Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Protestant-Catholic relationship has hardly been an untroubled one. And yet, the possibilities for various layers of reconciliation are better then at any time since the original schism 500 years ago. One of the symbols for the church that is used in Scripture is the church as a household (Ephesians…
Despite the layers of wiping, covering, and ransoming during the Day of Recoverings, true unity still has not been achieved. Divorce is still possible; God still might leave his people. Thus the Day of Recoverings must be repeated every year. The perpetual expression of unity between God and man in…
The events of Leviticus 16 are commonly known as “The Day of Atonement,” from the Hebrew phrase yom hakippurim, in Leviticus 23:27. However, it would be more accurate to say, “The Day of Atonements,” [i] since the word is plural. The plurality primarily relates to 16:33, which states five different…
Mary Douglas, against the common notion that primitive religious rituals were illogical and random asserts, “The analysis of ritual symbolism cannot begin until we recognize ritual as an attempt to create and maintain a particular culture … Any culture is a series of structures which comprise social forms, values, cosmology,…
Jesus holds seven stars. They are the angels of the seven churches (Revelation 1:20). For ancient readers and hearers, "seven stars" would evoke a number of associations - the seven planets, the seven stars of Ursa Major, and the seven stars that make up the Pleiades. The last makes a…
When he first arrives in Harran, at Paddan-Aram, the home of Laban his uncle, Jacob sees a well. Wells are mentioned frequently in Genesis. Twice Hagar finds a well in the wilderness (Genesis 16:14; 21:19). Philistines seize Abraham’s well (21:22-34), and Abraham’s chief servant finds a wife for Isaac at…
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Jeremy Treat’s The Crucified King is a salutary attempt to heal the breach in biblical and systematic theology between the kingdom and the cross. The goal of creation is to establish “God’s reign through his servant-kings over creation” (40), and that is what Jesus’ ministry, death, and resurrection aimed at:…
It’s now possible to watch an entire season of a TV show in a couple of nights. If you don’t have to get up too early the next day, a long night will do the trick. Robin Sloan argues that we miss something when we binge, and not just commercial…
The day of atonement (or “day of coverings”) involved a re-investiture of the priest. At the beginning of the rite, he removed his garments of glory (Leviticus 16:3) and at the end of the day he put them back on (16:23-24). Before the rites, he bathed his body (16:4) and…
J.R. Illingworth explains in Divine Immanence that consciousness, mind, and the human spirit are realized only materially. He is not reductive. Thought is not simply the firing of synapses. But “Our every state of consciousness depends, as we have seen, upon the brain, and therefore upon the blood that nourishes…
D. Brent Laytham suggests that entertainment falls into the biblical category of a “power,” a good aspect of creation designed to “give, sustain, and enrich life” but one that, in a fallen world, tends to “turn away from God, becoming self-referential and self-aggrandizing” ( iPod, YouTube, Wii Play , 27).…
Philip Jenkins’s latest, The Great and Holy War , examines the religious dimensions of World War I. On all sides, he observes, it was characterized as a holy war, a comic battle that would culminate in Armageddon and perhaps usher in an eschatological order. In fact it was, as Andrew…
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