Vancouver, BC, is the most expensive housing market in North America, but, as James Surowiecki reports in the New Yorker, this has little to do with the local economy and everything to do with the globalization of real estate: “A torrent of capital from wealthy people in emerging markets – from China, above all, but also from Latin America, Russia, and the Middle East – has flowed into the real-estate markets of big cities in other countries, driving up prices and causing... Read more
The God revealed in the Bible is a jealous God, a God who clings to and protects what is His. His name is Jealous (Exodus 34:14), and His jealousy often breaks out in wrath (Deuteronomy 32:16). Jealousy appears to be one of God’s distasteful character traits, and modern theologians have often avoided, downplayed, or denied it. Paul offers a different angel. “Bear with me in a little folly,” he says, and then explains himself: “I am jealousy for you with... Read more
The woman of Revelation 12 starts out as queen of heaven but is quickly found not only on earth but all the way out in the wilderness. Even before the dragon is cast out, she leaves heaven. Her story follows the story of Israel. A lamb’s blood is shed (v. 11) and the woman is saved from the threat of the dragon and finds a place prepared out n the wilderness (v. 6), to which she escapes with the help of... Read more
Pastor Rich Lusk reflects on the difficulties of pursuing Reformational Catholicism in the Bible Belt at the Trinity House site. Read more
Uche Anizor writes (Kings and Priests, 78-9) analyzes Psalm 119 as a “developed expression of devotion to God’s Word” and a complex literary structure: “The first is its acrostic form: each stanza is headed by a successive letter of the Hebrew alphabet and each line begins with that particular letter. The deployment of an acrostic structure was likely for aesthetic reasons, with the ultimate aim of exalting torah and showing its magnificence and beauty. The second compenent is the eight... Read more
Uche Anizor’s Kings and Priests includes a neat description of a “tale of two readings” – that of Josiah (2 Kings 22-23) and that of Jehoikim (Jeremiah 36). In both cases, a text is presented to a king, and Jeremiah wrote his account of Jehoiakim to evoke the memory of Josiah’s faithfulness: “outside of Jeremiah, King Josiah is not mentioned anywhere frequently, while in this small section he is mentioned three times ([Jeremiah] 36:1, 2, 9). . . . this is... Read more
Uche Anizor’s Kings and Priests is a useful contribution to the burgeoning library of theological interpretation. Anizor uses the biblical categories of king and priest to harmonize a stress the theological dimension of Scripture interpretation (God’s initiative in revelation) with the ethical dimension (what kinds of people make good Scripture readers? what are the virtues of reading?). King and priest resolve this dilemma because kings and priests are both chosen (theology) and yet are called to conform to that chosen status... Read more
Revelation 12 is an allegory of Jesus and the church. A laboring woman clothed with the sun is stalked by a dragon. The woman gives birth, and the child is snatched away to heaven. This is Christ, but He seems a crossless Christ: A theology of glory if there ever was one. This is one crucial place where Revelation has to be read in tandem with the gospel of John. As Warren Gage of Knox Seminary has pointed out, John... Read more
Pastoral ministry – in leading liturgy, in counseling, in preaching and teaching, in day-to-day encouragements and exhortations, in discipline – can only be accomplished by faith. That is true in several ways. You have to believe God’s word to dare to do the things ministers are required to do. By what right do you claim to declare absolution, that someone who has sinned against God is forgiven? By what right do you claim the ability to tell humans what God... Read more
In his recent book on Vincent of Lerins, Thomas Guarino observes that Vincent taught that Scripture is “perfect and sufficient for all matters – indeed, more than sufficient” (93). Vincent is, of course, more famous for his “canon” that provides a touchstone for distinguishing orthodoxy and heresy, and Guarino’s book emphasizes Vincent’s understanding of the development of doctrine. This combination of themes makes Vincent an important contributor to ecumenical dialogue today. As Guarino sees his, Vincent’s affirmation of the sufficiency of... Read more
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