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

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Books

For the Life of This World

Russian Orthodox liturgist Alexander Schmemann died in 1983, but his importance continues to grow, sometimes in surprising ways. A Russian transplanted to Paris and then to Crestwood, New York, he was an acute observer of the American religious scene. He possessed the clarity of vision the Spirit often grants to…

by Peter LeithartApril 15, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 5)

This is the fifth in a series of studies of Deuteronomy 22:3-23:8. "A bastard ( mazmer ) shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh; even to the tenth generation shall none of his enter into the assembly of Yahweh" (Deuteronomy 23:2). [i] The translation “bastard” here for mazmer ,…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 11, 2013
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Christian Nationalism

Christian Imperialism

The Enlightenment project is very comprehensible in terms of the “Wars of Religion” that followed the Reformation. It's questionable whether all that is said about the Wars of Religion is entirely fair (R. J. Rushdoony’s Christian Survey of World History has some very helpful things to say about this). Still,…

by Richard BledsoeApril 8, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 4)

The fourth in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22:30-23:8. One wounded by crushing, or cut in the member shall not enter into the assembly of Yahweh (Deuteronomy 23:1. [i] The translation of this verse varies in different English versions. The basic idea is clear enough, however: a eunuch is…

by Ralph Allan SmithApril 3, 2013
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Theopolis News

Leithart at Wheaton

Trinity House President Peter Leithart will give a lecture on violence at the 2013 Wheaton Theology Conference later this week.

by Peter LeithartApril 2, 2013
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Deuteronomy

Law and History: How to Read the Law of Moses (Part 3)

The third in a series of studies on Deuteronomy 22-23. This continues the second essay, which examines Deuteronomy 22:30: "A man shall not take his father’s wife, and shall not uncover his father’s wing" (Hebrew: kanaf ). The Sin of Ham Another story would almost certainly occur to an ancient…

by Ralph Allan SmithMarch 27, 2013

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The Tragedy of Saul

The narrative of Saul is a superb study in the psychology of envy. Saul becomes enraged at David because of David’s success in fighting his, Saul’s battles. It is utterly irrational envy, as envy always is. Saul’s envy builds to a murderous rage, as he tries twice to kill David.…

April 24, 2014

Natural Sex Revisited

A week ago, I posted a series of quotations from James Neill’s Origins and Role of Same-Sex Relations in Human Societies . Neill shows that same-sex relations are common among animals and standard practice in many human societies. In what sense, then can we describe same-sex relations, as Paul does…

April 24, 2014

Baptism into koinonia

In his contribution to The Catholicity of the Reformation , Robert Jenson pencils in the contours of the communio ecclesiology that arose within Orthodoxy and Roman Catholicism and has become, as he says, “a major achievement of ecumenical consensus” (1). It is a Trinitarian ecclesiology and, in Jenson’s summary, an…

April 24, 2014
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Catholic Luther

I go back again and again to David Yeago’s seminal article on the “Catholic Luther” in The Catholicity of the Reformation . This time around, this passage on Luther’s early theology of the cross stood out. Yeago argues that Luther’s main question was not, “Where can I find a gracious…

April 24, 2014

When Work Is Fun

Time was when the wealthy were considered the leisure classes. Nowadays, that’s not so, as the Economist reports: ‘Overall working hours have fallen over the past century. But the rich have begun to work longer hours than the poor. In 1965 men with a college degree, who tend to be…

April 23, 2014

Sacramental Metaphysicals

Some of the most interesting current work being done on early modern English poetry traces connections between the poetry and the religious, especially the liturgical, conflicts of the Reformation and post-Reformation eras. Conflicts over sacraments put the medieval semiotic imagination in question, and fresh conceptions of image and sign shaped…

April 23, 2014

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