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

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

Living in Love and Faith

Several years in the making – and not without controversy – the Church of England has today released a set of resources on Living in Love and Faith, billed as ‘Christian teaching and learning about identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage’.

The main website is here, which has more information about the project, and from where the Living in Love and Faith Learning Hub can be accessed (including access to the book, podcasts, a course with films and discussion questions, and other resources) in return for an email address.

Update: Andrew Goddard (a consultant on the Co-Ordinating Group of Living in Love and Faith) provides a very helpful introduction and overview here: ‘LLF for Dummies: 10 FAQs about the Church of England’s new teaching and learning resources on identity, sexuality, relationships and marriage.’

Further Update: A pdf of the full book can be downloaded here.

Martin Davie on Glorifying God in Our Body

Martin Davie, Glorify God in Your Body: Human Identity and Flourishing in Marriage, Singleness and Friendship (London: CEEC, 2018).

The Church of England Evangelical Council (CEEC) has published the above book, written by Martin Davie with some collaborators.

I happily ordered the hard copy today, but have just discovered that the book has been made freely available in various formats from this page, with a pdf here.

The back cover blurb is as follows:

‘This study, written by Dr Martin Davie in collaboration with a representative group of other Evangelical theologians, is commended by the Church of England Evangelical Council as a resource in the discussions taking place in the Church of England in relation to the House of Bishops’ “Living in Love and Faith: Christian teaching and learning about human identity, sexuality and marriage” project.

‘It explores a Christian approach to human identity, marriage, singleness, friendship, sex and family life in the light of the worldview that is laid out for us in Scripture and the classical Christian tradition. It considers the current challenges to this approach arising from the sexual revolution and from technological developments in the fields of birth control and infertility treatment and looks at how Christians should respond to them in ways that will enable them to fulfil St. Paul’s injunction to “glorify God in your body” (1 Corinthians 6:20).’

Centre for Public Christianity (November 2016)

Among other items of interest, the Centre for Public Christianity has posted an audio interview on the science behind gender identity and the experience of being transgender, and a video interview with American theologian William Cavanaugh on the popularity of Donald Trump, recorded in July before Trump’s election win.

Ethics in Brief Volume 21, Nos. 3 & 4 (2016)

Two issues from Volume 21 of Ethics in Brief, published by The Kirby Laing Institute for Christian Ethics, are now available online:

Philip J. Sampson

Evangelical Spirituality and Hunting

This article examines the current indifference of British evangelicals towards the ethical issues raised by hunting for sport. It calls for a retrieval of an older, Reformation tradition in which such hunting was seen as not only unethical but also spiritually dangerous. 

Andrew Sloane

‘Male and Female He Created Them’? Theological Reflections on Gender, Biology and Identity

This paper reflects theologically on gender, biology and identity in light of ambiguous sexual biology (‘intersex’) and psychology (‘gender dysphoria’). It affirms the goodness and diversity of bodily, sexed and gendered existence, while acknowledging the brokenness of the world and human experience of it. It closes with some suggested responses to these realities.