Daniel J. Grace

Merkavah Mysticism: From the Opened Heavens to the Seven Palaces

Merkavah mysticism occupies a complex position between biblical visions of divine sovereignty, apocalyptic journeys into heaven, rabbinic restrictions on speculative teaching, and the elaborate heavenly palaces described in late antique Jewish literature. This article examines th...

The Gospel of Thomas and the Problem of Secret Christianity: Sayings, Knowledge, Salvation, and the Limits of the "Hidden Gospel" Narrative

The Gospel of Thomas is frequently described in popular culture as a suppressed secret gospel that preserves an alternative Christianity based on hidden knowledge. This article argues that such descriptions flatten a far more complicated text and scholarly debate. Thomas is a col...

The Gospel of Thomas and the Problem of Secret Christianity: Sayings, Knowledge, Salvation, and the Limits of the "Hidden Gospel" Narrative

The Gospel of Thomas is frequently described in popular culture as a suppressed secret gospel that preserves an alternative Christianity based on hidden knowledge. This article argues that such descriptions flatten a far more complicated text and scholarly debate. Thomas is a col...

Casting Out Demons Before Constantine: Exorcism, Christian Identity, and the Contest for Religious Authority in the Early Church

Exorcism was one of the practices through which early Christians publicly distinguished their religious claims from surrounding ritual cultures. This article surveys Christian exorcistic discourse before Constantine, concentrating on Justin Martyr, Irenaeus, Tertullian, and Orige...

Melchizedek Beyond Hebrews: Priest, Heavenly Figure, and the Mystery of 11QMelchizedek

Melchizedek appears only briefly in Genesis, yet later Jewish and Christian texts turned this enigmatic priest-king into a major theological figure. This article traces the movement from Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 to the Qumran text 11QMelchizedek and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Pa...

Melchizedek Beyond Hebrews: Priest, Heavenly Figure, and the Mystery of 11QMelchizedek

Melchizedek appears only briefly in Genesis, yet later Jewish and Christian texts turned this enigmatic priest-king into a major theological figure. This article traces the movement from Genesis 14 and Psalm 110 to the Qumran text 11QMelchizedek and the Epistle to the Hebrews. Pa...

The Limits of Dominion: Biblical Theology, Human Intervention, and Responsibility for the Future of Creation

This article develops a biblical theology of ecological responsibility for an age in which human beings possess unprecedented capacities to alter natural systems. It argues that the biblical language of dominion cannot be read as a warrant for unrestricted technological mastery....

Abrasax, Abraxas, and the Making of a Modern Gnostic God: Basilidean Cosmology, Late Antique Magical Gems, Nag Hammadi Traditions, and Jung's Reinterpretation

This article re-examines Abrasax (later commonly Abraxas) by separating four historical layers frequently collapsed in modern accounts: Basilidean traditions reported by early Christian heresiologists; late antique magical gems and amulets; appearances of Abrasax in Nag Hammadi l...

Scripture, Authority, and the Word of God: Rethinking Inspiration Beyond the Dictation Model

This article examines the relationship between divine inspiration, human authorship, and biblical authority, arguing that a high doctrine of Scripture does not require a mechanical or dictation model of inspiration. It distinguishes revelation, inspiration, canon, authority, iner...

Scripture, Authority, and the Word of God: Rethinking Inspiration Beyond the Dictation Model

This article examines the relationship between divine inspiration, human authorship, and biblical authority, arguing that a high doctrine of Scripture does not require a mechanical or dictation model of inspiration. It distinguishes revelation, inspiration, canon, authority, iner...

Biblical Authority and Christian Political Allegiance: The Church, Political Power, and Public Witness in an Age of Polarisation

This article examines Christian political allegiance under the authority of Scripture in an age in which political identity can become a rival source of belonging, moral certainty, and quasi-religious devotion. It argues that the Bible neither authorises political withdrawal nor...

The Soul From God: Pre-Existence, Divine Life, Human Freedom, and a Christ-Centred Anthropology

This article examines the pre-existence of souls as a problem in Christian theological anthropology and proposes a Christ-centred alternative that distinguishes the divine source of human life from the pre-existence of individual human persons. Origen is frequently associated wit...

Sophia, the Demiurge, and the Fractured Pleroma Valentinian Christianity, Creation, and Salvation in the Second Century

Valentinian Christianity remains one of the most sophisticated and contested forms of second-century Christian thought. Its cosmological language - Pleroma, aeons, Sophia, Demiurge, spiritual seed, and bridal chamber - has often been compressed into a simple story of a fallen Wis...

The Permanent Incarnation Problem: Does the Ascended Christ Still Have a Body That Occupies Space, and What Does That Mean for the Rest of Creation?

Christian theology confesses simultaneously that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, remains fully human, and is eternally the divine Son. Yet these affirmations generate a question that is often acknowledged only indirectly: where, and in what sense, is...

The Permanent Incarnation Problem: Does the Ascended Christ Still Have a Body That Occupies Space, and What Does That Mean for the Rest of Creation?

Christian theology confesses simultaneously that Jesus Christ rose bodily from the dead, ascended into heaven, remains fully human, and is eternally the divine Son. Yet these affirmations generate a question that is often acknowledged only indirectly: where, and in what sense, is...

Theosophy and the Modern Search for Hidden Wisdom: History, Doctrine, Global Exchange, Controversy, and Christian Critique

Modern Theosophy emerged in the late nineteenth century at the intersection of Spiritualism, comparative religion, evolutionary speculation, colonial knowledge, and dissatisfaction with both dogmatic Christianity and reductive materialism. This article offers a historically groun...

When Death Lost Its Throne: How Monotheism Transformed Death from a Divine Power into a Subordinate Messenger

This article examines the transformation of personified Death from the Late Bronze Age religious world of Ugarit to later Jewish, Islamic, European, and Mexican traditions. It does not argue for a direct genealogical line from the Ugaritic deity Mot to the later Angel of Death. I...

The Theology of Animals and Non-Human Creation: Romans 8:19–22 and the Redemption of the Animal Kingdom

Traditional systematic theology has often treated animals as secondary to humanity, mentioning them within creation and providence while rarely developing their theological and eschatological significance. This article addresses that gap through Romans 8:19–22 and related biblica...

The Theology of Animals and Non-Human Creation: Romans 8:19–22 and the Redemption of the Animal Kingdom

Traditional systematic theology has often treated animals as secondary to humanity, mentioning them within creation and providence while rarely developing their theological and eschatological significance. This article addresses that gap through Romans 8:19–22 and related biblica...

The Palimpsests of Sinai: Christological Readings in Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel Fragments

The palimpsests preserved at St Catherine’s Monastery on Mount Sinai contain an important body of erased Christian Palestinian Aramaic Gospel material. Recovered through modern multispectral imaging, these fragments provide evidence for both the history of biblical translation an...