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31-03-0213
Hermeneutics

Apocalyptic Eyes

Flying scrolls. Red horses. Beasts coming out of the sea. Winged women. The list goes on. Apocalyptic literature in the Bible is like a cross between science fiction and Marvel comics. And the Bible has a fair bit of this sort of thing. Daniel sees visions in Babylon, Zechariah sees…

by Toby SumpterNovember 4, 2014
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Theopolis News

New Name, New Look

Trinity House Institute has taken a new name, the Theopolis Institute. This striking new name expresses our unique vision and mission and captures the unified purpose behind all our specific programs and activities. We still have Bible, liturgy, and culture in our tagline. We still offer the same courses on…

by TheopolisNovember 4, 2014
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Atonement

Not Fearing the Devil

Adam Kotsko offers a socio-political variation on the Christus Victor atonement theory in his 2010 study, The Politics of Redemption: The Social Logic of Salvation . He does this by explaining "the devil" in terms of the Hegelian concept of "objective spirit," Geist . As Kotsko puts it, Geist "refers…

by Peter LeithartOctober 13, 2014
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Leviticus

The Meaning of Sacrifice

Two factors keep Nahtali Meshel from discussing the meaning of sacrifice until late in his The "Grammar" of Sacrifice . The first has to do with the texts he draws from: "P says little about the meaning of its rituals" (174). The other has to do with the grammatical theory…

by Peter LeithartOctober 8, 2014
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Leviticus

Praxemics

Chapter 5 of Naphtali Meshel's The "Grammar" of Sacrifice focuses on "praxemics," the physical actions of sacrificial ritual. Praxemes are constituted by six elements: an "atomact," an elementary physical act or gesture; an actor; an object that is acted up; a target for the action and often for the object…

by Peter LeithartOctober 6, 2014
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Leviticus

Jugation and Hierarchy

Two chapters of Naphtali Meshel’s The “Grammar” of Sacrifice cover what he calls “jugation” and “hierarchies.” The first involves the addition of other materials to an animal offering. Jugates include wine, cereal, and oil that are added to the animals (zoemes) that are offered in sacrifice. Some jugates are coordinated…

by Peter LeithartOctober 1, 2014

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Theology

Social and Christian Virtue

Thomas Chalmers wrote in his Application of Christianity to the Commercial and Ordinary Affairs of Life (1821 edition): “Tell us, if the hold we have of a man’s own personal advantage were thus broken down, in how far the virtues of the mercantile world would survive it? Would not the…

January 21, 2008
Theology

Augustine’s Composition non mal

James J. O’Donnell notes in a superb introductory essay to Augustine’s City of God that the first 10 books, written in a classical, Ciceronian style that later yields to the plainer style of Christian exhortation, exhibit “measured symmetries” that “gradually disintegrate in books 11-22.” In particular, referring to the CCL…

January 21, 2008
History

Rare humilite

H. -I. Marrou wrote in his doctoral thesis, “Saint Augustin compose mal.” Like Augustine himself, though, Marrou later published a Retractatio to accompany a new edition of his dissertation, in which he described his comment on Augustine’s composition “jugement d’un jeune barbare ignorant et presomptueux.’

January 21, 2008

Sermon Outline, Third Sunday After Epiphany

INTRODUCTION In the Pentateuch, Moses came down from the mountain and led Israel through a wilderness of rebellion and judgment. Jesus the new Moses comes down from the mountain at the head of a great multitude (8:1). But his journey is a journey of healing, not judgment. THE TEXT “When…

January 21, 2008

Eucharistic meditation, Second Sunday After Epiphany

Micah 7:1: For I am like the fruit pickers, like the grape gatherers; there is not a cluster of grapes to eat, or a first-ripe fig which I crave. As we saw in the sermon this morning, Micah’s search for fruit on the vines and fig trees of Israel anticipates…

January 20, 2008

Exhortation, Second Sunday After Epiphany

Every church season has a color, and the color for Epiphany is green. Why? In Scripture as in life, green is a color of life. The righteous will flourish in old age, says the Psalmist; they shall be full of sap and very green. Solomon tells us that the one…

January 20, 2008

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