Kipling the American

A TNR review of a new edition of Kipling’s poetry includes this unexpected information: Kipling wrote The Jungle Books , Captains Courageous ,and many of his most familiar poems on the crest of a hillside overlooking the Connecticut River, with a view across the river valley of Mount . . . . Continue Reading »

Failed Gods

Charles Krauthammer isn’t the only one who says the fiasco of Obamacare threatens liberal social policy. Franklin Foer thinks so too. In sounding the alarm in TNR , Foer gives this forthright precis of liberal faith in the transformative power of the state: “Back when Woodrow Wilson was . . . . Continue Reading »

Barriers down

When John joins the heavenly liturgy (Revelation 4), he sees three main items of temple furniture - the throne (4:2-5a), the lambs that are the seven Spirits (4:5b), and a sea of glass (4:6a). In the temple, these were all in separate rooms: The ark-throne in the Most Holy Place, the lamps in the . . . . Continue Reading »

The Chronicler’s Saul

William Riley examines the Chronicler’s brief account of Saul in 1 Chronicles 10 ( King and Cultus in Chronicles: Worship and the Reinterpretation of History ). Why does the Chronicler include Saul at all, why place Saul’s story at the beginning of the narrative section of the book, and . . . . Continue Reading »

Cyrillian Eucharist

Cyril of Alexandria lays out a coherent Christological-Eucharistic position in his Third Letter to Nestorius : “We proclaim the fleshly death of God’s Only-Begotten Son, Jesus Christ, we confess His return to life from the dead and His ascension into heaven when we perform in church the . . . . Continue Reading »

Love as Liturgical Rule

Nicholas Thompson ( Eucharistic Sacrifice And Patristic Tradition In The Theology Of Martin Bucer 1534-1546 ) stresses the importance of the second great commandment for Martin Bucer’s Eucharistic reforms: “love of neighbour necessarily implied the communion of believerswith one another . . . . Continue Reading »

Triune Unity

In a 1984 article in the journal Mid-Stream , Leslie Newbigin insisted that the basis of the demand for church unity is “the triune nature and action of God.” He gave this stirring explanation: “Because God the Father has given his Son tous, and in the incarnate Lord Jesus Christ . . . . Continue Reading »

Church and salvation

In his contribution to Ecumenical Theology in Worship, Doctrine, and Life , a Festschrift for Geoffrey Wainwright, Telford Work argues that ecclesiology is the proper setting for the ordo salutis . In what he admits is something of a caricature, he describes American evangelical ecclesiology in . . . . Continue Reading »

This is wisdom?

It’s often said that Job’s friends don’t speak falsely or foolishly, but simply misapply wisdom. The problem is, Job doesn’t agree with this assessment. “I do not find a wise man among you” (17:10). And, “your answers remain falsehood” (21:34). Their . . . . Continue Reading »