Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
The Stranger: Do you have to use so many cuss words? The Dude: What the f*ck you talking about? - The Big Lebowski There was a man I knew, an elder at his church, who, whenever he was called upon to announce a pregnancy, preferred the euphemism “with child” because…
I know what you’re thinking. Organ: funeral, ball game, grand dusty cathedral. Why should modern Christians of such a technological age revisit a thousand year-old instrument? Don’t worry, I will not be trying to punch another hole in my Weird Music Preferences and Opinions card here. The truth is, our…
Do things have natures? As I am posing the question, it is not simply a question of whether there are particular kinds of things in the world that have characteristic features, patterns of behavior, trajectories of growth and development. If that is what the word means, then the answer is…
We are excited to announce our 2016 Nevin Lectures featuring Father John Behr. Fr. John is the Dean of St. Vladimir's Seminary and Professor of Patristics, as well as the author of multiple works. He will be delivering three lectures over the course of two days dealing with "What Protestants…
New Year's Day makes one reflective, at least about the past year, perhaps about life, perhaps, more broadly, about time itself. Many view time as a curse. Some see it as a curse because of missed chances. As one day or year moves on to the next, all we can…
It seems a truism to say that we live in the world: that the world is outside of us. In reality the world is very much inside of us too. In fact the world passes through us as much as we pass through it. We breathe in its air, using…
Showing page 138 of 309
Showing page 33 of 43
Leviticus 1 tells us that Yahweh called Moses from the tent of meeting to deliver instructions about sacrifice. What is that "tent of meeting" ( 'ohel mo'ed )? Judging by the usage of Leviticus, it would seem to be the tabernacle or a portion of the tabernacle. Most of the…
The Ten Words include twelve negative commands. Most of the verbs that are negated are unique: 1) Thou shalt not have ( lo' yihyeh-leka ; literally, "there shalt not be to thee") other gods. 2) Thou shalt not prostrate ( lo'-tishtachweh ) to them (i.e., images). 3) Thou shalt not…
Thomas Aquinas summed up a long tradition when he said that philosophy is theology's ancilla , its maidservant. That's an apt description, and applies as well to natural science, social science, poetry, literary criticism, history, etc. etc. Philosophy has a special role only because her work often resembles theology's, and…
John Milbank currently has a series of essays on natural law running a Church Life Journal . It's a "revisionist" account of natural law. And one of the revisions is Milbank's post-Kantian conception of the relation of nature and culture, something he lays out in his essay, " Only Theology…
Steven Duby ( Divine Simplicity ) addresses the sort of argument I offered in yesterday's post . I quote a long paragraph (p. 148), with comments interspersed. "One might contend," Duby writes, "for a divine complexity that is necessary and irrevocable with no risk of divisibility. Such a hypothesis elicits…
This is a response to the notion of divine simplicity. It's not a refutation. It's an experiment designed to tease out the logic of the claim. Simplicity means that God is without parts. He has no physical parts, and He's not a composite of any metaphysical "parts" either. He's not…
Showing page 50 of 2212
Your weekly digest for all things Theopolis.
