Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Place names become fraught with meaning by association with people and events. The name “Wittenberg” calls to mind Luther and the Reformation for Protestants and Catholics alike. Geneva has a wider range of associations, but the Reformation Wall, with its four main statues of William Farel, John Calvin, Theodore Beza,…
“…a mystery without a solution, a horror story without savagery, a nightmare in which all the watches stop at noonday…” The Bestial Gardens of Men Then they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!” and to the hills, “Cover us!” (Luke 23:30) The following lines by Edgar Allan Poe,…
2 Samuel 11-12, which record David’s sin with Bathsheba and its aftermath, is structured chiastically: This arrangement highlights several things about the episode. It reinforces what is obvious from even a casual reading, that the transition in the story occurs with Nathan’s confrontation of David’s sin and David’s confession. Up…
Medieval bestiaries are packed with quaintly inaccurate information about animals, birds, and other created things. Foxes and snakes are devilish critters; stags, pelicans and elephants are Christlike in their various ways. Of course, the medievals picked this up from the Bible, where bestiary observations are fairly common. “Go to the…
What do Reformational Catholicism and craft beer have in common? The question seems to beg for a punchline. Better yet, it would be pretty good clickbait for an article on Katharina von Bora’s “spirited” contribution that helped spark the Protestant Reformation. Well, this is no joke and I am certainly…
Suffering Defined Suffering happens. We witness it all around us and experience it in our lives. It often comes from forces beyond our control. Suffering is inscrutable; it strikes unexpectedly, on a bright summer day or a cold winter night. We lament and are bewildered by suffering. But we are…
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Thomas, riffing on the tabernacle furniture like a medieval James B. Jordan ( ST I-II, 102, 4, repl. 6): “The outer tabernacle, which denotes this present world, also contained three things, viz. the ‘altar of incense,’ which was directly opposite the ark; the ‘table of proposition,’ with the twelve loaves…
Love him or not, you gotta admit that Thomas Aquinas is thorough. One of the initial negative answers to the question, “Are there sufficient reasons for the ceremonies pertaining to holy things?” ( ST I-II, 102) is about the orientation of Israelite sanctuaries. Objection 5 is: that “the power of…
Matthew Levering has a fascinating discussion of Thomas’s understanding of Christian worship as the fulfillment of the temple in his outstanding Christ’s Fulfillment of Torah and Temple: Salvation According to Thomas Aquinas (91-97) . From 1 Kings 8, Thomas claims that God “infinitely transcends the Temple’ and yet has “chosen…
I offer some reflections on writing next door this morning.
In a wide-ranging 2001 review of books on “new natural law” by John Finnis and Robert George published in the journal Religion ), G. Scott Davis zeroes in on sexual ethics, which he notes is one of the main themes of George’s essays on natural law. Drawing on the Finnis/Grisez…
Reflecting on the reference to Psalm 69:9 in John 2:17, Alan Kerr ( The Temple of Jesus’ Body: The Temple Theme in the Gospel of John (Library of New Testament Studies) , 85-6) notes that the verb “consume” is a sacrificial term that might refer to Jesus’ death. Thus, “within…
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