Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
In the Bible, all the world is a stage, but like the Tabernacle, that stage moves around a lot. David’s defeat of Goliath can only be fully understood as liturgy fulfilled in history. Liturgy, as a sacrifice of praise, is the step-by-step process of resolving a conflict. It relinquishes all…
Aristotle isn’t fundamentally wrong about friendship, nor is the long tradition that follows him. But you might not gather that by reading some of the more pointed critics of the classical conception of friendship. I think, however, that the classical view is not only viable but taken up and fulfilled…
#13 in Theopolis Papers, Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World It is time for me to “cast off” integration, the way a knitter removes a completed scarf from the needles. I want to bring my quest concerning integration to a decent closure, though my happy quest for reality continues. With…
Below are some notes on a particular sub-theme of Daniel 3, namely the downfall of Babylon’s liturgy. First up, a few words on our text’s literary construction. One of the most conspicuous features of Dan. 3 is its author’s love of lists . Personnel are listed (vs. 2, 3, 27),…
Few things in Scripture, few things in the Christian life, are more familiar than the Lord’s Prayer. Sunday after Sunday, we pray these words together with our brothers and sisters. At home, alone or with our families, we pray this prayer daily, as Jesus taught us (Luke 11:2: “When you…
At the 2019 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in America, the denominational delegates considered a number of official overtures (requests for action from the regional parts of the denomination) relating to issues of gender and sexuality. The PCA is conservative. As evidence of this, the assembly passed a resolution…
Showing page 76 of 309
Showing page 23 of 43
Yahweh takes a vine from Egypt and plants it in the land (Isaiah 5; Psalm 80). He cares for it and cultivates it. He removes all obstacles that would prevent Israel from growing and flourishing in the land, clears the ground, digs a protective furrow around it. He takes the…
Judah is threatened by an alliance of Syria and Israel, who are frightened by the expanding Assyrian empire. The Lord's response, through Isaiah, is to offer the sign of Immanuel. That is an assurance in the face of imperial invasion. The Assyrians are going to flow into the land, the…
In one of the great essays on Great Expectations , J. Hillis Miller claims that Pip exemplifies a consistent view expressed in Dickens’s hero, which is equally a philosophical view of identity that tends toward existentialism and a closely related view of modern social order: “Dickens’s heroes and heroines have…
In Isaiah 4, the Lord describes the glory over Israel as a “bridal chamber.” Yahweh’s glory is the place where Yahweh and His bride will meet. Then Isaiah begins a song, a song of the vineyard. But the nuptial imagery continues. The Song of the vineyard is a song about…
In an interview with Image magazine, Rowan Williams explains the at of trust that is inherent in writing poetry: “Poetry is always a risky enterprise. You don’t know where you’re going when you start writing. One thing you do know is that you’re not going to exhaust what you’re talking…
Yuval Levin has listened carefully to the GOP hopefuls, entire speeches at a time. He discerns an overall theme - variations on populist distrust of the establishment. It is a peculiar brand of populism, not a protest against a too-powerful elite, but a protest against weakness and incompetence at the…
Showing page 328 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
