covenant

Biblical scholar Mari Joerstad and indigenous activist Nick Estes challenge our human-centered worldview.

Eugene McCarraher explains how money became our object of worship.

The ancient stories of Genesis bear witness to a created world that is interconnected and has value in God’s eyes.

How does theology shape Jewish democracy, in light of the many competing claims and complex relationships in the land of Israel?

Jon Levenson's new book reflects on the theme of the love of God in the Hebrew Bible. The three components of his subtitle suggest the range and depth of his exposition.

For there to be a heresy about the cross, there would have to be an orthodoxy about it. Michael Gorman argues that contentions over how Jesus saves lead to an inadequate grasp of what the Passion means and does.

In my lectionary columns and posts for the first two weeks in Lent, I am suggesting the Lenten theme of covenant. God’s plan of salvation is founded on a faithful relationship extended over time and space.

Over the past 20-plus years in my own faith journey, the Bible’s anthropology has taken primacy for me over its theology, providing a crucial reason for the importance of covenant to salvation. René Girard’s work proposes that what has “saved” us as a species—thus far—are the false gods of our own unconscious creation.

Lent began as a time of preparation for the covenant of baptism. The Year B Lenten readings very much ring out this theme of covenant, starting this Sunday with the covenant with Noah and its interpretation in 1 Peter as the covenant of baptism. The coming weeks feature the covenants with Abraham and with Moses and finally the covenant written upon our hearts in Jeremiah 31. Developing the theme of covenant might be an edifying way to let these Lenten scripture readings prepare congregations for Holy Week—especially the high drama of the Easter Vigil, centered on the waters of baptism.

There are many people with whom I have not had an affair. Billions. There is also one man in particular.

N.T. Wright aims to show how Paul's story of the crucified and risen Messiah is at the same time the story of Israel rescued from extended exile.

Monastic vows sound familiar to anyone who's been to a wedding. In both marriage and celibacy, we promise to be faithful.

Blessings and curses? My usual relational language with God does not include curses.