Bruce Willke
Theological and philosophical essays, usually circling Scripture, Christian tradition, freedom, grace, and the character of God.
Essays
Essays on theology, philosophy, biblical interpretation, and public argument.
- Aug 14, 2026 When Christianity Becomes American The Americanization of Christianity did not begin with American nationalism. Nationalism is one of the consequences of a much deeper problem. Christiani...
- Aug 1, 2026 Postmillennialism and the Visible Kingdom Looking back, I think my move toward a sacramental and visible Church was probably influenced more by postmillennialism than I realized at the time.
- Aug 1, 2026 The Desert and the Wellspring I have become increasingly convinced that a low view of the Church leaves a person alone in the desert with his thoughts.
- Jul 28, 2026 The Hypostasis of Marriage One of the things that has become increasingly beautiful to me is how God reveals heavenly realities through tangible ones. We often speak of metaphors...
- Jul 25, 2026 St. John of Damascus and Why Images Matter I’ve been reading On the Divine Images by St. John of Damascus, and one thing keeps standing out to me. His defense of images isn’t really about paint a...
- Jul 25, 2026 Terminator 2 and the Christian Imagination One of the things I enjoy about good stories is that they often tell truths their authors may not have consciously intended. Whether deliberately or sim...
- Jul 25, 2026 The Hand That Wrote Again I've been working through the rest of St John of Damascus's *On the Orthodox Faith*, and somewhere in it I realized I had never read his life. I should...
- Jul 25, 2026 There Is a Poetic Way of Informing the World One of the biggest changes in how I read Scripture and even how I look at the world has been learning that there is a poetic way of speaking that is act...
- Jul 25, 2026 What Exactly Happened on the Cross? One of the questions that has occupied my mind lately is this: what exactly do people think happened on the cross?
- Jul 24, 2026 A Response to Common Objections Before I go any further, I want to answer a few objections that I think are fair. I also want to clean up a few things I said earlier.
- Jul 24, 2026 Calvinism, Illumination, and the Real Question Behind *Sola Scriptura* I've been listening to a debate on *sola Scriptura* and illumination, and it made me realize something.
- Jul 24, 2026 Ecclesiology Follows Christology: A Cyrilline Critique of the Invisible Church A Cyrilline argument that ecclesiology follows Christology and that Christ's visible, incarnate Body cannot be reduced to an invisible church.
- Jul 24, 2026 Everyone Has a Tradition - Even James White Admits This I want to be clear that I am not making some strange Orthodox claim that only Protestants possess traditions while Orthodox Christians somehow approach...
- Jul 24, 2026 No One Escapes the Question of Authority An essay on Scripture, tradition, the Church, and the unavoidable question of interpretive authority.
- Jul 24, 2026 The Pillar and Ground I have not abandoned the gospel. I have come to understand more of its fullness and how the good news is truly good. It is not merely something to which...
- Jul 24, 2026 The Problem Is Not Grace A critique of what the Reformed decree does to Scripture, freedom, and the character of God.
- Jul 24, 2026 The Question Isn't Certainty. It's Normative Authority. One thing I've noticed is that conversations between Protestants, Catholics, and Orthodox often end up talking past each other.