The idea of “legislating morality” is pretty unpopular these days. It grates against a widely shared assumption that people have a right to do whatever they want, as long as they don’t harm anyone else. The idea may also raise alarms about the danger of government overreach, perhaps even evoking images of a dystopian, totalitarian […]
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What Is Marriage? A Summary of a Secular Defense of Man and Woman
November 4, 2019 
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Sometimes the most obvious things in life are the hardest to define. For example, how does one define beauty? Or manhood? Or marriage? Traditionally, such features of human existence were taken for granted as objective and self-evident, requiring no defense. But things have changed. The obvious is no longer obvious. It’s not quite right to […]
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Does nature need addition? Bavinck against the donum superadditum
August 23, 2019 3 Comments
One of the central points of disagreement among the various Christian traditions is the question of the relationship of grace and nature. Should we say that grace opposes nature? Affirms nature? Perfects nature? Flanks nature? The answer that Dutch theologian Herman Bavinck famously gives is that grace restores nature: it gives back to us what […]
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Thornwell’s Inaugural Address of the Confederate Presbyterian Church
April 1, 2019 8 Comments
Note: In 1861, the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America was deeply divided over the issue of slavery, as well as the broader matter of the church’s role in addressing social and political controversies. It was a question of jurisdiction as much as one of morality. In May, the PCUSA General Assembly had […]
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Review: Jesus and the Eyewitnesses by Richard Bauckham
February 9, 2019 0 Comments
If I had to pick my all-time favorite book on the historical Jesus, it would probably be Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright. However, a close second would be the newly-released second edition of Jesus and the Eyewitnesses: The Gospels as Eyewitness Testimony by University of St. Andrews NT professor Richard Bauckham […]
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Doubting Thomists: John Bolt’s defense of (the real) Aquinas against his Reformational critics
September 26, 2018 3 Comments
Protestants have always had a complicated relationship with the great medieval theologian Thomas Aquinas. On the one hand, the Reformers rejected many of his views on salvation and the sacraments. On the other hand, even in the heat of post-Reformation polemics, Protestants and Catholics were still able to find much common ground in his teachings […]
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Review: Jesus and the Victory of God by N.T. Wright
September 12, 2018 1 Comment
[Note: the following is from an old seminary paper of mine from 2011, which I just recently re-discovered buried in an old Google Drive folder. I present it here in its original form, though I can see now that it could have used a bit more editorial finesse!] N.T. Wright, Jesus and the Victory of […]
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Review: The Pericope of the Adulteress in Contemporary Research
June 23, 2018 1 Comment
David Alan Black and Jacob N. Cerone, Editors. The Pericope of the Adulteress in Contemporary Research. T&T Clark, 2016. 216 pages. They went each to his own house, but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives. Early in the morning he came again to the temple. All the people came to him, and he sat down […]
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Alexandrians vs. Antiochenes on Mosaic Law (Part 2)
May 31, 2018 1 Comment
Note: this is the second part of a paper originally written for a class on the History of Biblical Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Part 1 can be read here. Evaluation of Origen The advantage of Origen’s approach is that it compels Christians to read their Old Testament and wrestle thoroughly with its text. A […]
Continue reading Alexandrians vs. Antiochenes on Mosaic Law (Part 1)
May 30, 2018 2 Comments
Note: this paper was previously written for a class on the History of Biblical Interpretation at Westminster Theological Seminary in Philadelphia. Due to the paper’s original length, I will split it into two parts (Part 2 can be read here). Introduction Ever since its inception, the church has struggled to understand the proper place of […]
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