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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Exodus 23:14: Three times a year you shall celebrate a feast to Me. Israel’s festival calendar was organized around three feasts. In the spring, Passover celebrated the deliverance from Egypt. In the third month, they kept Pentecost, marking the firstfruits of harvest and the giving of the law. In seventh…
Exodus 23:20: Behold, I am going to send an angel before you to guard you along the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. As Pastor Sumpter has emphasized this morning, Yahweh promises to send His angel ahead of Israel. This Angel is an early…
“You are not to boil a kid in the milk of its mother.” This odd commandment is repeated three times in the law. God must think it’s important. But what does it mean? Jews interpret it as a food law that forbids them to eat milk and meat together. But…
There’s a widespread instinct that the higher a church’s liturgy, the more apt a church is to be full of lukewarm nominal believers. Mainline liturgical churches like the ELCA, ECUSA, PCUSA are, it is argued, full of people who know nothing of the Bible and little of Jesus, and they…
Originally, Adam and Eve were naked and unashamed. As soon as they ate the fruit, their nakedness became shameful and they tried to cover. After that, nakedness and shame are constantly associated in Scripture. Why? Nakedness is shameful when it is the result of stripping off glory. Before Adam ate…
We can pray, says Schaller ( Asking and Thanking (Concilium) , 5-6), only because of the rights of children given us by God: He has “admitted [us] to his presence. It is his will that we should not keep silent before him.” Thus, “where we venture to turn to God…
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