Essay / Theology

The Biography and the Presence

“He whose biography is now before us, is himself with us.” This principle is explained and applied by Scottish theologian Hugh Martin (1822-1885) in his 1860 book Christ’s Presence in the Gospel Narrative (republished as The Abiding Presence). The key idea is that we have

Essay / Theology

Trinity Article in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology

Daniel Treier’s new (third) edition of The Evangelical Dictionary of Theology has just been published, and it’s a marvel. A big hardcover weighing in at just under 1,000 pages, it is a wisely-planned compendium of theology and spiritual life from an evangelical perspective. Every time I

Essay / Theology

Cover Story: Constellation of Truths

The book I co-edited, Retrieving Eternal Generation, is releasing this month, and a few people have asked me about the cover. The beautiful, beautiful cover. There are a few reasons this cover features golden stars on a blue background. One is that I saw an opportunity

Essay / Theology

The Life in Christ, with Careful Distinctions

In Book 1 of Nicholas Cabasilas’ classic The Life in Christ, he sings the praises of salvation at such a high pitch that you think he’s likely at any moment to say some things that only make sense as ecstatic speech rather than as good

Essay / Theology

Thiselton, Briefly, on the Holy Spirit

My review of Anthony Thiselton’s Shorter Guide to the Holy Spirit is out in the new issue of Theology Today. Here’s the most substantive paragraph from the review, which picks out an important contribution Thiselton makes: There are a few theses running through all this material.

Essay / Theology

Anthropology Class for LATC18

In mid-January of 2018, Fuller Theological Seminary is hosting the sixth annual Los Angeles Theology Conference. The topic is theological anthropology: The Christian Doctrine of Humanity. As usual, I’m offering a class at Biola’s Talbot School of Theology in conjunction with LATC. The two-day conference

Essay / Art

Cross in Pompeii and Ancient Theology

In case you weren’t paying close attention, 2015 was a bad year for an old thesis. You may have heard or read the claim that Christians in the first three centuries of the church didn’t use the cross in their art or worship—that it was

Essay / Culture

Pilgrimage to the National Parks: Awe, Wonder, and What’s Missing

We made our annual pilgrimage this year—not to a temple or a religious site (much as I would like to visit the Holy Land!). We made our annual trip northward to visit more of America’s National Parks on our way to see family in Washington

Essay / Theology

Invisible Mission of the Trinity

The Father sent the Son to save sinners. The main thing that should make us think of is, of course, the incarnation, in which the Son of God took human nature into personal union with himself and lived out divine sonship in the stuff of

Essay / Theology

Luther Contra Judaeos on the Last Words of David

I’m teaching a class session on Martin Luther’s amazing treatise “On the Last Words of David,” which is Luther’s most satisfying exposition of Trinitarian interpretation of the Bible. It really is a handbook of principles on how to interpret Scripture in Trinitarian fashion: how to find

Essay / Theology

3 Favorite Robert Jenson Moments

Theologian Robert W. Jenson died this week, after a very productive life of writing theology. His contributions to the field are numerous and wide-ranging, and yet his life-work had a remarkable coherence and focus. There’s an identifiable set of Jenson proposals out there to be

Essay / Theology

Rereading Ephesians

I’m teaching Ephesians this semester at the Los Angeles Bible Training School, which I continue to call the best Bible Institute in Los Angeles. Well over a half century of urban ministry centered on the Bible, and the courses are free. Whenever possible in any