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Writing

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

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Culture

An Introduction to the Sacred Music of Josquin

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…

by John AhernJuly 29, 2025
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Numbers

Sight and Memory: Examining the Monuments of Numbers

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…

by Matthew DarbyJuly 22, 2025
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Biblical Theology

Yahweh’s Flame: the Gospel through Symbolism

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…

by Ben LoveladyJuly 16, 2025
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Culture

Morality and the Practice of Poetry

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…

by Garrett SoucyJuly 8, 2025
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Ephesians

The Trinitarian Structure of Obedience

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…

by Matthew CoreyJuly 3, 2025
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Luke

The Hemorrhaging Woman, the Eucharist, and the Sermon

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…

by Mark BriansJuly 1, 2025

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Heavenly righteousness

Robert Reymond claims in his recent systematic theology that Christ’s righteousness is in heaven and not on earth within the believer: “the Christian’s righteousness before God is in heaven at the right hand of God in Jesus Christ and not on earth within the believer. It means that the ground…

April 28, 2005

Finnish Luther

Tuomo Mannermaa, Christ Present in Faith: Luther’s View of Justification . Translated by Kirsi Stjerna. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2005. 136 pp. For the past twenty-five years, Luther scholars in Finland have been pursuing a revisionary account of Luther’s theology in conjunction with ecumenical dialogues with the Russian Orthodox Church. The Luther…

April 28, 2005
History

Troy and Homer

Joachim Latacz, Troy and Homer: Towards a Solution of an Old Mystery . Translated by Kevin Windle and Rosh Ireland. Oxford University Press, 2004. 342 pp. Since I was a young teenager, a memory has haunted my mind, a memory of something I never saw: A man running around the…

April 28, 2005

Real sex

Lauren F. Winner, Real Sex: The Naked Truth About Chastity . Grand Rapids: Brazos, 2005. 175 pp. Chastity today has almost exclusively negative connotations. Being chaste is not activity; it is avoiding a certain kind of action. Edmund Spenser saw it differently. In Books 3-4 of Fairie Queene , Spenser…

April 28, 2005
Theology

Presbytery Summary

Earlier this year, the Pacific NW Presbytery of the PCA asked me to summarize my views on a number of points that have become controversial. Here is that summary. As a preliminary, let me say a word about how the Confession functions in my theological work. I accept the Calvinistic…

April 27, 2005
Literature

Edward Said and The Way We Read Now

John Sutherland offers an analysis of the influence of the late Edward Said on film adaptations of English literature ( TLS , March 18). Said, for instance, argued in Culture and Imperialism , from a couple of passing references to the Betram family’s holdings in Antigua, that Mansfield Park was…

April 25, 2005

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