Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Many contemporary thought leaders have spoken intriguingly about a future without Jesus or, to be more precise, a future in which the transcendent truths of the Christian faith hold little or no sway over society. More to the point, these thought leaders often pose as anthropologists who find Christianity dehumanizing…
Jeffery Bishop’s magisterial The Anticipatory Corpse concludes with a question: “Might it not be that only theology can save medicine?” 1 To that question I want to give not merely a general affirmation, but a particular affirmation. Not only can “only theology save medicine” but, in fact, only a biblical…
John Ahern recently made the case on this site for having shorter hymnals. “ I believe hymnals should be shorter than they are ”, he says. “ Much shorter. 100 hymns at most. ” Swap hymnal for “repertoire”, or “hymns” for “worship songs” and it all still applies. A big…
The Psalter is the hymnbook of the church. For too long, the psalter has taken a far-secondary place in the worship of God's people. And when psalms are sung, they are often changed drastically from what the Spirit gave us. In this course, Paul Buckley and Brian Moats will explore…
The Theopolis Institute is pleased to announce that Dr. Trevor Laurence is the winner of the 2021 James B. Jordan Prize for outstanding work in biblical theology. Dr. Laurence receives this award for his 2020 Exeter dissertation, “Cursing With God: The Imprecatory Psalms and the Ethics of Christian Prayer.” Laurence…
In late 2013 two nearly simultaneous events happened in evangelicaldom: Mark Driscoll was publicly accused of “plagiarism” and Ergun Caner was hired as the president of a Christian college. The first appears to be the first domino that would lead eventually to Driscoll resigning as the pastor of Mars Hill…
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In his study of The Concept of Purity at Qumran and in the Letters of Paul , Michael Newton argues that Paul transfers the logic and patterns of purity and cult from the temple to the new temple-community, the church. Relying mainly on Corinthians, Newton writes: “By describing the Christian…
A hermeneutical rule of thumb I share with students: Chapter 2 comes after chapter 1. It has many applications, as in “Chapter 18 comes after chapter 17.” Make the observation, then ask, Why? Why is that story there , after this one and before that one? The story of Sodom…
After describing the heroes of faith from creation to Jericho with some leisure, Hebrews 11 closes with a rapid-fire survey of everything from the judges on (vv. 32-38). It's a nicely constructed passage. First, six individuals are named, followed by a general reference to “prophets”: Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, David,…
In a 1991 article in the Tyndale Bulletin , Edwin Judge reviews the symbolic resonances of the phrase “mark of the beast,” but notes, rightly that “the visions of Revelation keep disconcertingly coming down to earth” (158). So he looks for historical evidence of a mark imposed by Roman authorities…
In an essay on atonement in the Jewish Studies Quarterly from the early 1990s, Mary Douglas explains “the social origins of ideas about defilement in general”: Living in a community, people find themselves wanting to keep apart from some dissimilar others and to be included within sets of similars. To…
“The ambition of the liberal political philosopher,” writes Paul Kahn ( Putting Liberalism in its Place , 120), is to find that set of arguments that is so compelling that every individual, not corrupted by the illogic of interest, would necessarily affirm those reasons as his own.” Because it assumes…
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