Explore our collection of theological essays, biblical studies, and reflections on faith and culture.
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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A 1974 JBL article by Karl Donfried explores some of the allegorical elements of the parable of the virgins in Matthew 25. He points out that the “door” is an important motif for Matthew: “This is an important theme for Matthew. On the eschatological day, Jesus will stand at the…
“When her days to be delivered were fulfilled, behold, there were twins in her womb.” That’s Genesis 25:24, and it’s talking about Rebekah pregnant with Jacob and Esau. “It came about at the time she was giving birth, that behold, there were twins in her womb.” That’s Genesis 38:27, and…
A man had three sons who went out into the wide world to see their fortune. Everyone thought the first two sons were smart and would be successful, but the last son was an oaf, and everyone knew he would return an utter failure . . . . We know…
Matthew doesn’t talk about wisdom and foolishness very often, and only twice does he contrast the wise ( phronimos ) to the foolish ( moros ). The first comes at the end of the sermon on the mount, where Jesus contrasts wise and foolish builders; the other comes in the…
Baylor’s Alexander Pruss offers this nifty Aristotelian critique of Humean natural law: “The most basic dichotomy between views of laws of nature is that between Humean views on which the laws of nature are merely descriptions of the actual states of affairs that obtain, and anti-Humean views according to which…
“Persona est rationalis naturae individua substantia,” said Boethius in his treatise on the two natures. This has been viewed as a radically deficient definition of personhood, but Peter Simpson argues that it’s got more going for it than many imagine. In response to the charge that it relegates what really…
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