Themelios 50, 1 (April 2025)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb

A Case for Education Today

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Glorifying Service in Self-Obsessed Times

Mark Saucy

The Future of Difference: Evangelicals and Gender Essentialism

Against a wider cultural narrative that now pathologizes even biologically determined differences between men and women, evangelicals respond with a theological anthropology grounded in the biblical texts. This essay briefly traces the intellectual history of those determined to erase gender difference and in contrast proposes a biblical paradigm of difference based upon the theology of the body and the relationality of the soul. A final section offers an analysis of evangelical egalitarianism and complementarianism against the culture’s paradigm and the proposed biblical account. Both sides make important contributions to the issue, but only one, appropriately modified, offers a way into the fullness of Scripture’s message the church needs in our cultural moment.

Megan Stedman

“Ancient Gnosticism in New Garb?” Gnostic Anthropology, Transgenderism, and a Response from Tertullian

A number of Christian scholars, such as Oliver O’Donovan and Nancy Pearcey, have compared the modern transgender movement with the ancient heresy of Gnosticism. While this comparison is a common one, it is worth evaluating its validity. Examining the early church’s dialogue with gnostic thought provides valuable insights into the validity of a comparison of ancient Gnosticism with the ideas behind transgenderism. A survey of ancient gnostic sources, the work of Tertullian, and the claims of queer theory shows that such a comparison is viable when properly nuanced. Therefore, Tertullian’s refutation of Gnostic thought has much to offer the contemporary church as it attempts to engage with the transgender movement.

Jonathan Ginn

The Tree of Life in the Book of Proverbs

This study seeks to discern what connection – if any – there might be between the use of “tree of life”… in the books of Proverbs and Genesis 1–3. It attempts, first, to understand how Solomon’s worldview has been shaped by the Torah and the Davidic Covenant. Next, it considers all four occurrences of “tree of life” in Proverbs (3:18; 11:30; 13:12; 15:4) within their respective literary and structural contexts. Ultimately, it concludes that Solomon has employed “tree of life” to teach his son – the future Davidic king – the proper pathway towards re-entering the Edenic experience of covenant life with Yahweh.

Donnie L. DeBord

Granted Life in Himself: Is It Plausible to See Eternal Generation in John 5:26?

Eternal generation once stood as a cornerstone of Christian theology, shaping our understanding of the Trinity, Christ, and salvation. Yet, it faces the charge of lacking scriptural support. This article hopes to provide an exegetical examination of John 5:26 to see if the text does provide a firm grounding for the doctrine of eternal generation and how it could shape our understanding of the doctrine.

Todd R Chipman

Faith and the Future: The Role of the Believer in the Gospel of John

John’s lexical and grammatical choices portray his vision for how believers should respond to God’s revelation in his Son. John uses the articular substantival participle in a way that can best be described as a role John would have believers embrace or reject to demonstrate their allegiance to Jesus. Effectively, these articular substantival participles are like roles in the Jesus drama. In his Gospel, John writes πιστεύω as an articular substantival participle nineteen times. Nearly half of these John collocates with references to eternal life. In this essay, I employ four headings to describe John’s collocation of πιστεύω as an articular substantival participle and references to eternal life in his Gospel: (1) New Birth, Believing, and Eternal Life (John 3:15, 16, 36); (2) Believing Jesus’s Words and Eternal Life (John 5:24); (3) Believing, Satisfaction of Hunger and Thirst, and Eternal Life (John 6:35, 40, 47); and (4) Believing, Resurrection, and Eternal Life (John 11:25, 26). I conclude that John’s description of the role of the believer portrays the quality of eternal life available to Jesus’s followers before natural death and the quantity of life they will enjoy with God after natural death. I argue that John’s now-and-forever framework of eternal life emboldens believers to testify of Jesus before natural death since they are sure of what they will enjoy with him in eternity.

Michael S. Yu

Not I, But Christ: An Exploration of Galatians 2:17–20

In Galatians 2:15–21 the apostle Paul addresses the core issue of the epistle and sets forth his central thesis concerning the “truth of the gospel.” While justification by faith figures prominently in the passage, to some interpreters Paul appears to shift his emphasis in verses 17–20 towards other theological matters. This article offers a reading of Galatians 2:17–20 that keeps forensic concerns at the forefront of Paul’s thinking and suggests that justification is his consistent focus throughout Galatians 2:15–21. Such an interpretation also coheres with the priority of the forensic principle in the apostle’s soteriology.

Phil Thompson

A Taxonomy of Interpretations for Colossians 1:24

Interpreters need a systematic taxonomy for interpreting Colossians 1:24, a pivotal yet challenging passage in Colossians. One’s interpretation of this verse holds vast implications for Pauline studies and New Testament studies. Existing interpretive frameworks provide limited help, but a conceptual matrix that modifies the approach of Jacob Kremer provides a better approach for mapping existing and future interpretations of the verse. This taxonomy plots interpretations along two axes: literal/historical versus spiritual/ongoing lack, and internal/personal versus external/corporate goals. If successful, this taxonomy will help future interpreters speak with far greater clarity about their own positions and the positions of others.

Isaac Tuttle

Slavery, Submission, and Separate Spheres: Robert Dabney and Charles Hodge on the Submission of Wives and Enslaved People

Robert Dabney and Charles Hodge were two of the most influential Presbyterian theologians of nineteenth-century America. This paper is a comparative analysis of how they each thought about submission in the institutions of marriage and slavery. As a theologian, professor, and Confederate chaplain, Robert Dabney developed stringent arguments for both slavery and patriarchy, wedding them in his defense of hierarchy and the social order. The Princeton theology professor Charles Hodge represents a moderate approach to both the question of slavery and marital relations, but his nuance did not prevent him from slipping into the cultural assumptions of his day.

Ryan Currie

Christ Existing as Church-Community: Bonhoeffer’s Ecclesiology and Religionless Christianity

Bonhoeffer’s theology is well known for generating many contradictory interpretations. This is especially the case for his concept of “religionless Christianity.” In this article, I argue that the religionless Christianity of Letters and Papers from Prison must be understood in light of his theology of sin and ecclesiology. Bonhoeffer’s theology of the church presented in his earlier academic works provides the interpretive key to understanding what he wrote later in his life. I present Bonhoeffer’s theological sociology of humanity in Adam (peccatorum communio) and the community of the church (sanctorum communio) in order to offer an interpretation of his religionless Christianity. Bonhoeffer’s ecclesiology is both theologically and practically rich and worthy of consideration, but evangelicals should be cautious of areas where Bonhoeffer was influenced by the liberalism of his day.

Pastoral Pensées

Greg Palys

Cut Off Your Hand, Save Your Soul: How the Outer Self Affects the Inner Self in the Fight against Lust

Prayer, Scripture memory, and Scripture meditation are essential strategies for battling lust. Yet Christ’s stark commands to cut off a hand and tear out an eye reveal the role our outer selves play in the fight against lust. These commands identify that our outer selves are not merely a means by which we externalize lust but are also a means by which we can either inflame or dampen lust. Matthew 5:27–30 invites us to cut off touchpoints with temptation and to expect that this will diminish lust, thereby aiding the paramount work of inward heart change.

Book Reviews

Craig Bartholomew on Old Testament Wisdom and Politics

Most of the recent issues of Ethics in Conversation from the Kirby Laing Centre have been book reviews, and I haven’t bothered posting them here. But the latest is a piece by Craig Bartholomew on ‘Old Testament Wisdom and Politics’, which unpacks the following main points:

1. Faith and wisdom embrace and include in their remit politics and government

2. Faith and wisdom recognise that politics can go horribly wrong.

3. Wise politics prioritises the afflicted, the poor, the needy and those without a voice

4. OT Israel was never a democracy, but OT wisdom orients us in important ways

It’s available as a pdf here.

Themelios 49, 1 (April 2024)

The latest Themelios is online here (and available here as a single pdf), containing the below articles.

Editorial

Brian J. Tabb and Benjamin L. Gladd

Announcing the Carson Center for Theological Renewal

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

Baggy Trousers: Approaching Theological Study

Dave Brunn

Gender in Bible Translation: A Crucial Issue Still Mired in Misunderstanding

This article argues that much of the controversy surrounding gender in Bible translation is unnecessary. One reason is that many of the discussions about this issue have focused almost exclusively on the way nonliteral versions translate gender, giving insufficient attention to the way gender is handled in versions that identify as literal. A careful, objective examination of both kinds of versions together will show that the two sides of this discussion are not as far apart as some have supposed. While there are differences between the various versions, this article will demonstrate that the most significant distinction between the way literal and nonliteral versions handle gender in translation lies in the frequency rather than the nature of the adjustments.

Melvin L. Otey

The Ancient Pedigree of Homosexuality as the Sin of Sodom

Scholars disagree about the precise nature of the sin that provokes God’s wrath in Genesis 19. In fact, multiple transgressions are involved, including fornication, rape, and inhospitality. Christian exegetes traditionally emphasize the apparently homoerotic aspects of the Sodomites’ demand to “know” the angels inside Lot’s home. However, some modern scholars isolate the aggressors’ inhospitality to the exclusion of any potential sexual deviance and allege that the emphasis on fornication, especially homosexual intercourse, is a historically recent phenomenon. This article critiques this assertion by demonstrating that a tradition within Second Temple Judaism and the primitive church attributes sexual sins, including homosexuality, to Sodom and its neighbors.

Dan Martin

Pedagogy and Biblical Theology: Tracing the Intertextuality of the Book of Proverbs

This paper articulates a provisional thesis, namely, that we need a pedagogical category within our biblical theological frameworks, on the basis that such a category was in the New Testament authors’ minds. I begin by outlining the challenges of integrating the book of Proverbs into biblical theology to date, before highlighting the value of intertextuality as the primary inductive method for constructing biblical theology. I then demonstrate through a ‘worked example’ the mutually interpretive canonical relationship of a Proverbs text with the New Testament, providing a tentative basis for a pedagogical biblical theological category. I conclude by outlining how this thesis can be tested and developed through further research.

Adam Friend

Filial Revelation and Filial Responsibility: (Dis)obedient Sonship and The Religious Leaders in Matthew 11–16

Sonship appears in every section, at every turning point, and on the lips of every character in Matthew’s Gospel. In determining the motif’s function, the religious leaders have largely been neglected. This study analyzes Matthew’s development of the motif of sonship in Matthew 11:1–16:11, arguing that the religious leaders clarify the positive concept of sonship from their provision of its negative example. For Matthew, sonship must be actualized in obedience.

Garrett S. Craig

The Divine Identity in 1 Peter: The Father, Christ, and the Spirit in Relation

Traditionally the discipline of New Testament studies has not been welcoming to a Trinitarian understanding of God. In recent years, however, some scholars working in the discipline have argued for the positive exegetical benefits for what they have called a “Trinitarian hermeneutic.” While working within the historical-grammatical paradigm, a Trinitarian hermeneutic seeks to understand the text’s God-talk by attending to the relations between the Father, Christ, and the Spirit. By using this method, the article argues that the divine identity found in the letter of 1 Peter puts pressure on its readers to articulate an understanding of God that agrees with later Trinitarian confessions.

Christopher Osterbrock

The Spiritual Utility of Calvin’s Correspondence during the Strasbourg Years

Calvin’s letters are no mere collection of personal correspondence but served him in his lifelong spiritual formation. Of note are those letters collected during his time in Strasbourg (1538–1541). This study argues for and assesses the unique spiritual utility of Calvin’s correspondence during the Strasbourg years. The reformer is observed in these letters examining himself, seeking counsel and companionship, and recording the evolution of his philosophy of ministry, all this while shepherding his French refugee church under Martin Bucer’s mentorship. Calvin’s letters evidence a desire for theological implication through reciprocated dialogue, which pastors and laypersons alike ought to consider.

Nathan Sherman

A Change in Kind, Not Degree: Labels, Identity, and an Evaluation of “Baptistic Congregationalists”

How do we decide what to label people of centuries past when they had no clear labels for themselves? Should we describe seventeenth century Baptists as “Baptists” if that was not what they called themselves? Matthew Bingham has recently argued that instead of using the label “Particular Baptists” for the English Calvinistic Baptists of the 1640s and 50s, historians would more clearly describe their subjects as “baptistic congregationalists.” Is Bingham justified in his use of this neologism? While this article might be considered a book review – which several others have already contributed – it also contributes to the debates about wider religious labels of Early Modern England.

Obbie Tyler Todd

What Republicanism Is This? An Introduction to Christian Republicanism (1776–1865)

While the term “Christian republicanism” is known to most historians of the early republic, very few have attempted to explicate its unique theology or to identify its various religious, moral, and even racial permutations in the church. Christian republicanism was much more than just a set of political or social commitments. It was also a loose theological system. This article provides an introduction to Christian republicanism, tracing its beliefs, defining its boundaries, and chronicling its lifespan in the early United States when it flourished in the American mind.

Roger W. Fay

John Wesley and Faith at Aldersgate

The importance of justification by faith to the thinking of John Wesley (1703–1791) both during and after his Aldersgate Street experience in May 1738 has long been doubted by some Wesley scholars. This article demonstrates that the historical data surrounding Aldersgate is compelling and points to the validity of Wesley’s own interpretation of that occasion. A reprise of the historical data, coupled with an examination of some alternative interpretations by distinguished modern Wesley scholars, demonstrates the weak historical basis for interpretations that downplay justification by faith. John Wesley remains an important and instructive figure in the history of evangelical revivals.

Ryan Reed

The House Divided: An Assessment of the American Neo-Evangelicals’ Doctrine of Scripture

Carl F. H. Henry, Harold Lindsell, and Bernard Ramm represent three of the most formative voices within the neo-evangelical movement in America. Nevertheless, these three figures held to three different tones and methodologies on the doctrine of Scripture. Lindsell represents the evangelicals that saw inerrancy as a test for evangelical authenticity, as seen in his works, The Battle for the Bible and The Bible in the Balance. Though closer to the Lindsellian view, Henry saw inerrancy as a test for evangelical consistency rather than authenticity. Ramm represents evangelicals that affirmed a broad concept of inerrancy but did not see it as either the test of authenticity or consistency. This particular issue would cause early cracks in the unity of the new evangelical movement. By examining these three figures’ understanding of the doctrine of Scripture, this paper will show how the early neo-evangelical leaders struggled to decide how clearly they would identify with their fundamentalist roots.

Robert Golding

Swimming in a Sanctimonious Sea of Subjectivity: A Proposal for Christian Authenticity in a Made-Up World

There is a curious tendency in modern culture to simultaneously reject objective truth (e.g., “live your truth”) and to live as if it were real (e.g., “you must fight for the truth”). Objectivity has worked its way back into the subjectivity of postmodernism. This is not pure postmodernism, nor a return to the modernism that preceded it. This is a new phase, which I call metamodernism (a term coined elsewhere). This paper first explains metamodernism (sections 1–2). Then, it offers some suggestions for Christians to rebut metamodernism (section 3). Finally, it concludes with an anecdote to better explain the recommendation of the third section (section 4).

Luke Johnson

“Salvation Without Spin”: How the Gospel of Christ Subversively Fulfills the Prayer Wheels of Tibetan Buddhism

With present calls for inter-religious dialogue, Christianity must relate to major world religions in specific ways to distinguish its uniqueness in belief and practice. This article uses one of the five “magnetic points” of J. H. Bavinck, “I and salvation,” to demonstrate how Christianity carries out Hendrik Kraemer’s notion of “subversive fulfillment,” specifically with the prayer wheels of Tibetan Buddhism. The article first shows how Christianity confronts a trust in religious objects for salvation. Second, Christianity challenges a belief in mere mantras for spiritual help. Third, Christianity teaches that humans cannot gain merit through religious works. Instead, Christianity offers true deliverance through faith in the person and work of Jesus Christ.

Book Reviews

Kathleen Nielson on Proverbs

Every month, The Good Book Company make available digital versions of one of their books at no charge. This month (September 2023), it’s Proverbs for You by Kathleen Nielson, which is available in exchange for an email address here.

Proverbs #6: A Wisdom That Works

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;

but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised.

Honour her for all that her hands have done,

and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:30-31

The book of Proverbs closes with a poetic celebration of a woman who ‘fears the LORD’. Significantly, we reach the end of the book and discover that the model to emulate is not a religious ‘professional’, like a priest or a prophet or a scribe, but a woman whose faith is shown in her daily life.

In fact, this remarkable portrayal is the Bible’s fullest description of the regular activity of an ‘ordinary’ person – a woman whose fear of the Lord is demonstrated in her everyday activities of being a wife to her husband, a mother to her children, providing for her family, managing her household, engaging in international trade in cloths and textiles, negotiating the purchase of fields, looking out for the poor, and more besides!

The book which begins with the affirmation that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom (1:7) ends with praise of one who embodies it.

No wonder we are called on to honour her for ‘the fruit of her hands’, as more literal versions translate the phrase in verse 31. In what does this fruit consist? How is it demonstrated? The ‘fruit of her hands’ is the result of her work, that which allows her to plant a vineyard (31:16). Her spinning of yarn and reaching out to the poor are also actions performed by her hands (31:19-20). Whether it’s savvy commerce, technical competence, or tender compassion, all are attributed to the work of her fruitful hands – the deeds that bring her praise.

In keeping with the command to our first parents in the Garden of Eden, the fruit of her hands is a life which brings forth the potential of God’s good creation. As such, the woman becomes a model for all of us – men as well as women, attached or unattached – who are called to be faithful stewards of all that God has given us, in a way that’s productive and beneficial to others.

And, as the book of Proverbs makes clear, the call to fruitful living is applicable in different spheres of life – at the city gates and in the market squares, in our homes and in our workplaces. Far from being removed from the rhythms of everyday life, such fruitfulness embraces a range of skills and tasks, worked out concretely in the kitchen, on the field, at the desk, wherever God has placed us.

Southern Baptist Journal of Theology 22, 4 (2018) on Vocation

The current issue of the Southern Baptist Journal of Theology is devoted to ‘Reflections on Vocation’, with the below contributions.

In the Editorial, Stephen J. Wellum writes:

‘A crucial area in which we can demonstrate a practical difference between a Christian and our society’s view of humans is in the areas of vocation and work. It should not surprise us that how we view our vocation and the dignity of work is directly tied to our theology, especially what we think of God and ourselves as his image-bearers. From a biblical view, work is tied to the purpose of our creation and it is intrinsic to who we are as creatures and image-bearers created to rule over the world as God’s vice-regents. No doubt, our work has been affected by sin (Gen 3; Rom 8:18-25), but in Christ, God the Son has assumed our human nature to reverse the effects of sin and death for us by his cross and resurrection, and to restore us to what God created us to be in the first place. As we await the consummation of Christ’s glorious new covenant work, believers are to be about the task of growing in grace, knowing and enjoying God and one another, and living out what God created us to be as his redeemed creatures and image-bearers.’

Individual essays are available from here, and the whole issue can be downloaded as a pdf here.

Stephen J. Wellum

Editorial: Reflections on Vocation

Gregory E. Lamb

Living is Christ and Dying is Gain: Paul’s Reimagining of Human Flourishing in Philippians

Daniel S. Diffey

The Diligence, Justice, and Generosity of the Wise: The Ethic of Work in the Book of Proverbs

Nathanael J. Brooks

The Sluggard and Covenant Faithfulness: Understanding the Nature of True Virtue and the Call to Industry in Proverbs

Richard C. McDonald

“They were not Brought up in Idleness”: Matthew Henry, the Old Testament, and Work

Jacob J. Prahlow

Rules and Roles for Women: Vocation and Order in the Apostolic Fathers

Chris H. Smith, Jr.

Celibacy as Discipleship or Vocation? A Protestant Reading of Gregory of Nyssa and Thomas Aquinas

Book Reviews

Proverbs #5: A Wisdom That Prays

Two things I ask of you, LORD;

do not refuse me before I die:

Keep falsehood and lies far from me;

give me neither poverty nor riches,

but give me only my daily bread.

Otherwise, I may have too much and disown you

and say, ‘Who is the LORD?’

Or I may become poor and steal,

and so dishonour the name of my God.

Proverbs 30:7-9

Apart from what we glean from the sayings in Proverbs 30, we know nothing of their author, Agur son of Jakeh. But he gives us the only prayer in the book – a two-fold request describing how he wants to live his life before he dies.

First of all, having declared that God’s word is ‘flawless’ (30:5), he expresses a desire to be a man of truth and integrity in his own words – ‘keep falsehood and lies far from me’.

His second request also begins with a negative petition – ‘give me neither poverty nor riches’ – which is then stated positively – ‘but give me only my daily bread’. The prayer goes on to reflect that life at either extreme of the socioeconomic spectrum might lead to faithlessness. The self-sufficiency that results from wealth might lead to a denial of the Lord. The insufficiency that results from poverty might lead to crime, profaning God’s name in the process.

It’s easy to see why the Bible has been claimed to be on the side of both the rich and the poor. The sheer breadth of its teaching on riches means a wealthy Abraham or Job over there can be set against the warnings of an Amos or the letter of James over here. The book of Proverbs itself recognises that money brings undeniable advantages even while it also carries inevitable drawbacks. Proverbs encourages neither prosperity nor austerity; it allows us neither to idolise a life of luxury nor to idealise a ‘simple life’.

Agur’s ‘just enough’ principle is reiterated in different ways throughout Scripture. His request calls to mind God’s provision of manna in the wilderness, sufficient for the needs of the day (Exodus 16), and it reaches forward to the petition for ‘daily bread’ in the Lord’s prayer (Matthew 6:11). Raising financial help for those suffering a famine, Paul calls churches to give generously of their ‘plenty’ so that others who are hard pressed might be relieved (2 Corinthians 8:13-15).

Agur’s prayer also provides a model for us as followers of Jesus today. Alongside an awareness of his own weakness is a recognition of God’s power to make poor or rich, a concern about the consequences of sin, and a desire to stay faithful above all else. This much, at least, we know about this ancient follower of the Lord God.

Proverbs #4: A Wisdom That Evaluates

Do not answer fools according to their folly,

or you yourself will be just like them.

Answer fools according to their folly,

or they will be wise in their own eyes.

Proverbs 26:4-5

Do not answer. Answer. So, which is it? Even some rabbis struggled with the ‘contradiction’ between the two sayings, deciding that one should correct the fool only when interpreting the Torah was at stake.

As it happens, the seemingly random mixture of individual proverbs throughout the book mean the sayings would work on their own if they were isolated from each other; placed side by side, however, they do something more.

As the second line in each case indicates, there is wisdom in both courses of action. On the one hand, in responding like a fool, we risk becoming like the fool. On the other hand, it’s not always wise to let fools have the last word, in case they mistake their folly for wisdom. All of which is even more significant when there are others around, listening in – during a team meeting, a presentation, or a coffee break conversation.

On their own, the pair of proverbs say nothing about the circumstances which require which type of response or even how the ‘fool’ should be identified. The point is that, at such and such a time one response is to be favoured over the other. Wisdom, in this case, is a matter of what is fitting and what is timely – knowing what to say and when to say it.

The two aphorisms also provide a helpful pointer to how proverbial sayings work more generally. Implicit in the book of Proverbs is the call to live with the ambiguities of life, often in relationship with others, and to navigate wisely through alternate courses of action. In such situations, individual proverbs are not moral commands which apply in all circumstances. No single saying on its own contains the whole truth on a particular matter. And so the application of them requires discernment – careful reading of the proverb itself and the situation in which we find ourselves.

And we do all this with the encouragement that if any of us ‘lacks wisdom’, we may ‘ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given’ to us (James 1:5).