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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Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) notes that in 1750, India and China account for "three-quarters of the world’s manufactures." The East's dominance collapsed over the following centuries: "On the eve of the First World War their share had dropped to just 7.5 per cent. Economic historians called…
Way back in 1997, Peter Berkowitz published a review of David Walsh's The Growth of the Liberal Soul . It's a notable title, since one of the charges of post-liberals is that liberalism has no soul. But Walsh's thesis is worth revisiting now that there is widespread questioning of the…
Mention the "public," and you're liable to be greeted with lamentation and hand-wringing. Citizenship isn't what it used to be. No one participates in public events any more. Once upon a time, we were active citizens. Now we bowl alone and we participate in public life only as passive spectators.…
The following summarizes the structural analysis of Isaiah found in David Dorsey's Literary Structyre of the Old Testament . Like most of the books of the Old Testament, Dorsey finds that Isaiah is organized in a sevenfold pattern: A.Condemnation, pleading, promise of future restoration, 1:1-12: B. Oracles to the nations,…
The king of Judah is panicked, and all Jerusalem with him (Isaiah 7). Judah has been invaded by the combined armies of Pekiah, King of Israel, and Rezin, King of Aram. They have come against Jerusalem and are besieging it, but they cannot conquer it. But they’ve spooked the whole…
Edward Luce ( Retreat of Western Liberalism ) can't quite believe he's saying what he's saying. It feels like heresy, treason. How can a convinced liberal bring himself to talk about liberalism's retreat or demise? "To a person whose life has coincided with the rise of democracy, the spread of…
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