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Writing

Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.

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Colossians

The Principalities and Powers, (Part 1)

Paul contends that with the death of Christ on the Cross, there was an overcoming of the Principalities and the Powers (Col. 2:15). A great deal has been written on this subject over the last 60 years. 1 What was for a long time either ignored, or regarded by liberal…

by Richard BledsoeMarch 22, 2018
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John

The True Temple & The True Sacrifice

The Gospel reading for the third Sunday in Lent this year (John 2:13-22) was enclosed by two verses (13 and 23) each of which mentions Jerusalem, the city where God chose to place His Name and habitation, and the Passover, the festival which, above all others, speaks of the Lamb…

by Arthur KayMarch 20, 2018
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Course Recap

Course Recap: "Theology of the Sexes" with Alastair Roberts

The 2018 Theopolis Easter term course on the theology of the sexes was a resounding success. Visiting instructor Dr. Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham) laid out a rich biblical theology of sexuality, before addressing a variety of philosophical, political, and ethical issues. Roberts stressed that our questions about sex and gender,…

by Peter LeithartMarch 19, 2018
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Culture

Why We Should Jettison the “Strong Female Character,” Part III

Click HERE for part 1 of this series, and HERE for part 2. The recurring characterization problems with such Strong Female Characters arise in no small measure from the struggle to show that men and women are interchangeable and can compete and cooperate with each other on the same terms.…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 15, 2018
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Culture

Why We Should Jettison the “Strong Female Character," (Part 2)

The Rise of the Action Heroine Click HERE for part 1 of this series. Partly as a result of this everywoman heroine trend, partly in order to be more inclusive in traditionally male dominated genres, partly in order to push back against stereotypes, partly in order to legitimate eye candy…

by Alastair RobertsMarch 13, 2018
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Politics

Lamech’s Patsy: The Human Cost of State Hypocrisy

I was in prison and you came to me. (Matthew 25:36) From the New York Times: U.S. prison population dwarfs that of other nations The United States has less than 5 percent of the world’s population. But it has almost a quarter of the world’s prisoners. Indeed, the United States…

by Mike BullMarch 8, 2018

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New Face for the World

R owan Williams ( Sign and Sacrifice ) summarizes the Anselmian understanding of the atonement using the categories of sacrifice, obedience, and gift, all set within a Trinitarian frame. It's quite lovely. Citing Hebrews citing Psalm 40, Williams argues that the Old Testament sacrificial system existed to symbolize the true…

February 28, 2017

At the Parbar

D escribing the assignments of Levite gatekeepers, the Chronicler records that there were four at the “highway” at the western end of the temple, and two “at the Parbar,” which was also on the west (1 Chronicles 26:18). Scholars have proposed a variety of foreign etymologies for the term. From…

February 27, 2017
Architecture

How To Read Churches

D enis McNamara's How To Read Churches is an extraordinary book. Subtitled “a crash course in ecclesiastical architecture,” it covers building types, floor plans, sections of churches (nave, apse, choir), materials, windows, altars, ornaments in 256, 6 x 6-inch pages, each of which is stuffed with pictures and diagrams and…

February 24, 2017

Undemocratic Education

J ohn Milbank cites what he calls “Socrates's subversive realization” that “education can never be democratic” ( Being Reconciled , 182). This is in part because “the sheer singular uniqueness and contingency of wisdom is unable to subordinate itself to any majority,” partly because “if one is to learn, one…

February 24, 2017

Irrationality and Intellectual Flaws

T hrough a series of thought experiments, Richard Foley ( Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others ) develops a concept of rationality as “a matter of making oneself invulnerable to intellectual self-criticism to the extent possible, of living up to one’s own deepest intellectual convictions and standards.” Rationality thus “requires…

February 24, 2017

Lockean Individualism

F ollowing Alvin Platinga, Richard Foley summarizes the principles of Locke's epistemology in three principles ( Intellectual Trust in Oneself and Others ): Evidence (the “obligation to base one's opinion on one's evidence,” the latter defined as “what one knows with certainty”); appraisal (the obligation “to appraise the probability of…

February 24, 2017

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