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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Technology

Simulation as Inoculation

Every advent of new media creates the justifiable reaction from some that the necessarily accompanied amputation may not be worth the extension made possible by the new tools. This is not unique to the Digital Age. Lamoignon Malesherbes, the French politician who was counsel for the defense of Louis XVI,…

by Garrett SoucyApril 2, 2024
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Eschatology

Reject Optimism

A response to Gage Crowder's " The Hole in our Hope ?" Already, the first pages of the Bible promise a bright future. The story starts with the creation of heaven and earth, where heaven is perfect, but the earth is in a state of formless emptiness. Yet, God takes…

by Bogumil JarmulakMarch 27, 2024
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Eschatology

The Hole in our Hope? A Rejoinder

A rejoinder to Bubu Jarmulak's essay, " Embrace Pessimism ." Whereas calumnious critiques are reflections of more on the critic than the work criticized, good critiques are always opportunities for reassessment and improvement if they are received as such . Since its renaissance, the biblical doctrine of postmillennialism—or “optimistic eschatology,”…

by Gage CrowderMarch 26, 2024
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Biblical Studies

Jesus Did Not Pray to Avoid the Cross at Gethsemane

Several decades ago, a pastor (and friend) mentioned in passing at one of our regular breakfasts together that he wasn’t satisfied with the usual reading of Jesus’s prayer in Gethsemane, the usual reading being that Jesus asked the Father to avoid the Cross at Gethsemane. We turned to the passage,…

by James R. RogersMarch 19, 2024
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Church Music

Holy Toledo: A Critique of Eclecticism

On May 21, 1604, the cathedral of Toledo in Spain held job interviews for the post of choirmaster, the head of music at the church. The position had been vacated when the previous occupant, Alonso Lobo, was poached by the nearby cathedral of Seville, and Toledo needed a replacement who…

by John AhernMarch 5, 2024
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Covenant

The Docetic Covenant and Phantom Church Membership

Imagine — counterfactually: on the night he was betrayed, the Lord Jesus held up an empty hand and said, ‘This is the blood of the covenant poured out for you. Drink of it.’ But there was no cup, no wine, nothing. If there’s no sign of the covenant, is there…

by John CarpenterFebruary 27, 2024

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Cosmopolitan Christians

In her God Needs No Passport (89-90), Peggy Levitt reviews some of the recent discussions of cosmopolitanism - from luminaries like Kwame Anthony Appiah, Martha Nussbaum, Amartya Sen. Levitt discovers one notable absence in all of them: Religion plays almost no role. And that absence is due, she argues, to…

July 13, 2015
Protestantism

On Protestant Authority

In his 1908 treatise on Passing Protestantism and Coming Catholicism , Newman Smyth posed what he considered the decisive question about Protestantism: “to what extent are the Protestant churches losing control of the forces of life? . . . Is it mastering the controlling forces of life?” (13). His answer…

July 13, 2015

Millstone City

A strong angel takes up a millstone and tosses it into the sea. Just so, he says, Babylon will be thrown down violently and will never be found (Revelation 18:21). How is a millstone like a city? For starters, a millstone is a piece of earth, a rock that is…

July 13, 2015

Theopolis Bible Courses

Theology students learn everything except the Bible. They learn historical theology and church history, systematics and dogmatics; they master the linguistic and interpretive tools to study the Bible for themselves. Actual study of the Bible is often minimal. Theopolis Bible courses focus on the Scriptures themselves. Under the guidance of…

July 8, 2015

Mission to the City

In a hundred years it may be more important that you are from New York, Shanghai, New Delhi, Johannesburg, or Amsterdam, than that you are from the United States, China, India, South Africa, or Holland. The city is becoming central in new and unique ways. The great institutions of the…

July 2, 2015
Uncategorized

Gone Fishin'

I'm taking a break from the blog for a couple of weeks. Back in mid-July.

June 29, 2015

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