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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Orlando Patterson’s Slavery and Social Death begins with the claim that, far from being a “peculiar institution,” slavery is commonplace in history. That’s not surprising. What is counter-intuitive is Patterson’s claim that slavery rose in importance at precisely the moments when civilizations reached their highest development: Slavery “was firmly established…
Airlines lie about what’s wrong with the plane, and how long it will be before it gets boarded, and whether there is enough space for my teeny carry-on in an overhead bin. With all these little lies, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they’re caught in a big one. Still,…
In his contribution to Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity , Stephen R. Holmes characterizes the doctrine of the Trinity as a set of hermeneutical guidelines: “What we call the ‘doctrine of the Trinity’ is, I suggest, a formal set of conceptualities developed like this: a set of…
Pastor Rich Lusk made the point in a recent sermon that Jesus’ miraculous feedings of 5000 and 4000 have everything to do with Jew-Gentile issues. Jesus feeds the 5000 in Jewish territory, and the numbers 5 and 12 are linked with Israel - the first the number of Israel’s military…
Paul’s letters follow epistolary conventions of his time, but I suggest that it is just as illuminating, perhaps more, to classify his letters as members of a biblical “genre,” the “prophetic lawsuit” or the “covenant lawsuit.” Covenant lawsuits are embedded in Israel’s covenant-relation with Yahweh. The covenant sets up certain…
Jed Perl doesn’t much like Jeff Koons and his “in-your-face” art. His review of the Whitney retrospective of Koons’s work is a small masterwork of critical scorn. Nothing, Perl writes, nothing is left to the imagination in Koons’s work. Whether he’s sculpting or painting himself having sex with his ex-wife,…
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