Category: Theology
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The Flowering Crown
This post was featured on Biola’s Center for Christianity, Culture and the Arts’ Lent Project on Easter Sunday, March 27, 2016. The crown of the thorns is a symbol of cruelty and oppression—but a poetic one. The rightful king of creation enters his realm, only to find himself crowned with the very thorns that choke…
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The Chamber of Victory: Harry Potter and the Atonement, Part II
The Chamber of Secrets picks up where The Sorcerer’s Stone left off, continuing its provocative and creative exploration of salvation. There are angry demands for punishment (144; and the dismissal thereof (330)), an “heir” which will purge the school of unclean Mudblood filth (151, 224), freedom for “the lowly, the enslaved” Dobby (177, 337-8), the…
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“Learning, by Means of Important Texts, to Read” (Barth ’48)
A note here on how Karl Barth viewed his teaching in the late 1940s in Basle. Barth was deep into writing Church Dogmatics III, and as usual he was developing the voluminous text of the Dogmatics out of the four hours of lectures he was giving on the subject weekly. But four hours of lectures…
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René Girard 1923-2015
René Girard passed away November 4, 2015, to the great loss of the broader theological community. Though championed by theologians seeking alternatives to traditional views of the atonement, there is much for the evangelical community to appreciate and appropriate in this thought, particularly when it comes to the atonement—though doing so requires care and precision. The…
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An Interview with Adam Johnson on the Atonement
Adam Johnson has made it his mission to think through the atonement, to look at it from as many angles as possible, to explore and expound the glories of God’s work in the life, death, and resurrection of Christ to reconcile to himself all things. He’s written some great books—God’s Being in Reconciliation: The Theological…
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Sanctified by Grace: A Theology of Christian Life
I was surprised when they opened class in prayer. I had flown out to LA to interview for a job at Biola University, and the public display of piety took me off guard a bit. It shouldn’t have. Prayer and theological study belong together. Some of the earliest theological reflection erupted in prayer and praise.…
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An Introduction to Karl Barth
I am an unabashed fan of Karl Barth. I often tell my students that for my money, he is the best theologian in the history of the church. Yes, I am aware that this statement communicates more about me than about him (discussions about who is the best athlete, musician, or theologian are generally less…
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Hyponymic Trinitarianism in the New Testament
You don’t expect to find a lot of trinitarian theology in texts on linguistics –at least I don’t. But there it is, nestled in (or nestle-alanded in, amiright) at the end of Stanley Porter’s new collection of essays, Linguistic Analysis of the Greek New Testament: Studies in Tools, Methods, and Practice (Baker Academic, 2015). Hiding there…
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An Interview with Unitas Fidei
Why did Jesus have to die on the cross for the redemption of the world? And which theory best explains Christ’s work on the cross: the Christus Victor Theory, the Satisfaction Theory, or the Exemplarist Theory? Dr. Adam Johnson addresses these questions and more in his new book, “Atonement: A Guide for the Perplexed.”
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Men After God’s Heart: Men’s Bible Conference 2016
Southern California friends, check this out: The Los Angeles Bible Training School is holding a conference for men on Jan 30 in Inglewood. I routinely call LABTS the best Bible Institute in Los Angeles, though I say that without meaning any disrespect to the numerous other ones out there faithfully getting the job done. But…
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LATC 2017: The Big Dogmatics
Breaking: The topic of the 2017 Los Angeles Theology Conference is Dogmatics, and the confirmed lineup of plenary speakers is as follows: Michael Allen Henri Blocher Katherine Sonderegger Scott Swain Kevin Vanhoozer John Webster The conference will be January 12-13 at Biola University. Save the date! You can sign up to receive updates (call for…
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The Apprehensibility of the Incomprehensible God
In his classic book On the Study of Words, Richard Chenevix Trench describes some of the advantages that come from the English language’s wealth of synonyms and near-synonyms. As one of his examples, he notes the difference between the words ‘apprehend’ and ‘comprehend.’ And his first illustration of the difference between the two words leads…