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

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John

Jesus, David, Adam: A Reading of John 18:1-11

John 18:1-11 appears on the surface to be a straightforward, if somewhat unusual, narrative of Jesus’ arrest by officers of the chief priests and Pharisees accompanied by an apparently large group of Roman soldiers, all of them led by the betrayer, Judas. But there is much more here than what…

by Ralph Allan SmithJuly 3, 2013
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American Politics

Not So Special

Why is the US embroiled in the Middle East? There are two primary answers: Oil and Israel. Both are fairly intractable problems, the latter in significant part because of the unique convergence of theology and politics that has forged American policy in the region. Dispensationalists insist that we must bless…

by Peter LeithartJuly 1, 2013
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Hermeneutics

Raven of the Gospel

There’s a common theme that arises in the study of theologians James B. Jordan and Peter Leithart. It is this: Context matters. Details matter. This is God’s Word. The details are not arbitrary “filler” hiding the kernel of truth in the husk of the text. The husk and the kernel…

by Troy GreeneJune 26, 2013
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Anxiety

Marriage and Betrayal

Perhaps the most fearful of all possibilities in the world is the possibility of betrayal on the part of someone who is in a “position of trust.” This, unfortunately, is the first block in what ought to be the foundation of every marriage in the world. Every woman has a…

by Richard BledsoeJune 24, 2013
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Theopolis News

One More Week

Only one more week to register to the Trinity Term class on "How to Read the Bible," taught by James Jordan and Peter Leithart. Sign up today!

by Peter LeithartJune 24, 2013
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Homosexuality

Reorienting our Sex Talk

The way we talk about the world matters. Our doctrine of creation tells us that words do not simply reflect reality. They also shape it and the way we inhabit it. Among the world’s many language groups, the Church is distinct. She is called to name things with Scriptural language,…

by Matthew MasonJune 19, 2013

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Many waters

Yahweh speaks with the voice of many waters, and so does Jesus.  That means loud, but it also means that the voice is the source of life (cf. Numbers 20:11; 24:7; Ezekiel 17:5), like the abundant waters in the wilderness. Many waters cannot quench the flame of Love.  That is,…

October 21, 2009

Seal on my heart

“Set me as a seal upon your heart,” says the Bride to the Bridegroom. Now the priest wore stones with the names of the tribes “engraven like a seal” on his breastplate (Exodus 28:11, 21) and the name of Yahweh, also “engraven like a seal” on the golden plate on…

October 21, 2009

New Song

Erik Peterson ( Das Buch von den Engeln ) points out that the new song of Revelation 5 is sung by people from every tongue and nation and people.  Thus, “the hymn of the church is the transcending of all national hymns, as the speech of the church is the…

October 21, 2009

Vestiges of Perichoresis

Hegel’s “sublation” seems to be a conceptual vestige of perichoresis. Sublation requires the Trinity: If all is one, nothing other can be absorbed within being destroyed.  If we have sheer differentiation, all is utterly other. Hegel is right: Sublation happens.  Aquinas does absorb Aristotle, so that Aristotle is still recognizably…

October 21, 2009

Sermon notes

INTRODUCTION The Song of Songs is a love poem, but both Jewish and Christian readers have discerned that it’s something more than that.  Ultimately, the Song is nothing less than the gospel. THE TEXT “Put me like a seal over your heart, like a seal on your arm for love is…

October 21, 2009

Speculative good friday

All history, Hegel says, is the death and resurrection of Jesus, the God’s embrace of negativity and death and their sublation in the resurrection.  This movement of incarnation, death, and death-nestled-in-resurrection is, moreover, the pattern of thought.  As Hegel says, “‘God himself is dead,’ it says in a Lutheran hymn,…

October 20, 2009

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