Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
"The faithful use of sacraments, and indeed a fully sacramental view of creation, is vital to the life of the Church. Baptism and the Lord's Supper are rites that directly shape the community and the Body, because they were given by God for that express purpose. A deficient practice of…
Weightlessness is fun. At the beginning of Gravity (2013) , we can see one astronaut dancing the Macarena and another one playing with his jetpack. They like it out there in the space. Apart from zero-gravity they can enjoy beautiful views, and even the silence is likable, although Matt Kowalski…
I recently went to a lunch that is more or less quarterly. About a dozen of us go. It is a lunch held in honor of a retired professor of religion and philosophy. I have been one of his acquaintances for more than 40 years. In his tenure as professor,…
Why Theopolis? Don't we already have seminaries and Bible colleges and other institutions for theological education? Why do we need another one? I get this question now and again. I ask myself this question even more often. What follows is a partial answer. Back in the 1990s, seminaries seemed to…
I think the logic of the Lutheran Reformation can be summarized in one sentence, attributed to Luther himself: "God does not need your good works, but your neighbor does." The first half of that statement is justification by faith . God doesn't need our works to satisfy his justice or…
If you are looking to start a fight with Christians, there is hardly a better subject to do so than the arts. Music, movies, paintings, and literature have provided no small battlegrounds for Christians to war. We are emotionally invested in the arts. A song, a book, or a film…
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"Follow the science" has been the basso continuo of the coronavirus epidemic. Following the science, many nations went into more or less severe shutdowns. These same nations intend to follow the science in deciding when to re-open, to allow businesses, schools, and churches to start operating again. Skeptics who question…
The tabernacle is surrounded by an open space that is bounded by a curtain of white, fine-twisted linen. The curtain is 100 cubits long on the south and north side of the court (Exodus 27:9, 11), held up by twenty wooden pillars, one pillar every five cubits (Exodus 27:10-11). On…
Get ready for the backlash against scientific expertise, especially against public health experts, writes Damon Linker . The line will be: "We deferred to the geniuses for no good reason, and now they have the blood of the economy on their hands." Many will be grateful to the experts for…
The veil ( paroket ) that separates the Most Holy from the Holy Place organizes the tabernacle. Once this "firmament" is in place, the rest of the tabernacle gets itself organized - the ark on the west side of the veil, the table and the lampstand on the east (Exodus…
Is the world under judgment? Is COVID-19 the kind of "pestilence" Yahweh warns of when He says, through Jeremiah, that Judah will be plagued by "sword, famine, pestilence"? It's hard to read it any other way. An individual illness is a trial; a worldwide pandemic is of a different order.…
An old Easter homily, more relevant today than when I gave it . Jesus knew fear. He was no passionless Stoic sage, as the Stoic critics of the church recognized from the beginning. Instead of reaching for the hemlock like Socrates, He shrank from the cup the Father offered Him…
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