Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Suffer little children, and forbid them not, to come unto Me. In 2005, God blessed our family with our third child, our second daughter, whom we named Bethany. As soon as Bethany was born, we knew there was something different about her. Unlike her two older siblings, who were born…
Christian, what is it that we believe? While Creeds like the Nicene and Apostle’s have been fundamental pieces of Christian liturgy and life, the American Church is highly unattached to these classic statements. From this creedal phobia has arisen the popular “No Creed, but Christ” slogan. Such slogan, of course,…
Revisiting William Cavanaugh’s devastating 2009 The Myth of Religious Violence . The myth of Cavanaugh’s title is a well-known one. According to the myth, religion is a distinct sphere of human life and practice from the rest of human social life, a universal impulse in human beings, and is dogmatic,…
19 Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you. 20 And when he had so…
An octave is a repetition, a repetition with a difference. It’s not the first note played again , but the first note played at a higher pitch. Octaves have always marked new beginnings. Hebrew boys were circumcised on the eighth day. Firstborn sheep were dedicated to Yahweh on the eighth…
We say Jesus’ resurrection is good news. It wasn’t good news for the disciples on the first Easter. More like perplexing, bewildering news. For others, it wasn’t perplexing, and it certainly wasn’t good. It was plain old bad news. Early in Luke’s gospel, Herod is terrified that Jesus might be…
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It's an inventive solution. In an essay on the Logic of Impurity , David Kraemer argues, counterintuitively, that impurity marks something as God's possession. He argues from the strange anomalies associated with corpse defilement and its cleansing: “The human corpse is, according to the Torah, the most powerful source of…
Holy Week is a passage through darkness, as we commemorate the betrayal, arrest, trial, and crucifixion of Jesus. But Holy Week doesn't end on the cross. Easter dispels the darkness. Good Friday followed by Easter means that darkness and death no longer mark an end, but mark a beginning. It…
Paul Ludwig ( Eros and Polis ) observes that “A recurrent feature of ancient Greek political discourse was the assertion that erotic passion was a causal factor in the emergence and maintenance, as well as the decline, of the Greek polis.” But this didn't make the Greek proto-Foucauldians: “the term…
Kelley Bulkeley's Big Dreams is about the big subject of religion, examined from the perspective of our dreaming. He begins with the simple, well-known observation that most of our dreams are quickly forgotten, while “a few are highly memorable.” Any account of dreaming should try to account for this. Taking…
As Paul strolls through Athens, what impresses him is not the architecture, culture, or art. He sees that the city is full of idols, and he is provoked in spirit (Acts 17:16). That provokes a few reflections. What did Paul see that others in Athens did not see? What would…
Gustave Le Bon's The Crowd was first published in 1895. It reads like something taken from today's headlines about the crowds generated by Donald Trump's campaign. Le Bon argued that a crowd involved the “disappearance of conscious personality and the turning of feelings and thoughts in a definite direction, which…
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