Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
For Part 1, click HERE . How did Paul’s earliest commentators view his juxtaposition of music and drunkenness, and did they connect it to the ancient Greek ideas of musical ethos described in Part I? Origen, one of the earliest commentators on Paul, writes about Ephesians 5:18-19: One, however, who…
Perhaps it is because I am a musician that I have always found Ephesians 5:18-19 so arbitrary. But isn’t it a little odd to contrast music and drunkenness? Perhaps it is not obvious that that is what Paul is doing; I know, for myself, that it is remarkably easy to…
In 1 Corinthians 7:12-16 Paul deals with how the Corinthian Christians are supposed to be relating to unbelieving spouses. He essentially tells them, “Look, if your unbelieving spouse is willing to stay with you as a faithful Christian, don’t initiate a divorce. If he/she wants to leave you, let him/her…
For Part 1, click HERE . Those who focus on the supposed “pacifism” of Jesus and condemn the violence of God’s judgments throughout the Old Testament overlook the ministry of sacrificial bloodshed as an alternative to human bloodshed. The sword bearing of the sacrificial system was introduced to avoid the…
How should a Christian respond to the objection that the Bible, like the Koran, is a book of violence and bloodshed? Numerous answers have been offered by well-meaning exegetes, but none of them gets to the heart of the matter: God desires to place a sword in the hands of…
Beginning this summer, Dr. Alastair Roberts will join the Theopolis Institute as an adjunct Senior Fellow, the Institute has announced. Dr. Roberts will be a regular on the Theopolis podcast, teach intensive courses and in the Fellows Program, and help develop new programs and outlets. Roberts earned his PhD from…
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Cyril of Alexandria developed an intriguing conception of the Spirit as the “fragrance” of God. The Spirit is “a living and active fragrance from the substance of God, a fragrance that transmits to the creature that which comes from God and ensures participation in the substance which is above all…
Among the projects that Julian the Apostate took on was the rebuilding of the temple in Jerusalem. This was intended to deflate Christian apologetics who pointed to the destruction of the temple as a sign of Judaism’s demise and Christianity’s ascendency, both divinely authorized. But there were also Christians who…
Scott is the romantic’s romantic, and yet his novels display the struggle against romance that is common in early novel-writing ( Don Quixote ; Northanger Abbey ). Edward Waverley , the “hero” of the first of Scott’s novels, goes through various adventures with the Jacobite rebellion led by Bonnie Prince…
Deepak Lal holds the James S. Coleman Professorship of International Development Studies at UCLA, and has produced a fascinating cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural study of the relation of culture and development, Unintended Consequences (Oxford, 1998). Many of his arguments are unpersuasive, but stimulating nonetheless. One of Lal’s main themes is to…
As I’ve thought more about the issues of comedy and tragedy, it has become clear that Christianity not only brings “deep comedy,” but also produces a deepening of tragic sensibility. In one sense, Christianity is utterly opposed to tragedy and its outlook: the religious world of much tragedy with its…
In Ecclesiastes, Solomon repeatedly exhorts his readers to “eat, drink, and rejoice” as a response to the vaporousness of life” “There is nothing better for a man than to eat and drink and tell himself that his labor is good. This also I have seen, that it is from the…
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