Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
This essay is adapted from my articles in Theopolis’s In Medias Res as a series of Holy Week meditations. Like many celebrities such as Kanye or Beyoncé or Adele, Josquin des Prez (d. 1521) was often known only by his first name, in his own time as now. “Josquin” is…
Sight is a major theme in the scriptures. The church has long identified sight’s relationship to the future fulfillment of the eschaton. As Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face” (1 Cor 13.12). Sight is associated with…
What is the chief end of man? —yes, to glorify God and enjoy him forever. But how ought man–and all creation–so glorify him? I propose a Theopolitan addition to the catechism, question and answer number 1.5, begun in the last question and answered as follows: Earth’s inhabitants were created to…
Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words. Genesis 49:21 Frederick Buechner once said, “We move into the extraordinary by way of the ordinary.” In poetry, this happens by way of a compressed code of analogs; often, two or more very ordinary things begin to reveal something that…
The evangelical milieu of America has often lost a vision of the fruit of repentance. We tend to simplify repentance by asking for forgiveness. After all, Jesus tells Peter to forgive 70 times 7. This verse must be paired with Paul’s scoffing at the question: why not sin more so…
I. The hemorrhaging woman. En route to Jairus’ house, Jesus is touched by a woman with a hemorrhage of blood (Matt 9:18–26; Mk 5:21–34; Lk 8:40–48). The story is one that many of us know very well. She has been yoked to her illness for twelve years, all of her…
Showing page 7 of 309
Showing page 21 of 43
Orlando Patterson’s Slavery and Social Death begins with the claim that, far from being a “peculiar institution,” slavery is commonplace in history. That’s not surprising. What is counter-intuitive is Patterson’s claim that slavery rose in importance at precisely the moments when civilizations reached their highest development: Slavery “was firmly established…
Airlines lie about what’s wrong with the plane, and how long it will be before it gets boarded, and whether there is enough space for my teeny carry-on in an overhead bin. With all these little lies, it shouldn’t be a surprise when they’re caught in a big one. Still,…
In his contribution to Two Views on the Doctrine of the Trinity , Stephen R. Holmes characterizes the doctrine of the Trinity as a set of hermeneutical guidelines: “What we call the ‘doctrine of the Trinity’ is, I suggest, a formal set of conceptualities developed like this: a set of…
Pastor Rich Lusk made the point in a recent sermon that Jesus’ miraculous feedings of 5000 and 4000 have everything to do with Jew-Gentile issues. Jesus feeds the 5000 in Jewish territory, and the numbers 5 and 12 are linked with Israel - the first the number of Israel’s military…
Paul’s letters follow epistolary conventions of his time, but I suggest that it is just as illuminating, perhaps more, to classify his letters as members of a biblical “genre,” the “prophetic lawsuit” or the “covenant lawsuit.” Covenant lawsuits are embedded in Israel’s covenant-relation with Yahweh. The covenant sets up certain…
Jed Perl doesn’t much like Jeff Koons and his “in-your-face” art. His review of the Whitney retrospective of Koons’s work is a small masterwork of critical scorn. Nothing, Perl writes, nothing is left to the imagination in Koons’s work. Whether he’s sculpting or painting himself having sex with his ex-wife,…
Showing page 531 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
