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Writing

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

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Counseling

Two Solutions for the Problem of Pain

C. S. Lewis tackled what is perhaps the most difficult and oft-heard objection to the Christian God in his classic, The Problem of Pain. 1 “If God were good,” Lewis restates the problem, “He would wish to make His creatures perfectly happy, and if God were almighty, He would be…

by Alexander WhitakerNovember 19, 2019
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Luke

Jesus’ Lamentations

There is nothing incongruous about assuming that Jesus lamented over His people on three separate occasions and that on two of those occasions, He expressed Himself in almost identical language. Two lamentations are recorded in the Gospel of Luke and are clearly marked as distinct. They are also expressed in…

by Ralph Allan SmithNovember 14, 2019
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Biblical Theology

Sacramental Representation and the Created Order

In the Anglican Church in North America, the question of women’s ordination to the priesthood continues to be discussed with each diocese left to decide its own practice. A recurring point of debate is how we are to understand the priest’s representative role in the liturgy. Emily McGowin, in a…

by Blake JohnsonNovember 12, 2019
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Theopolis News

Press Release: New Board Members!

The Theopolis Institute recently added two new members to its Board of Directors, Josh Rollins and Sarah Moore. Josh has recently served as Senior Vice President of Corporate Development for MeTEOR Education, and was previously Chief Financial Officer at MeTEOR. He brings a wealth of finance experience, and will take…

by TheopolisNovember 12, 2019
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Pastoral Ministry

Seven Theses on Practical Unity

Since moving to Englewood, Colorado, I have been blessed to be involved in the nuts-and-bolts practice of Church unity. The pastors here talk about the One Church in Englewood, and mean it. They love each other, pray fervently for each other, and long for the unity they enjoy to spread…

by Tim NicholsNovember 5, 2019
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Language

How to Use Bad Words

One day, the author Samuel Clemens cut himself shaving. He was an inveterate foul-mouth and on this occasion recited the entirety of his iniquitous vocabulary. When he was finished, his wife, hoping to shock him, repeated every word he said. Clemens responded, "You have the words, dear, but you don't…

by Remy WilkinsOctober 29, 2019

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Torah and Christ

Thomas writes in his commentary on John that “things were written in the Old Testament because they would be fulfilled by Christ. If we say that Christ acted because the scriptures foretold it, it would follow that the New Testament existed for the sake of the Old Testament and for…

May 30, 2008

Jacob Limping

Matthew Levering wisely rejects von Balthasar’s notion that Ezra-Nehemiah is “like a brook in the process of drying up”: “Why should the rebuilding of the temple and the renewal of obedience to the Torah, despite the diminishment of the splendor of the temple and the continuing failure fully to observe…

May 30, 2008
History

Bible and intellect

In a review of George Steiner’s latest book in the May 2 TLS, David Martin speculates on the connection between biblical exegesis and the development of intellectual toughness. For Jews and Scots, he says, “there are the intellectual resources built up by strenuous exercises, in wresting sense from sometimes recalcitrant…

May 28, 2008
Music

Music and mysticism

Music is often considered the most mystical, ephemeral, ethereal of all arts. For some, music is for this reason the most perfect, the most purely artistic, of all arts. Maybe. But think: When Bach wants to “comment” (Calvin Stapert’s term) on the chorale “Wachet auf” in Cantata 140, he gives…

May 28, 2008

Matthew’s Angels

The distribution of angelic appearances in Matthew is significant. Angels actually appear as characters in the story only in chapters 1-4 and 28. In total, there are seven uses of “angel” in passages that describe angels as characters (1:20, 24; 2:13, 19; 4:11; 28:2, 5; there is also Satan’s quotation…

May 28, 2008

They sat down

When the fisherman in the dragnet parable (Matthew 13:47-50) pull the net to the beach, they “sat down” in order to gather the good fish and throw the bad away. Why sit? Comfort? I doubt it. Jesus is talking about the end of the age, when the Twelve, made fishers…

May 28, 2008

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