Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Since Theopolis began in 2013, we have been aiming for the fall of 2016 as the launch date for our year-long Fellows Program. As it turned out, we had only a handful of applicants, most withdrew for one reason or another (none for lack of interest), and we are left…
Charles Spurgeon once quipped, “If you give a man the gospel, wrap it in a sandwich. And if you give a man a sandwich, wrap it in the gospel.” With those words, the great Baptist preacher captured the essence of the church’s mission in the world. The church’s mission is…
This is a continuation of a previous essay by Lindsey Tollefson . 6. We own everything . Sometimes the biggest thing that is keeping us discontent is because we are not happy with what we have been given in material possessions. Especially in the United States it is so easy…
Proverbs 3:1-12 form a section marked off by the reference to the father-son relationship at the beginning and end (vv. 1, 12). Within this section, Solomon gives a series of six commands to his son (vv. 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11), the first and the last (vv. 1, 11)…
A letter from Theopolis President Peter Leithart as our fiscal year draws to an end . Dear Friend of Theopolis: It was one of those moments when you realize that other people understand you better than you understand yourself. I was having lunch with a pastor friend at a BJ’s…
Learning to be content and completely satisfied in Christ is certainly a life-long process and a lesson that we are always learning, and always being tested on. As I am learning and wrestling against discontent, I am always looking for practical and tangible ways to set my course towards joy…
Showing page 129 of 309
Showing page 2 of 43
O’Donovan makes the point, against Markus, that Augustine does not describe the earthly city as a combination of private ends and public or common utility. This would be a secular system, which leaves ends to individual citizens as they make use of common goods. O’Donovan says Augustine does something like…
Von Balthasar again: Creation is God’s free decision. There need not be a world. “But if he decides to create a world, then of course this decision can only take the form of the analogy of being, which is grounded in God’s very ‘essence’ itself. Created being must be by…
Von Balthasar says that grace presupposes a nature that is free from revelation: “If there is to be revelation, then it can only proceed from God to a creature - to a creature that precisely as a creature does not include revelation in its conceptual range.” Van Til is much…
Von Balthasar puts the nature/grace distinction in simple terms, and ones that resonate with certain strains of Reformed theology: “It belongs to the very essence of the creature that it must indeed be creature, but not a creature who has been exalted to a new order of grace: by nature…
Rahner says that God’s self-gift “can and must” be an “ever astounding wonder, the unexpected, the unexacted gift.” In an extended footnote, he explains that this “can and must” means both that God’s self-communication is in fact unexacted, and that it must be of necessity . On the latter point:…
Rahner re-describes the nature/grace problem in terms of God’s self-communicating love, which is the final cause of creation and the first intention of God: “Everything else exists so that this one thing might be: the eternal miracle of infinite Love.” (Good Edwardsian supralapsarian, he.) But for Rahner, as for every…
Showing page 1560 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
