Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Postmodernism has, we are told, “decentered” the modern self, that unified, sovereign, isolated, godlike “thinking thing” discovered by Rene Descartes. The postmodern self is not single but multiple; not sovereign but controlled by external forces; not isolated but “embedded” in the world and in relation; not godlike, but human, all…
This is the eighth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. And Jesus went out thence, and withdrew into the parts of Tyre and Sidon. And behold, a Canaanitish woman came out from those borders, and cried, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my…
The fifteenth-century German Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa led a busy and wide-ranging life. Educated in liberal arts and law at Heidelberg and Padua, Nicholas was a leading figure in the Conciliarist movement, and later served as a papal legate to both Constantinople and throughout Germany. As Bishop of Brixen, he…
This is the seventh in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. Thou shalt not abhor an Edomite, for he is thy brother; thou shalt not abhor an Egyptian, because thou wast a sojourner in his land. The children of the third generation that are born unto them shall enter…
A sermon on Romans 3:1-8. 1 Then what advantage has the Jew? Or what is the value of circumcision? 2 Much in every way. To begin with, the Jews were entrusted with the oracles of God. A lot of people speculate here about what kind of advantage Paul is talking…
This is the sixth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. An Ammonite or a Moabite shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none belonging to them enter into the assembly of Yahweh forever: because they met you not with bread and…
Showing page 195 of 309
Showing page 2 of 43
Bede ( Bede: On the Tabernacle (Liverpool University Press - Translated Texts for Historians) ) neatly contrasts Sinai and the mount of Jesus’ sermon. Moses goes up alone on Sinai “since at that time the Scripture of the law was being committed solely to the people of Israel.” Jesus speaks…
Jesus’ claim that He will be “lifted up” fulfills Old Testament prophecies concerning the temple, according to Paul Hoskins ( Jesus as the Fulfillment of the Temple in the Gospel of John (Paternoster Biblical Monographs) , 156-7). When “God glorifies Jesus through the events of Jesus’ hour,” it fulfills promises…
Chalcedonian Christology, Pannenberg argues ( Jesus - God and Man (scm classics) , 344-5), presupposes an anthropology: “Openness to God is the radical meaning of that human ‘openness in relation to the world’ that constitutes man’s specific nature in distinction from all animals.” He goes on: “only under this presupposition…
Protestants make the best ecumenists. We aren’t absolutely invested in our traditional formulas, and we are always going back to the great consensus document of the Christian church, viz., the Bible. Conversely and for the same reason, ecumenists in more tradition-bound traditions become more Protestant. It’s no accident that the…
The Jews who clash with Jesus (John 8) claim to be Abraham’s seed ( sperma ) and Jesus agrees (v. 37). When the say that Abraham is their father, Jesus demurs: “if you are Abraham’s children ( tekna ) . . . . (v. 39). There’s a difference between being…
In his massive new The Gospel of John: A Commentary (115-6), Frederick Dale Bruner has this to say about Jesus’ promise to Nethaniel in John 1:51. He notes, first, that this is the first time Jesus speaks about Jesus; it is “Jesus’ first self-identification in a Gospel that is full…
Showing page 817 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
