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 3 of 43
Bavinck says that, in order to distinguish the “knowledge” that was essential to saving faith from the “assent” of Catholic definitions of faith, the Refoemrs insisted that “the knowledge of saving faith [is] a matter of the heart rather than of the intellect.” On this point, then, Pietists are doing…
In a 1994 article in the South Atlantic Review , John Cunningham proposes to read Great Expectations as a baptismal allegory. In the first half of the novel, baptismal imagery is inverted, but as the book progresses everything turns rightside up: ” Great Expectations attains a comic resolution as the…
Karl Jaspers summarizes Cusa’s argument for an infinite cosmos: “Because the cosmos is an image, it is infinite, but its infinity is of the imitative kind, which denotes endlessness, the possibility of always going further. In time, eternity is endless duration. In space, the infinite is the endless; in the…
INTRODUCTION In Colossians 2-3, Paul unfolds the implications of Jesus’ death and resurrection. We were “buried with Him in baptism” ( 2:12 ), and we have also been raised with Him (3:1). Our participation in Good Friday and Easter determines the shape our lives take. THE TEXT “If then you…
Paul says that in the circumcision made without hands, the “body of the flesh” is stripped off by the “circumcision of Christ” (Colossians 2:11). I take “circumcision of Christ” to to be a reference to Jesus’ death. He is the seed of Abraham according to flesh, and so He has…
Hauwerwas tells Shortt: “Some think the just war is a series of exceptions to from the general Christian commitment to non-violence, but I think the stronger justification of just war involves claiming that it is what is required if you are to do justice. Accordingly, justice requires punishment; it will…
Showing page 1396 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
