Excerpted from Victor Hugo, Les Miserables, trans. Charles E. Wilbour (New York: Modern Library, 1992), 288. "Was it possible that Napoleon should win [the battle of Waterloo]? We answer no. Why? Because of Wellington? Because of Blücher? No. Because of God. For Bonaparte to be conqueror at Waterloo was not in the law of the…

Sometimes when you tug a presenting yarn, it all comes unraveled. Do you remember the Harvard professor Karen King, who overturned aeons of church teaching and history with one tiny papyrus fragment, the one that "evidenced" early Christian belief that Jesus had a wife? If not, here is the triumphalist announcement from a few years back proclaiming the…

As you have probably noticed, a spirited trinitarian debate is currently taking place on the interwebs. Contributions have come ab intra and ab extra the Reformed complementarian camp (see what I did there?), and they mainly revolve around the question of the Eternal Functional Subordination (EFS) of the Son. Here's a quick summary of the issues, and…

NB: This is an essay I wrote for one of my PhD comprehensive exams, which I had to complete within a time limit and without any sources—hence the missing footnotes. If ever I have time in the future, I'd like to revisit it and shore up my assertions with beefy citations. Until then, I hope you…

What is the biological sex of Bruce "Caitlyn" Jenner? No, this isn't a question about the gender that Jenner was "assigned at birth" (as if a gender announcement in the delivery room has any material effect on the sex of a baby), or the gender that appears on Jenner's birth certificate, or the gender Jenner currently…

"My body, my choice." So goes the slogan of the pro-abortion movement. Unless, of course, you are a surrogate—or is that the case? The Atlantic ran a fascinating article recently entitled "When Parents and Surrogates Disagree on Abortion." In it, the author wrestles with the difficult questions surrounding the meaning of fatherhood, motherhood, and personhood—even if sometimes…

New York Magazine has a cover story written by Rebecca Traister that details the rise of the American single woman, both praising her influence and lamenting the wider culture's failure to embrace her in all her liberated glory. It's a must-read article if for no other reason than that it gives a fascinating glimpse into the…

Below are a few resources that I have gathered together (for my own archives) in honor of the late Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. If you have suggestions, add in the comments section below. The following essay contains some fascinating reflections by Scalia on proper interpretation methods which have important similarities to biblical hermeneutics: Law Courts…