Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Optimism is “an inclination to put the most favorable construction upon actions and events or to anticipate the best possible outcome.” 1 On the other hand, pessimism is “an inclination to emphasize adverse aspects, conditions, and possibilities or to expect the worst possible outcome.” We can see that optimism and…
If we wish to understand the Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, we must begin with seeing them as a part of the creational order. Trees, along with plants and seed-bearing things, come to life by the word of God as part of…
“I chant slips and irreversible disasters, wiltings, failures, scars, the little disappointments and the large, blue streaks down a world that wishes it was only suncolors.” Paul J. Pastor from Kintsugi Song I recently lost something very valuable. Something I’d had for years and used every day. But, it wasn’t…
In his eponymous book, Jonah follows an exodus pattern. He travels through the waves and east of the city into the wilderness. On a first reading, it looks like another use of this common literary shape in the Old Testament: salvation through the waters of death and the wilderness of…
“Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now.” The unknowing master of ceremonies didn’t know how right he was. We see this play out in John’s apocalypse. The end is like the beginning,…
Read in isolation, The Test of Adultery (Num 5:11-31) presents the reader with a seemingly bizarre ritual, conjuring up ideas bordering on the Salem Witch Trials. Beyond this, pressing questions linger—such as, “Why is the woman in particular singled out, while no test is provided for the husband of a…
Showing page 23 of 309
Showing page 21 of 43
Algis Valiunas has little affection for Gabriel Garcia Marquez , the Columbian author of One Hundred Years of Solitude , inventor of “magical realism,” and one of the most widely read and best-loved living writers. In a brief review of the first volume of Marquez’s memoirs, Valiunas summarizes some of…
Joseph Epstein ” has a very funny, and highly critical, review of Alice Flaherty ‘s The Midnight Disease , a book that seeks in neuroscience answers to questions about why writers write and what is happening when they cannot (a book, by the way, that was breathlessly reviewed recently on…
David Warren examines Edward Said ‘s Orientalism and the more recent Occidentalism by Ian Buruma “and Avishai Margalit in the April issue of Commentary . His critique of Said is devastating and he also finds the Buruma/Margalit volume unsatisfying, but the most interesting bit in the piece comes near the…
Agnes Howard reports in The Weekly Standard on new developments in prenatal screening. Last winter, it was reported that scientists had put together a “combination of maternal blood tests and ultrasounds to detect Down syndrome at 10-13 weeks,” and a more recent report in Lancet argued for increasing access to…
Mark Stricherz writes in the April 5 Weekly Standard that the Republicans have everything to gain by making gay marriage an election-year issue: “opposition to gay marriage is a far less narrow phenomenon than supposed. The Republican position is, in fact, at least a 60-40 issue, one that unites their…
Promise of Spring Between the snowy banks, The living water flows. A pledge of rhododendrun A promise of the rose.
Showing page 2103 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
