Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
Can it be that it has been two whole years since I contributed a Theopolis Post! I had been pursuing the topic of integration: “Seeking Integration in a Fragmented World.” I had defined “integration,” simply, as creative putting together. I had posed that seeking it calls for a fundamentally integrative…
What is known as the miracle of the “Feeding of the Five Thousand” occurs in Mark’s Gospel in chapter 6. As with other gospel writers, Mark has a few different points to make as he moves through this story (included in all four gospel accounts) and its surrounding material. Three…
To begin with the source of this narrative: Since no human being was present to observe these events, we must assume that this narrative was revealed directly by God to a human author. There are three ways this might have happened. First, we might read, "God said to Abraham (or…
The serious Bible student cannot help but be struck by the deviousness of Jacob in Genesis 27. If one already expected some underhanded dealings from this twin-born-second whose name means “supplanter” and whose bargaining with his brother for the birthright in Genesis 25 seemed incredibly weighted in his own favor,…
From Barna stats to mainstream headlines, it seems as though the discordant nature of this last year has taken such a toll on churches in the United States that, for many, the injuries have been fatal. It has become a regular occurrence to hear about a congregation that continues to…
In The Bad News Bears (1976), a city councilman hires a washed-up minor league baseball player with a drinking problem to coach a little league team of leftover misfits. Underdog sports movies are usually full of sentimentalism and dramatic victories, but this film is a commentary on the failing dream…
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Jaime Waters has written a book-length study of Threshing Floors in Ancient Israel . She summarizes the archaeological data regarding threshing floors, and discusses ancient agriculture, but her focus is on the theological dimensions of threshing: “in the minds of biblical writers, threshing floors served purposes beyond their agricultural functionality.”…
John Ralston Saul's Voltaire's Bastards is about Voltaire. He turned the tools of irony and ridicule he learned to use from Jonathan Swift during an English exile, “into unbeatable populist weapons.” Criticisms of Voltaire from professional philosophers don't really touch him; he didn't want to construct a philosophy but to…
Chanon Ross ( Gifts Glittering and Poisoned ) offers this insightful description of the way this works in a trip to the mall: “When a consumer enters the shopping mall, her senses are engaged by a panoply of stimuli designed to intoxicate. Images, music, scents, and products swirl together in…
Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ. “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, when the breath of the Lord blows on it. Surely the people are grass.” Flesh is…
How long, O Lord, Judge of the earth, How long shall the wicked exult? They pour forth words, they speak arrogantly; All who do wickedness vaunt themselves. They crush your people, Lord, And afflict Your heritage. They slay the widow and the sojourner, And murder the fatherless. They say, “The…
In his fascinating Gifts Glittering and Poisoned , Charon Ross summarizes John Milbank's claim that forgiveness is an ecstatic act. Forgiveness, Milbank says ( Being Reconciled ), seeks “ontological harmony.” Forgiveness is never merely “‘disinterested benevolence' but involves the forgiver abandoning himself and severing himself from himself for the sake…
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