Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Understanding Shakespeare’s Biblical references is vital for the interpretation of many, if not all, of Shakespeare’s plays. For Othello , it is especially important, not only because the interpretation of the play is contested among various approaches — feminist, homosexual, post-colonial, Marxist, Freudian, new historical, and others — but also…
Mike Allen of Reformed Theological Seminary, Orlando, scores some points in his review of The End of Protestantism . He lodges the fair complaint that my rhetoric sometimes outruns my evidence. He argues that more stress on the present reality of the church’s unity deepens the tragedy of division; divisions…
I begin with two observations. First, on any millennial view, the Christian account of history is progressive, moving from the garden to the city. It is eschatological not only in that there is an end, but that the end is a glorified beginning, not merely a return to origins. To…
The church is a new form of polity that erupts into the world as much as the Son of God comes into the world. It’s a real-world political alternative to the polities of the ancient world. It resolves many of the political dilemmas of the ancient world, though not simply…
In my last post , I explained how Baptists really have a “one-ordinance-one sacrament” ecclesiology. I said this: “what Baptists really believe, in modern parlance, is that there is one ordinance (baptism which is a sign or symbol only) and one sacrament (the Lord’s Supper in which feeding upon Jesus…
One of the most extensive and penetrating responses to the Yoder-Hauerwas attack on Constantiniansm is found in Oliver O’Donovan’s Desire of Nations , in a chapter entitled “The Obedience of Rulers.” O’Donovan defines the word “Christendom” as “a historical idea,” specifically “the idea of a professedly Christian secular political order,…
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Eberhard Jungel ( Justification , 78-80) defines God’s righteousness in terms of His self-consistency: “the doctrine of justification sees God as being utterly consistent with himself and therefore righteous , when it conceives of him as the justifying God who justifies not the righteous, but the unrighteous, not the pious,…
In their contribution to Purity and the Forming of Religious Traditions , Michael Guichard and Lionel Marti recount a spell for getting rid of a menacing wild cat who brings evil omens by growling and moaning in the yard. Here’s the recipe: At night, the victim set up a stoup…
Symbolic boundaries might appear to be merely metaphorical. They aren’t real boundaries. We only treat them as boundaries. Presumably, what is meant here by a “real boundary” is a fence, wall, or other artificial or natural obstacle that prevents us from moving from where we are to the far side…
The flesh is weak, vulnerable. We don’t like being weak and vulnerable. So life according to the flesh is reactive. We recoil from pain. We retaliate to protect ourselves. The Spirit resists the reactiveness of the flesh. As can be seen in the Spirit-filled Jesus, the Spirit revels in vulnerability.…
A few weeks back, I published a brief essay on Protestantism and sacraments on the Patheos site. Some of my friends have clamored for clarifications. Hence this post. My claim was that Protestantism cannot achieve its pastoral aims without high view of the efficacy of sacraments. I focused on baptism.…
Reformed theologians and epistemologists tend to psychologize Romans 1:18-32. God’s character and demands are evident in the creation, but human beings, while knowing God, suppress the truth in unrighteousness. Sinners become double-minded, both knowing God and not-knowing, both aware of the truth but denying the truth, and becoming self-deceived in…
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