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31-03-0213
Hermeneutics

Apocalyptic Eyes

Flying scrolls. Red horses. Beasts coming out of the sea. Winged women. The list goes on. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible is like a cross between science fiction and Marvel comics. And the Bible has a fair bit of this sort of thing. Daniel sees visions in Babylon, Zechariah sees…

by Toby SumpterNovember 4, 2014
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Theopolis News

New Name, New Look

Trinity House Institute has taken a new name, the Theopolis Institute. This striking new name expresses our unique vision and mission and captures the unified purpose behind all our specific programs and activities. We still have Bible, liturgy, and culture in our tagline. We still offer the same courses on…

by TheopolisNovember 4, 2014
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Atonement

Not Fearing the Devil

Adam Kotsko offers a socio-political variation on the Christus Victor atonement theory in his 2010 study, The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation . He does this by explaining "the devil" in terms of the Hegelian concept of "objective spirit," Geist . As Kotsko puts it, Geist "refers…

by Peter LeithartOctober 13, 2014
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Leviticus

The Meaning of Sacrifice

Two factors keep Nahtali Meshel from discussing the meaning of sacrifice until late in his The "Grammar" of Sacrifice . The first has to do with the texts he draws from: "P says little about the meaning of its rituals" (174). The other has to do with the grammatical theory…

by Peter LeithartOctober 8, 2014
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Leviticus

Praxemics

Chapter 5 of Naphtali Meshel's The "Grammar" of Sacrifice focuses on "praxemics," the physical actions of sacrificial ritual. Praxemes are constituted by six elements: an "atomact," an elementary physical act or gesture; an actor; an object that is acted up; a target for the action and often for the object…

by Peter LeithartOctober 6, 2014
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Leviticus

Jugation and Hierarchy

Two chapters of Naphtali Meshel’s The “Grammar” of Sacrifice cover what he calls “jugation” and “hierarchies.” The first involves the addition of other materials to an animal offering. Jugates include wine, cereal, and oil that are added to the animals (zoemes) that are offered in sacrifice. Some jugates are coordinated…

by Peter LeithartOctober 1, 2014

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Theology

Rehabilitating patriarchy

Russell Moore gave a vigorous presentation at ETS on why egalitarians are winning the evangelical gender debate. He summarized some of the recent sociological work on evangelical family life, which presents a mixed picture. On the one hand, Bradford Wilcox’s Soft Patriarchs, New Men shows that evangelical fathers are not…

November 18, 2005
Literature

Herod’s fears

In For the Time Being , W. H. Auden described Herod’s reaction to the news that “God has been born.” If this is true, and if the news gets out, Herod thinks, all is lost; confusion will reign. The passage is one of the most effective descriptions of the nature…

November 17, 2005
Literature

Herod’s fears

In For the Time Being , W. H. Auden described Herod’s reaction to the news that “God has been born.” If this is true, and if the news gets out, Herod thinks, all is lost; confusion will reign. The passage is one of the most effective descriptions of the nature…

November 17, 2005

Emerson as Sacramental Theologian

Lundin spends considerable time describing Emerson’s rejection of Christian orthodoxy in favor of an American version of Romanticism, and shows that Emerson’s departure from orthodoxy centered on his rejection of the Eucharist. Emerson resigned his post at the Second Church of Boston because he could no longer administer the Supper…

November 17, 2005
Literature

Lewis as critic

Toward the close of Lundin’s book, he offers a number of intriguing criticisms of CS Lewis as a literary critic. He claims that while Lewis recognized the corrosive effects of the Enlightenment and Romantic conception of the self in his theological writings, he adopted a form of romanticism in his…

November 17, 2005
Philosophy

Denken ist Danken

One of the important themes that emerges from Lundin’s book (mentioned in the previous post) is the centrality of gratitude in thought. Heidegger, he says, “was fond of the seventeenth-century Pietist phrase Denken ist Danken , ‘to think is to thank.’” Lundin expounds the point a few pages later: “Through…

November 17, 2005

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