As far as we know, humans are the only creatures that experience their existence as 'a dusty scuffle across a parched terrain' ; 'a tale told by an idiot; full of sound and fury and signifying nothing.'  The gospel finds us at the level of our primal fears and longings...

'Can't see the wood for the tree!' Many Bible scholars are atheists. Many experts in chapter, verse and provenance find these very useful tools for biblical research. But to what end?  The Bible is not about itself; its burden is the Creator God and his self-revealing...

Many who seek redress in the courts fail to find it there. A sufficient setting right of wrongs goes begging. The strict enforcement and judicial application of the law does not amount to 'true justice.' The missing values are mercy and compassion. Were these two godly...

Death poses a question over every human life.  Why do we live; why do we die; will our living have a meaning that goes beyond death; will it have been a success of a failure?  In one way or another, we all want an answer to this conundrum. Jesus meets us with his claim...

Ideal religion centers not on our approach to God but on his approaching us. The difference between those two models of spirituality is also the difference between a dull and laborious devotion and one that causes the spirit to soar with gladness. Such joy is driven to...

The stunning success of science since the 17th century made us confident enough to assert that self-conscious life is the product of time plus chance; that matter is all there is, and we are just highly sophisticated matter. But we cannot live as if that is so. Matter...

Love's chief element is giving. To give from one's surplus, from one's abundance is cheap. But to give what is irreplaceable is costly. The Firstborn son in an Ancient Near Eastern family was tantamount to the father's giving up himself; it was an unthinkable sacrifice...

Horns are symbols of strength and conquering power in the Bible. Here, Babylon and Medo-Persia are in view. Amazingly, there hegemony will not be ended by power similar to theirs. Instead lowly craftsmen--builders--will put them to flight. God does not use conventional...

It's hard for us to conceive of greater personalities and greater events than those we have looked to from within our own cultural history. A man blind from his birth who has learned to make his way in the world using his stick, struggles to imagine a more dependable d...

A mother says to her small child, 'Come on sweetie, you can do it; Mommy is here.'  What is she trying to achieve?  Her offspring's maturity into fully functioning, self-conscious, self-determining being.  If God did for us, all that he asks of us, he would do a better...