Essays

Hi!

Below are some things that people have asked for, or that I have thought might be useful to people. Feel free to download them, and if they do turn out to be useful, please let me know. Also, if you do use them, please respect copyright and acknowledge me, and if they’re published, the sources.

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1. Can we trust what the Gospels say about Jesus?

This is an essay on the historical reliability of the Gospels now published by Matthias Media. You can buy it fairly cheaply here. Please do! I hope you find it useful for yourself and for others.

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2. On the First Day of the week

This is a short piece on the historicity of the resurrection of Jesus. Again, I have tried to make it readable and accessible. I think it’s really interesting.

On The First Day of the Week

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3. The New Testament and the Word of God

Is the Bible the Word of God? What does this mean? This is a brief but fairly dense essay addressing these questions, which are of fundamental importance to Christian faith. This is why I regard the Bible as authoritative.

The New Testament and the Word of God

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4. Representation and Good Government

This is a short article written for CASE magazine (No.13, 2007). Starting with an observation about our frustration with election campaigns, it explores the idea of representation, considering Christ’s representation of us, and then of political representation. It concludes with some reflections on apologetics and Christian political action.

Representation and Good Government

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5. Abraham Lincoln, Depression, and the Value of Sadness

This article was published in Zadok Perspectives magazine (No.98, Autumn 2008, pp.10-11). It is in part a review of a book by Joshua Wolf Shenk called Lincoln’s Melancholy (New York: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), in part reflections on Hermann Melville’s great novel Moby Dick, and in part a discussion of how Christians should think about depression.

“Abraham Lincoln, Depression, and the Value of Sadness.”

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6. Jesus and  Government

This is a combined version of a series of posts on this blog. It is meant to be a basic introduction to the questions of the place of government and Christian political action. I hope you enjoy it.

Jesus and Government