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

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American Politics

In Whom Do We Trust?

"Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation. When his breath departs, he returns to the earth; on that very day his plans perish. Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his…

by Gregory LaughlinMarch 31, 2015
macbeth
Literature

Macbeth and Nihilism

When it comes to the interpretation of Shakespeare, Harold Bloom is my favorite enemy. His writing is brilliant, his knowledge of things Shakespearean encyclopedic, and the insights he offers may puzzle, startle, or amaze, but they always educate. How then can he be an enemy? Because his anti-Christian bias is…

by Ralph Allan SmithMarch 31, 2015
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Theopolis News

Theopolis in the UK

Theopolis President Peter Leithart spent the last week of March lecturing on worship and sacraments in England. He delivered four lectures on liturgy in Bolton, a town north of Manchester, arguing that Christian worship must be worship fit for the king and fit for the kingdom that has come in…

by TheopolisMarch 31, 2015
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Creation

Heavenizing Earth: Eschatology in the Beginning

When we think about eschatology, we think immediately of Daniel, of Matthew 24-25, of 1 Corinthians 15 and 2 Thessalonians 2, and of course of Revelation. We don’t, I suspect, think about Genesis. Perhaps Genesis 3:15, with its promise of the woman’s seed, would come to mind. So might the…

by John BarachMarch 26, 2015
baptism
Baptism

Baptism as Exorcism

Alexander Schmemann in his book, Of Water and the Spirit, expounds the question that appears in nearly all the older baptismal liturgies, “Do you renounce the devil and all his works, the vain pomp and glory of the world and all sinful lusts of the flesh.” This renunciation, according to…

by Steve WilkinsMarch 24, 2015
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American Culture

Franklin Graham and the Problem of Reaction

Franklin Graham recently posted the following statement on his Facebook page: “Listen up—Blacks, Whites, Latinos, and everybody else. Most police shootings can be avoided. It comes down to respect for authority and obedience. If a police officer tells you to stop, you stop. If a police officer tells you to…

by A. K. ShaukuMarch 20, 2015

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Anselm and the Devil

Anselm is sometimes accused of deleting the devil from the story of atonement. His satisfaction theory is said to displace and replace the Christus Victor theology of the church fathers, and in so doing to replace and displace Jesus' conquest of the devil from the center of the atonement. In…

December 14, 2017

Must God Save Sinners?

Evangelicals commonly say things like, God would have been perfectly just if He had sent the whole of sinful humanity to hell. Anselm would beg to differ. God created "rational beings" so that "through rejoicing in him, it might be blessedly happy" ( Cur Deus Homo , 315). Man was…

December 13, 2017

Did the Father Will the Son's Death?

Boso, Anselm's interlocutor in Cur Deus Homo , cites a collection of New Testament texts, and concludes: "Christ endured death under the compulsion of obedience, rather than through the intention of his own free will" (276). Anselm denies that there is any compulsion involved. While he acknowledges that the Father…

December 12, 2017

Aram, Assyria, Babylon: The Structure of Isaiah

Three waves of Gentiles flood Judah in the book of Isaiah. The first threat is from Aram and Israel, from Syria and the Northern kingdom. Assyria is the rising power to the east, and that power is threatening to overrun the nations to the west of Assyria. The kings of…

December 12, 2017

Of Saints and Senators

Should we expect our political leaders to be saints? There's a case for saying No. We might begin by making a distinction between private morality and the use of public authority. The ethical question that's relevant to a political leader is the latter: Is he going to abuse power? What…

December 11, 2017

Making Time

In what Rosenstock-Huessy calls "the dead universe" of nature, "time gallops 'like water, flung from cliff to cliff' and is never present" ( In the Cross of Reality , 250). This means that "we get to know time only when we leave external space behind us. When a wall stands…

December 8, 2017

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