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This study explores three fundamental inquiries. First, it investigates the core message embedded within the primary speeches in Acts, employing the information structure analysis which was developed by Stanley E. Porter and Matthew B. O’Donnell. Second, it examines the formulation of a creedal statement derived from an amalgamation of core expressions of the speeches and … Read more
What did Paul think women could do in the church? The debate rages on, although it seems to have reached a stalemate. Those who advocate for limitations on women’s roles tend to base their arguments on 1 Corinthians 14:34 or 1 Timothy 2:11–15; those who support their full inclusion in the life of the church … Read more
The Reformation raised the question of Scripture’s sufficiency in relation to church authority: the Reformers affirmatively answered the question, “Is Scripture sufficient for salvation apart from tradition?” Modern evangelicals consider a different question: “Is Scripture sufficient for soul care apart from modern psychology?” The relationship of Scripture and psychology in soul care is often discussed … Read more
“What gain is to man?” constitutes the programmatic question in the book of Ecclesiastes. In his relentless quest for meaning and purpose, Qohelet repeatedly wrestles with the lasting value of everything—from pleasure to toil to love. Yet in his search for “gain,” he often refers to “reward,” especially in the context of the enjoyment passages: … Read more
The book of Hosea holds out astonishing divine promises for the restoration of northern Israel. In the rest of the Hebrew Bible, however, the salvation-historical focus narrows to Judah, seeming to leave out its northern counterpart after its destruction and exile (2 Kgs 17). Has the divine promise of restoration for northern Israel been enveloped … Read more
Jonathan Edwards says that “love” is the main thing in justifying faith. In Charity and Its Fruits, Edwards writes, “love is an ingredient in true and living faith, and is what is most essential and distinguishing in it.” Again, Edwards says, “All saving faith and hope have love in them as ingredients, and as their … Read more
This paper will examine the impact of divine aseity in the discussion between classical theists and theistic personalists. For the purposes of this study, “classical theism” refers to those who affirm the doctrines of divine simplicity, eternality, immutability, impassibility, and aseity. “Theistic personalists” refers to those who redefine or reject the previously mentioned doctrinal positions, … Read more
Scholars discussing marriage and divorce in Matthew typically only focus on Jesus’ instructions to the crowds in 5:31-32 and to the Pharisees in 19:3-12. The Matthean theology of marriage is incomplete, though, without also taking his correction of the Sadducees and its teleological ethics in 22:23-32 into consideration: Matthean creation theology in the reference to … Read more
The Great Schism is the source of the ecumenical rift between the Eastern and the Western tradition. The East, largely understood as monastics/ascetics relying on the Cappadocians, and the West, largely understood as scholastics with the later Latin tradition, disagree on various points. One, which has drifted from the centrality of the distinction, is the … Read more
Jürgen Moltmann claimed some decades ago that “A. Schlatter, Jesu Gottheit und das Kreuz, 1913, deserves to be recalled from oblivion in the context of today’s Christological questions.” This presentation offers an introduction to Schlatter’s Jesus’ Divinity and the Cross (1901, 1913), in which he critically engages with Konrad Grass’ study, “On the Doctrine of … Read more