Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Bible reader that is mindful of patterns, is aware of the creation markers of Noah's flood. The Earth is deformed and is made into a ball of water, which then is made new with new promises and obligations to the New Adam (Noah) and his offspring. One of the…
Exposing Nakedness “Picasso did not paint for the eyes but for the gut. He painted for the gut that the eyes might be opened.” I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces. (Job 16:12) One only has to…
For preventing the unvaccinated people in Mississippi from being a burden on their friends, teachers, or waiters, and for making them beneficial to the public. Dr. Jonathan Swift It is a melancholy object to those who walk through a great southern college town, or travel throughout Mississippi, when they see…
Throughout the world, governments are aggressively pushing COVID vaccines. Some have instituted mandates or vaccine passports. Many are losing patience with the unvaccinated, even proposing that they have forfeited the right to certain health services . The unvaccinated have become deplorables—the undeserving sick. This COVID regime has been bolstered by…
Although nowadays gap theories are associated with dispensationalism, it was not always so. In the nineteenth century, scholars from a variety of backgrounds (Anglican, Reformed, and proto-fundamentalist) seem to have become fascinated by gaps. If you are not familiar with what I am talking about, this piece will acquaint you…
What kind of father gives his son a stone when he asks for bread, or a serpent when he asks for a fish? The answer is, the Heavenly Father! Jesus rarely stated the obvious, and this particular question in His Sermon on the Mount concerning the fatherhood of God is…
Showing page 51 of 309
Showing page 33 of 43
“Christian life is an impossible newness given as an unfitting gift,” writes John Barclay in his contribution to Apocalyptic Paul . Since it is a gift, the “new competence” of believers “is wholly dependent on the life of Christ, present within” (73-74). But it’s important to specify what that gift…
In a 2007 essay reprinted in his Pauline Perspectives , NT Wright gives this tight and quite wonderful summary of what Paul says about the cross in Romans 5-8. He is correct about Paul and largely correct in his criticisms of traditional atonement theologies. He observes that the opening section…
Atonement theology has drawn heavily from Paul, also from the Passion narratives. In drawing on the Passion narratives, atonement theology often makes an allegorical transition from the specifics of the narrative to a more general narrative setting of “all humanity,” even a cosmic setting. Thus, when Jesus says He lays…
In a study of Barth and Hegel on liberation and atonement ( Christ Crucified in a Suffering World ), Nathan Hieb notes that Barth defends the traditional ascription of iustitia distributiva to God, the justice “by which God distinguishes between right and wrong human action and on this basis approves…
The flavor of this is somewhat too Girardian, but still an excellent statement of the Spirit’s anti-Satanic role from Mark Heim ( Saved from Sacrifice , 156): “Satan sows discord, flames the mimetic rivalries and animosities among persons that can blow up into social crisis, and then encourages the persecutory…
Everybody loves Jesus. Gandhi loves Jesus. The Dali Lama loves Jesus. Everybody thinks Jesus just the best. Not exactly everyone, because some thugs hated Him enough to kill Him. But now we see their error, and everybody loves Jesus. But many of those who love Jesus don’t believe He rose…
Showing page 495 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
