The seven stars in Jesus’ hand are the angels of the churches, the seven lampstands are the churches (Revelation 1:20).In the temple imagery that John is drawing on, the lamps on the lampstand are the lamps themselves, the lights that make the lampstand luminous. The lampstand of the temple is . . . . Continue Reading »
The distinction between appearance and reality is an old saw in philosophy. It appears in the letters to the churches (Revelation 2-3) as an opposition between being and saying, a (distinctively Hebraic?) emphasis on the word.Several letters describe the challenge. At Ephesus, there are . . . . Continue Reading »
In his study of the sacramental shape of Eberhard Jungel’s theology, The Interruptive Word, R. David Nelson suggests that “in many types of ecclesiology, Jesus Christ and the church . . . are conceived as identical” (167).He offers several examples, mostly Catholic: . . . . Continue Reading »
Andrew Wilson thinks that the Ukrainian protesters have won. But the battle for a free Ukraine is just beginning. Russian won’t make it easy.“the new government in Ukraine, however it’s made up, will be given the briefest of ritualistic honeymoons before Russia uses every . . . . Continue Reading »
Policy debates today are often framed as debates over state intervention, pro or con. It’s assumed that we know what a state intervention is.Ha-Joon Chang questions this assumption in a contribution to Institutions and the Role of the State. Whether child labor laws, environmental . . . . Continue Reading »
What’s new about New Institutional Economics (NIE)? In their editorial introduction to Handbook of New Institutional Economics, Claude Menard and Mary Shirley explain that NIE abandons certain assumptions of neoclassical economics, specifically the assumptions that actors possess . . . . Continue Reading »
Douglas Rushkoff (Program or Be Programmed) argues that we don’t think enough about how our new technologies run, or how they are biased.Most of us know how to use software; few know how to make it, and we don’t think about how those who do make it are making their decisions, how their . . . . Continue Reading »
The Balaamites of Pergamum and Jezebel in Thyatira have the same teaching. Both entice the saints to fornication, which much be a spiritual form of adultery, and to each things sacrificed to idols.These twin sins link back to the apostolic decree after the Council of Jerusalem, which forbade . . . . Continue Reading »
The church at Smyrna will suffer “ten days” (Revelation 2:10). That suggests a brief tribulation, but why ten days?There are various speculations, but James Jordan’s suggestion seems the most fruitful: The ten day tribulation refers to the period between the feast of trumpets (Day . . . . Continue Reading »
In an essay on sacred law in ancient Athens (The Cambridge Companion to Ancient Greek Law, 67), Robert Parker assesses the scope and limits of freedom of speech and religion.He notes, “If one asks how tolerant of unorthodox teachings (and cults) Athenian society was in practice, the . . . . Continue Reading »
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