Themelios 50, 2 (August 2025)

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

Editorial

J.V. Fesko

On Scholarship, Swords, and Scalpels

Strange Times

Daniel Strange

On (Not) Considering Theological Training

Kevin DeYoung

Does the American Revision of the Westminster Confession Contradict the Original Version on the Doctrine of the Civil Magistrate?

This essay reflects on how Presbyterians changed their views on the civil magistrate in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. My contention is that Reformed political thought has not been static, and, in fact, that American Presbyterianism saw itself as correcting elements of the earlier tradition.

Jared Garcia

Was David Overreacting? Analyzing 1 Samuel 25 in Light of the Ancient Hospitality Code

Was Nabal’s refusal to give food for six hundred people such a terrible wrong that David in 1 Samuel 25 would have been justified in seeking vengeance by killing Nabal’s entire household? Did David simply overreact? This paper demonstrates that an acquaintance with the hospitality code of the Ancient Near East aids in the understanding of the events in 1 Samuel 25. First, part 1 analyzes the ancient hospitality code, examining typical scenes of hospitality along with observations from social anthropologists who study Mediterranean culture. Part 2 exhibits how the hospitality code answers the questions raised from the narrative in 1 Samuel 25.

G.K. Beale

Contextualizing the Controversial Instructions in 1 Timothy 2:11–15: A Response to Sandra L. Glahn, Nobody’s Mother

This article critically engages Sandra L. Glahn’s book, Nobody’s Mother, which attempts to offer further evidence from the ancient Greek world that supports the arguments that Paul’s instructions in 1 Timothy 2:11–15 are temporary restrictions and statements addressed only to a very specific occasion in first-century Ephesus. The author concludes that Glahn does not convincingly prove her argument and that 1 Timothy 2:11–15 still has ongoing validity for understanding the role of women in the church of the present day.

Todd R. Chipman

Fighting to the Finish: Five Roles for Endurance in Revelation

This essay is the second of a two-part analysis of John’s use of the articular substantival participle. John uses this grammatical form in various ways across his diverse literary contributions to the New Testament. One common use portrays roles humans might embrace or reject. In a previous essay, I investigated nine of the nineteen uses of πιστεύω as an articular substantival participle in the Gospel of John. In those places, John collocates this role-portraying grammatical form of πιστεύω with eternal life (3:15, 16, 36; 5:24; 6:35, 40, 47; 11:25, 26). Here, I use five headings to describe John’s use of the articular substantival participle, noting roles humans might embrace or reject in Revelation: [1] The One Who Reads and Hears God’s Word (1:3; 22:17, 18); [2] The One Who Conquers (2:7, 11, 17, 26; 3:5, 12, 21; 15:2; 21:7); [3] The One Who Is Oriented Toward God or the World (2:7, 11, 17, 2:29; 3:6, 13, 22; 13:18; 17:9; 18:19; 20:6); [4] The One Who Is Slaughtered for The Testimony of Jesus (6:9; 18:24; 20:4); [5] The One Who Thirsts for God (21:6; 22:17). These roles identify the many practical ways that Jesus’s followers demonstrate their allegiance to Jesus, serving as a corrective to fatalism or passivity in the last days.

Kenneth J. Stewart

Hardier than Supposed: The Resurgence of Calvinism Across the 20th Century

The past quarter-century’s upsurge of interest in Calvinism has shown a strong tendency to under-value movements from the first half of the twentieth century. These earlier movements provided resources which in fact undergird what we have witnessed in our own lifetimes. These earlier efforts were international, transatlantic, and trans-denominational. They were not dominated by marginalized groups or isolated individuals on the fringes of Protestantism but included thinkers and writers drawn from both doctrinally comprehensive and self-consciously conservative churches.

Joshua M. Sims

The Church as Sacrament of Salvation in Roman Catholic Theology

This article examines the Roman Catholic doctrine of the church as “sacrament of salvation” first formally introduced in Vatican II’s Lumen Gentium (1964). Starting with the pre-Vatican II exclusivist position, the article traces how this doctrine developed from the Church-Incarnation idea, where the church continues Christ’s incarnational presence. The analysis reveals diverse Catholic interpretations ranging from conservative to inclusivist-universalist approaches. The article concludes with a reformed theological critique challenging three key aspects of the Roman doctrine: its universalist tendencies, its ontological rather than ethical understanding of salvation, and its diminishment of Christ’s ascension. The article advocates instead for a covenantal ecclesiology that maintains clear boundaries and emphasizes Christ’s completed work.

Roland Weisbrot

The Role of the Regula Fidei in the Twenty-First- Century Religious Landscape: How the “Rule of Faith” Can Help Address the Existential Issues of the Postmodern Christian Community

This article offers a historical-systematic analysis of the role of the rule of faith in establishing and maintaining the Christian metanarrative and orthodox scriptural interpretation. It seeks to answer who is truly following the historic Christian faith in the contemporary postmodern milieu. The modern relevance of the rule is established in light of the work of two twentieth-century theologians, Paul M. Blowers and Robert W. Jenson, who respectively posit a narrative and linguistic function for the rule. Therefore, the rule provides insights for contemporary theological questions by supplying a framework of faithful guidelines through which to engage them fruitfully.

Gavin Ortlund

Angelic Fall Theodicy in Dialogue with Tolkien, Augustine, and Aquinas

This article explores the relationship between Tolkien’s angelology, as reflected in his fictional writings, and classical angelology, particularly as represented by Augustine and Thomas Aquinas. Two aspects of classical angelology are examined: (1) the relation of angels to material creation and (2) the role of stewardship over material creation that God entrusted to angels. Particular attention is given to Augustine’s discussion of whether the angels “inhabit” or merely direct the stars, as well as to Aquinas’s teaching that all corporeal creatures are ruled by angels. It is suggested that classical theological reflection on angels in these areas can resource current articulations of angelic fall theodicy, especially those drawing from Tolkien. Specifically, classical angelology encourages ways of construing the relation of angels and material creation that may blunt the common charge of arbitrariness against the mechanism of angelic fall theodicy.

Anthony V. Costello

Philosophical Foundations of a Transgender Worldview: Nominalism, Utilitarianism, and Pragmatism

Every social and political phenomenon has some prior, underlying philosophical basis. The phenomenon of transgender ideology is no different. To many, transgenderism seemed to explode on the scene, as if from nothing. But transgenderism is not an ideology created ex nihilo. Its radical ideas and aggressive activism are grounded in foundations laid by other philosophical views – three in particular – which have long been taken for granted in western culture. Recently, Christian philosopher Abigail Favale has identified major shifts in the transgender movement and given a biblical answer to transgenderism’s claims. However, the underlying philosophical foundations of transgender ideology persist. Until these are addressed, we will find ourselves confronted by even more radical movements than transgenderism.

Jonathan D. Worthington

Empathy and Its Counterfeits: Navigating The Sin of Empathy and a Way Forward

In our families, churches, or neighborhoods; in political discussions, situations of accused abuse, or racially charged conversations; in polarizing times, compassion must be wed with relational exegesis, the well-established name for which is empathy. Empathy involves three primary components: understand, resonate, self-differentiate. When we dismiss or silo empathy research in favor of a popular but bastardized form of “empathy,” which Joe Rigney has done in his recent book The Sin of Empathy, a hamstringing of pastoral insight runs rampant. Rigney, swallowing a pop-culture definition of “empathy” against good research practices, has provided a counterfeit to empathy that leaves pastoral counsel about practical and cultural issues mostly impotent. This review article provides sound research on empathy, a helpful perspective on research itself, and therefore a responsible way forward in such polarized times.

Book Reviews

On Learning to Lament

The below is an excerpt from an email written for the congregation where I am one of the pastors.

How could God allow that to happen? If God is good, why is there so much suffering in the world? Why doesn’t he just fix everything?

Perhaps you’ve been asked questions like those. Perhaps you’ve asked them yourself, possibly even over the last few weeks.

How we respond depends, at least in part, on whether the questions are being asked from the perspective of an ‘armchair’ or a ‘wheelchair’. In some cases, the issue of suffering is little more than an intellectual challenge to the existence of God, and is asked from the relative comfort of a conversation between friends or in a radio phone-in discussion. In other cases, the questions are heartfelt cries from those who are themselves in agony, broken, and completely bewildered with the misery of pain, evil, and injustice in a messed-up world.

The contrast between philosophical and personal engagements with suffering can be seen in the writings of C.S. Lewis. As a university don, he wrote a book called The Problem of Pain, in which he argues from a theological and philosophical perspective that human pain, animal pain, and hell are not sufficient reasons to reject belief in a loving and all-powerful God. But, as a devoted husband, he wrote a book called A Grief Observed, reflecting on his experience of bereavement following the death of his wife from cancer. Which book is more helpful? Which is more truthful? Which is more authentic? Both, at different times of life? Each in its own way?

It’s in the pain of bereavement that Lewis writes: ‘Meanwhile, where is God? ... Go to him when your need is desperate, when all other help is in vain, and what do you find? A door slammed in your face, and a sound of bolting and double bolting on the inside. After that, silence.’

Some of us might be able to relate to that. Certainly the psalmists could.

Would it surprise you to learn that laments are the largest category of prayers in the book of Psalms? Take a moment to reflect on that: what might it mean that the Holy Spirit has so overseen the writing of Scripture such that over a third of the Psalms bring a troubled situation to the Lord – not in a cold, detached way but from a place of deep agony? What does that say about our own expectations of the way things should go? How are such prayers to shape our own prayer life?

In every case, these psalms allow an honest response to God in prayer from the depths of the broken hearts of his hurting people, even to ask those challenging questions: Where are you, Lord? How long, Lord? They provide a way to pray through a period of crisis, grief, or despair. They give us the words to express our brokenness, our need, our longing for justice. Most importantly of all – and contrary to what we might think at first – they demonstrate trust in God, because they’re addressed to the only one who really does hold all things in his hands.

Not Without God

The below is an edited version of a piece I wrote for the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, which I thought I’d post again for the anniversary (which was yesterday) five years later.

‘If we held 1 minute of silence for every victim of the Holocaust then we would be silent for eleven and a half years.’ So several tweeted yesterday on the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Although powerfully distressing in its own way, not to stall on some disagreement over the maths, others understandably took considerably more space than 116 characters to unfold the horrors of what took place, with survivors urging that the tragedy never be forgotten.

Not for the first time are we challenged to ask how millions of men, women, and children were murdered with planned and systematic efficiency. Nor does what has since taken place in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Syria and elsewhere leave us hopeful that we have moved on. We are probably not surprised that the involvement of ‘religious’ people in what happened at Auschwitz has been enough to rid some people of any kind of belief in a good God.

Indeed, there are some experiences of evil before which we defend our faith only with deep sensitivity. We listen with deference to those like Elie Wiesel who speak for the victims. In Night, an account of his experience in concentration camps, Wiesel describes in painful and graphic detail his first viewing of a hanging, with the haunting question of the man behind him, ‘Where is God now?’.

And yet, in a television interview years later, Wiesel affirmed: ‘For a Jew to believe in God is good. For a Jew to protest against God is still good. But simply to ignore God, that is not good. Anger, yes. Protest, yes. Affirmation, yes. But indifference to God, no. You can be a Jew with God; you can be a Jew against God; but not without God.’ For Wiesel, the consequences of leaving God out of the Holocaust are worse than keeping him in.

From a Christian perspective, it’s right to have a problem with evil. It’s an alien intrusion into God’s good world. But the gospel allows us to understand the gravity of evil, our complicity in it, and God’s determination to deal with it. And for Christians, God’s wisdom and power are seen supremely in the death of Jesus, who died to destroy the power of sin and death, and was raised as the firstfruits of a new creation. There is a hope of unending joy for the earth – but not without God.

International Bulletin of Missionary Research 39:2 (April 2015)

The latest issue of International Bulletin of Missionary Research carries several feature articles on the theme of ‘Hostility against Mission’.

Here are the opening paragraphs from J. Nelson Jennings’ Editorial:

‘Theodicy, or vindicating God in light of the existence of evil, is a relatively safe philosophical exercise. Actually undergoing suffering inflicted by hostile opponents, however, is excruciating trauma. The former presents a genuine intellectual challenge to faith; the latter brings debilitating pain and anguish. Reports from around the world suggest that more persecution and more martyrdoms have occurred during the past two to three generations than in all previous history. Indications are that the trend will continue or even increase.

‘Participants in Christian mission are, quite obviously, not the only people who suffer brutal attacks or systematic oppression. Moreover, specifically religious motivations for harming Christ’s servants are often intertwined with or even overshadowed by political, ethnic, economic, social, historical, or other driving factors. Even so, hostile actions against missionaries and others associated with Jesus Christ are proportionally higher than statistical projections would lead one to expect, whether or not those acts have been primarily religiously motivated.’

The issue includes an essay by Chris Wright on Lamentations, excerpted and adapted from his forthcoming ‘Bible Speaks Today’ commentary on that book.

The whole issue is available as a pdf here.

Not Without God

I contributed this week’s ‘Connecting with Culture’, a weekly email service provided by the London Institute for Contemporary Christianity.

‘If we held 1 minute of silence for every victim of the Holocaust then we would be silent for eleven and a half years.’ So tweeted @therealbanksy earlier this week on the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

Although powerfully distressing in its own way, others understandably took considerably more space than 117 characters to unfold the horrors of what took place, with survivors urging that the tragedy never be forgotten.

Not for the first time are we challenged to ask how millions of men, women, and children were murdered with planned and systematic efficiency. Nor does what has taken place in Rwanda, Bosnia, Darfur, Syria and elsewhere leave us hopeful that we have moved on. We are probably not surprised that the involvement of ‘religious’ people in what happened at Auschwitz has been enough to rid some people of any kind of belief in a good God.

Indeed, there are some experiences of evil before which we defend our faith only with deep sensitivity. We listen with deference to those like Elie Wiesel who speak for the victims. In Night, an account of his experience in concentration camps, Wiesel describes in painful and graphic detail his first viewing of a hanging, with the haunting question of the man behind him, ‘Where is God now?’.

And yet, in a television interview years later, Wiesel affirmed: ‘For a Jew to believe in God is good. For a Jew to protest against God is still good. But simply to ignore God, that is not good. Anger, yes. Protest, yes. Affirmation, yes. But indifference to God, no. You can be a Jew with God; you can be a Jew against God; but not without God.’ For Wiesel, the consequences of leaving God out of the Holocaust are worse than keeping him in.

From a Christian perspective, it’s right to have a problem with evil. It’s an alien intrusion into God’s good world. But the gospel allows us to understand the gravity of evil, our complicity in it, and God’s determination to deal with it. And for Christians, God’s wisdom and power are seen supremely in the death of Jesus, who died to destroy the power of sin and death, and was raised as the firstfruits of a new creation. There is a hope of unending joy for the earth – but not without God.

John Morris’ Contemporary Creed

The revised edition of John Morris, The Contemporary Creed: Reasonable Pathways through the Problems of Christian Beliefs and Ethics (Alresford: O-Books, 2012) is available to read online here.

Applauded by, among others, John Sentamu, John Polkinghorne, and Michael Green, and written for believers and non-believers alike, the author tackles some of the big questions of faith and life, flowing out of his own life experience.

He writes:

‘My 100-word creed, composed in 1999, was not written to replace the Nicene and Apostles’ Creeds. They omit the problem of suffering which keeps many from any religious belief: “Where is God in a world of natural disasters?” – including children like my grandson, Daniel, born profoundly handicapped in 1999, and who stays with my wife and me on alternate weekends and holidays. My creed hints at an answer developed at length in the book.’

Scott Kauffmann on Common Grace

Scott Kauffmann, ‘The Problem of Good’, Q Ideas (2007).

Scott Kauffmann’s essay on common grace takes its cue not from the problem of evil (if God is good why is the world so bad?), but from what he calls the problem of good – ‘if we’re all so bad, why is the world so good?’

He takes in the fundamentals of common grace, common grace in Scripture, living common grace – in personal relationships and in cultural engagement – and the dangers of common grace.

Here’s his closing paragraph:

‘Yes, God’s greatest gift to humanity – the Cross, the ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate expression of saving grace – answers the number one question of humanity, the problem of cosmic and personal evil. And common grace, God’s second greatest gift to humanity, the answer to the problem of cosmic and personal good, is just as close beside you – as close as the gravity that keeps you from sliding off the earth. May you learn to receive both kinds of God’s love, embrace both kinds of God’s grace, and celebrate both kinds of God’s goodness wherever you find them. May grace begin to replace a fear you couldn’t defend, with a hope you cannot resist.’

John Hayward et al. on Earthquakes, Tsunamis and the Providence of God

Over at the Jubilee Centre, John Hayward posts some reflections on the recent earthquakes which have devastated areas of New Zealand and Japan.

He links to a 2009 article by Andrew Atherstone on divine retribution, which reflects theologically on responses to extreme flooding in Britain in 2007.

He also links to a 1993 Cambridge Paper by Mark Dever on providence, in which Dever identified five biblical principles to help us as we seek to find meaning in the events of the world around us:

1. God is sovereign, acting purposively in history

2. Ultimately, God will vindicate himself; evil will be punished

3. In the meantime, any adversity must be viewed in the light of the end

4. In the meantime, any good must be understood as God's gracious blessing

5. Full judgement and blessing will come only finally

While we’re on the topic, a 1999 article by Steven A. Austin and Mark L. Strauss challenges the view that Jesus promised a pronounced increase in the frequency and intensity of earthquakes immediately prior to his return. According to Austin and Strauss, if Matthew 24:4-14 is understood to refer to general signs of the present age, ‘earthquakes are seen as recurring catastrophic events common to the present age – events that must not be misinterpreted as “signs” of an immediate end’.

Gerald Murray on the Quake and Haitian Spirituality

It’s been a year since the earthquake that hit Haiti left more than 250,000 dead and 1.5 million others homeless.

Q Ideas carries a piece by Gerald Murray on ‘Haiti One Year Later: The Quake and Haitian Spirituality’.

He devotes some space to outlining the cultural and religious background, noting that Haiti has three main types of religious followers – Protestants, katolik fran (Catholics who do not mix their religious practices with other rituals), and konn sevi lwa (those who combine Catholic rites with rituals directed to other spiritual beings, many of them of African origin).

But, for all three groups, it is Bondye (the word for ‘God’ in the native language, derived from the French bon Dieu, ‘good God’), not angels or demons or other lesser spirits, who was responsible for the earthquake.

Murray writes:

‘It is true that God is good. He gives us our rain, our crops, our children. But God can also be tough and even violent for reasons known only to Him. He hits us with hurricanes, with floods, and now with this terrible earthquake. Why? Haitian popular theology answers: We do not know. Like Job, Haitians know that God exists outside of our control, beyond our predictions – and far above our right to criticize. Whatever He does, whether gentle or painful: Bondye bon [God is good].’

Slipstream with Chris Wright on The God I Don’t Understand

The Slipstream podcast for June is now online and features an interview with Chris Wright on his recent book, The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2009).

Chris Wright on The God I Don’t Understand

Always a cause for notice, Chris Wright has a new book out…

Christopher J. H. Wright, The God I Don’t Understand: Reflections on Tough Questions of Faith (Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2008), 224pp., ISBN 9780310275466.

The ‘tough questions’ in this case have to do with suffering and evil, with the book exploring four in particular in its four parts:

(1) What about evil and suffering?
(2) What about the Canaanites?
(3) What about the cross?
(4) What about the end of the world?

A short sample is available here.

More significantly, the book has its own page – Tough Questions of Faith (with a video introduction to the book by Chris) – which contains a downloadable study guide for the book as well as short videos of Chris introducing every chapter.

There are already a significant number of reviews available online, including:

• By M. Daniel Carroll R.
• By Tony Cartledge
• By Michele Howe
• By Donald Kim
• By Scot McKnight
• By Maer dos Santos
• By Charles Savelle

There is also an interview with Chris about the book here.

In addition, several people are blogging through the book: here (Phil Monroe), here, here, and here.

Last but not least, Zondervan academic are hosting a blog series, starting today (4 February 2009).