to God, night bright as the day (v. 12). Such a God can form a man in a secret place (v. 15). A God for whom night shines is a God who sees what cannot be seen, David's…
Maitre Frenhofer stands with Pygmalion and Orpheus in the pantheon of influential fictional artists. The painter of the Unknown Masterpiece (or Unrecognized Masterpiece ) in Balzac’s Le Chef-d’œuvre inconnu , Frenhofer’s utter devotion to his art inspired Cezanne, Picasso, and Rilke. The best-known testimony comes from Emile Bernard’s recollection of…
I t may look quaint to contemporary Christians, but once upon a time there were vigorous debates about the proper posture for receiving communion. Puritans and Presbyterians objected to the custom of kneeling to receive the elements, arguing that it perpetuated the Catholic practice of venerating the consecrated Host. In…
I n his study of the Symbolism of the Christian Temple , Jean Hani offers a brief analysis of the “numerical harmonies” of the Troyes Cathedral. The main building is constructed according to ancient “golden” proportions, but this is overlaid by “a yet more mysterious [harmony] of a mystical order”…
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