Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
This essay is adapted from my articles in Theopolis’s In Medias Res as a series of Holy Week meditations. Like many celebrities such as Kanye or Beyoncé or Adele, Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) was often known only by his first name, in his own time as now. “Josquin” is…
Sight is a major theme in the scriptures. The church has long identified sight’s relationship to the future fulfillment of the eschaton. As Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Cor 13.12). Sight is associated with…
What is the chief end of man? —yes, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But how ought man–and all creation–so glorify him? I propose a Theopolitan addition to the catechism, question and answer number 1.5, begun in the last question and answered as follows: Earth’s inhabitants were created to…
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. Genesis 49:21 Frederick Buechner once said, “We move into the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” In poetry, this happens by way of a compressed code of analogs; often, two or more very ordinary things begin to reveal something that…
The evangelical milieu of America has often lost a vision of the fruit of repentance. We tend to simplify repentance by asking for forgiveness. After all, Jesus tells Peter to forgive 70 times 7. This verse must be paired with Paul’s scoffing at the question: why not sin more so…
I. The hemorrhaging woman. En route to Jairus’ house, Jesus is touched by a woman with a hemorrhage of blood (Matt 9:18–26; Mk 5:21–34; Lk 8:40–48). The story is one that many of us know very well. She has been yoked to her illness for twelve years, all of her…
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“Christian life is an impossible newness given as an unfitting gift,” writes John Barclay in his contribution to Apocalyptic Paul . Since it is a gift, the “new competence” of believers “is wholly dependent on the life of Christ, present within” (73-74). But it’s important to specify what that gift…
In a 2007 essay reprinted in his Pauline Perspectives , NT Wright gives this tight and quite wonderful summary of what Paul says about the cross in Romans 5-8. He is correct about Paul and largely correct in his criticisms of traditional atonement theologies. He observes that the opening section…
Atonement theology has drawn heavily from Paul, also from the Passion narratives. In drawing on the Passion narratives, atonement theology often makes an allegorical transition from the specifics of the narrative to a more general narrative setting of “all humanity,” even a cosmic setting. Thus, when Jesus says He lays…
In a study of Barth and Hegel on liberation and atonement ( Christ Crucified in a Suffering World ), Nathan Hieb notes that Barth defends the traditional ascription of iustitia distributiva to God, the justice “by which God distinguishes between right and wrong human action and on this basis approves…
The flavor of this is somewhat too Girardian, but still an excellent statement of the Spirit’s anti-Satanic role from Mark Heim ( Saved from Sacrifice , 156): “Satan sows discord, flames the mimetic rivalries and animosities among persons that can blow up into social crisis, and then encourages the persecutory…
Everybody loves Jesus. Gandhi loves Jesus. The Dali Lama loves Jesus. Everybody thinks Jesus just the best. Not exactly everyone, because some thugs hated Him enough to kill Him. But now we see their error, and everybody loves Jesus. But many of those who love Jesus don’t believe He rose…
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