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Writing

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

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Protestantism

More Anti-Catholic Than Thou

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…

by Peter LeithartMarch 28, 2017
bilbo
Literature

Bilbo: A Reformation Hero?

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…

by Bogumil JarmulakMarch 23, 2017
cross-2
Isaiah

God In the Dock

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…

by Peter LeithartMarch 21, 2017
jesus-baptism
Trinity

Triune Personhood

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…

by Peter LeithartMarch 16, 2017
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Certificate Program

Chris Kou Completes the Certificate Program

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…

by Peter LeithartMarch 15, 2017
church-monet
Architecture

House of Living Stones

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,…

by Peter LeithartMarch 14, 2017

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Politics

Silver Linings, 3

Obama’s election shuffles up the politics of race not only in the obvious ways but in subtle ways. He got to the Presidency without moving through the post-civil rights black establishment - witness the tense relationship he had with Jesse Jackson. He got to the Presidency without playing the victimhood-and-entitlement…

January 22, 2009

Jewish War

Madden examines the Jewish War (66-70 AD) in some detail, using it as an illustration of the difficulty of controlling religiously motivated terrorism, and he interestingly points out that Diaspora Jews not only celebrated the exploits of Palestinian guerillas but also initiated conflicts in their own cities: “As news of…

January 22, 2009
Politics

Belgian military

Thomas Madden ( Empire of Trust ) notes “In 1939 Belgium had an army larger than that of the United States.” Today, there are 40,000 Belgians in uniform. Like many countries of Europe, it has a military that is “good for parades.” Britain has reduced its navy from 900 vessels…

January 21, 2009
Politics

Withdrawal

Sage advice for Obama from a 2007 report from the Brookings Institution: “the only things standing between Iraq and a descent into a Lebanon- or Bosnia-style maelstrom is 140,000 American troops.” And if the future of Iraq is not sufficient motivation, there’s the legacy: If America withdraws, “we should expect…

January 21, 2009
History

Useful Idiots revisited

William Weinrich, formerly patristics professor at Concordia Theological Seminary in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and currently serving as Rector of the Luther Academy, the seminary for the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia in Riga, Latvia, offers some important correctives to my claims about the absence of debate about Christianizing the empire…

January 20, 2009

Protestantism and Criticism

From Neill and Wright again, summarizing the assumptions behind William Hietmuller’s early twentieth-century work on Paul’s views on sacraments. Hietmuller placed Paul within the history of religions, and arrived at conclusions that have guided many Pauline scholars ever since. As summarized by Neill and Wright, there are four principles at…

January 20, 2009

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