Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
But I say to you who hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. Whoever hits you on the cheek, offer him the other also; and whoever takes away your coat, do not withhold your shirt…
Part 5: Laying New Foundations in a Dying World As I mentioned above, the history of Israel involved several centuries as a church-without-a-culture, and then several centuries as a culture-without-a-city. To be sure, there was an informal culture around the church of the Patriarchs, but the civilization of free farmers…
In the Reformation Tradition we baptize both professing believers and their children. In the case of infants it is now commonly insisted that this is done because the children are already in covenant with God. Baptism is a sign and seal of a previously existing reality. Despite the popularity of…
Concerning Sex & the Sacrament of the Lord’s Supper Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the loaf of bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one loaf, we who are many…
Protestant-Catholic debates about the sacraments have usually taken the form of debates about sacramental efficacy. Protestants claim that Catholics believe that sacraments work ex opere operato, virtually a magical view of the sacraments. A priest goes through the motions and says the mumbo-jumbo and — presto! — the sacraments confer…
In 27.2, the Westminster Confession says that because of the “spiritual relation” between sacraments and the things they represent, “the names and effects of the one are attributed to the other.” Applied to baptism, this means that when the Bible says that we are baptized into Christ (Rom. 6), it…
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In a 1987 essay on equality as a moral ideal , Harry Frankfurt notes that setting up equality of wealth or income as a social ideal diverts one's attention from oneself to concern over the assets of others: “To the extent that people are preoccupied with equality for its own…
In both Hebrew ( mal'ak ) and Greek, “angel” means “messenger.” At the outset, the “angels” who appear to human beings are spiritual beings. Yahweh Himself comes to Abraham as the Angel of Yahweh (Genesis 18-19), and then to Gideon and Samson's parents. In each case, the human recipients offer…
Yahweh chose Abram and called him from Ur. He promised a land, and enough see to fill the land and make it fruitful. With the promises came obligations. Yahweh “knew” Abram so that Abram might do something to achieve certain results. The Abrahamic obligation is laid out succinctly in Genesis…
Almost no one knows the name of Eugen Rosenstock-Huessy. That is unfortunate, but may be changing as Rosenstock's intimate friend Franz Rosenzweig enjoys a boomlet of attention and with the publication of Wayne Cristaudo's Religion, Redemption, and Revolution . Among that tiny subculture that has actually heard of Rosenstock, it…
In a 2013 essay evaluating the Parliamentary bill on gay marriage, John Milbank observes that British “legislators have recognised that it would be intolerable to define gay marriage in terms equivalent to ‘consummation,’ or to permit ‘adultery’ as legitimate ground for gay divorce.” In these decisions, “the legislators have been…
In his Tristan and Isolde , Gottfried of Strassburg lays out a non-courtly, non-comic, mystical vision of love. As WTH Jackson puts it in The Anatomy of Love , Gottfried rejects the comic vision of love as uncomplicated and easy joy. He also rejects the idea that the lover seeks…
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