Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The “second Reformation” introduced Reformed liturgy and teaching into Lutheran Germany. This was seen by some as a continuation of the Reformation and a purgation of Catholic remnants. The effort to carry on “further reformation” led to disputes with Lutherans. As Bodo Nischan has put it, the hottest debate in…
In J. R. R. Tolkien: Author of the Century , Tom Shippey observes that Bilbo is a member of the middle class, a bourgeois. Bilbo does not have any servants, but his hole is “the home of a member of the Victorian upper-middle class of Tolkien’s nineteenth-century youth, full of…
Idolatry has deprived Israel of her senses. This was one of the early messages to Isaiah (Isaiah 6). Yahweh sent him out to a people who had been deprived of their senses because of their commitment to idols. They become like the idols they serve. They still have eyes, but…
In the current climate of Trinitarian discussion concerning personhood, it's good to reach back to David Bentley Hart's treatment of the subject in his wonderful Beauty of the Infinite . Hart addresses the dangers of misreading Rahner’s rule, namely, the danger of dissolving the ontological Trinity into the economic. In…
Chris Kou is the oldest son of Chinese immigrants. Chris and his brothers run a branding and marketing business, Imagineering, in the northwest suburbs of Chicago. In his spare time, he takes online courses from Reformed Theological Seminary, and aspires to be a pastor. Chris is also one of our…
The following was delivered as the Solemn Charge and Exhortation to Theopolis students beginning the Easter term course on Architecture and Liturgical Space . As we will be reminded repeatedly throughout the week, the Bible has a lot to say about building and buildings. Long stretches of Exodus, Kings, Chronicles,…
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In his Octavius , Minucius Felix includes a description of Christian initiation from his pagan character, Caecilianus: “the story about the initiation of young novices is as much to be detested as it is well known. An infant covered over with meal, that it may deceive the unwary, is placed…
Xenophon’s Cyrus was the model Hellenistic king, ruling through generosity: “if he wished to have anyone of his friends courted by the multitude, to such a one he would send presents from his table. And that device proved effective; for even to this day everybody pays more diligent court to…
Drake notes that the “one unwritten, but never to be violated, rule of the game of empire was this: although the Senate could be alienated with impunity so long as the loyalty of the troops was secure, it was impossible to alienate both Senate and military and still survive.” It’s…
Drake suggests that Constantine’s laws opening up appeals to episcopal courts were motivated not by concern “with the power of the bishop or of the church,” nor with a large effort to ensure the triumph of the church. Those conclusions arise from “the limited perspective imposed by overconcentration on Constantine’s…
If Constantine wanted to dominate the church, the obvious thing for him to do would be to try to widen the divisions in the church and keep them competing with each other. That’s not what he did. Instead of “divide and conquer,” he did his best to unite the church,…
Worship seems so easy. We jump into the car and drive over, find a place to sit, and then we just get started. What could be hard about that? When we think about what we are doing, though, it doesn’t look quite so easy. We are entering into the presence…
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